The Life and Times of Bryan Sr. and Family

At this point, I was sitting in my captain’s office just frustrated for some reason.  I forget what pushed me into his office, telling him that ‘I am out of here’.  I do remember that it was something that happened at work that drove me to action, saying ‘enough is enough’.  I had just told my captain that I was giving him my two week notice.  I will say that I finally shocked him.  I had been pushing his buttons ever since he came to the division that I worked in. Let’s just say I have never been afraid to take a hard line stance when I dealt with the “Upper Brass”, be it a captain all the way up to the chief.  At least with this captain, I knew when to back off.  That was usually when he stood up, put his hands on his desk and leaned toward me, giving me that look that I’m sure you can just imagine.  Anyway, those are other stories I’m sure I can tell about later.

My captain sat back and said, “Hold on”.  He asked me several very good, thoughtful, concerned questions which I appreciated then and still do.  He wanted to give me an option to see if  retirement would work for me.  He told me to take as much time off as I wanted to, but to at least take a month off to get a decent feel for being away from the department.  I thought that was a great idea, so I took six weeks off.  I started doing my trading full time, which was part of the thought process, to make some income on the side of the retirement check.  During this time we went to Branson, Missouri for the Home School National Basketball Tournament.  Other than that, we just had the normal routine of having four children at home and all the activities that went along with that. After a month off, I advised my captain and the department that I was retiring and gave my two week notice.

The actual retirement process from a city government entity is rather cumbersome.  For one thing, I had been there for 24 years.  During those years, I had accumulated a large amount of city property- items issued to me, so don’t get the wrong idea.  I had to find things, like parking passes, that I had not seen in years.  During this process, I was given a checklist whereby I had to go to various departments in the city and turn in the property that they wanted back.  Indian givers.  I also had to fill out reams of paperwork.  I felt like I was selling or buying the city with all the paperwork I filled out.  Like most corporations, I had to complete an exit interview on paper.  When I was given this, I asked the lady, “Does anyone even read this or will anyone actually think about what I am about to write?”  Her answer and facial expression were priceless; she grunted and gave me the typical bureaucratic stare.  I took it and gave it my all anyway, the good and the bad.

I had signed on the dotted line, turned all my equipment in, turned in the keys to the office and patrol car.  They even took my police ID, which they had to pry out of my hands.  I was now unemployed.  Wow.  Kind of scary, to say the least.  I then took the long elevator ride down, went to the car and thought to myself, “This is the real thing now”.  Should I run back up to the 20th floor and say, “I was just kidding, give me my stuff back?”

Looks like this series is going to take an additional day.

Let me know what you are thinking.

To start at the beginning of the series, go to:

The Sweet Retired Life

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