My name is Ed Atterberry, and I am a (soon to be) retired school administrator for the Department of Defense Dependents Schools in Germany. My retirement will be fully effective on July 3, 2009. My final job was as assistant superintendent of the Bavaria District. My purpose of beginning this blog is to write about items that might interest some of the following groups: Americans living in Germany, retirees (especially those living overseas), DoDDS employees and former employees, people who like to travel in Europe, and perhaps some people who share my hobbies and thoughts on various issues. I will remain in Germany because my wife will remain as a teacher and I will be her dependent. This lady is the Queen of the House, the Queen Bee, and I’ll just refer to her as The Queen or simply Q. Because she doesn’t have a presence on the web, it would not be fair to subject her to the slings and arrows of web existence. We have been blessed with two wonderful daughters. Our elder daughter does have a web presence. She is a writer of some note on the web and you can read her blog at www.citywendy.com. Wendy lives in New York City and will soon be married. Our younger daughter says that I can refer to her as “Child A”, rather than “Number Two”. She is a registered nurse living and working in Texas and specializes in sexual health issues. What’s on my mind at present, as a newbie to retired life, is how to make ends meet on a much-reduced income. I had several ideas on how to supplement my income. One was to be an eBay merchant or a web merchant. Sounds promising, but shipping products from Germany to the States via German Post (using the APO for business is a big no-no) is very expensive. Is my German good enough to try to sell to the German population? I don’t know about that. Another idea was to start a worm farm and sell worms as bait and sell their (ahem) “castings” as fertilizer. Going from being a school administrator to peddling worm crap seems like a natural progression. But some colleagues suggested that I become a writer. This blog will be my first attempt at that, and we’ll see how it goes. I would be very interested in developing discussions about various topics. For example, I have mentioned that I am looking for ideas of how to supplement an income while retired overseas. Any ideas? I’d welcome comments. Future posts will be about travel opportunities, discounts for senior citizens, hobbies, activities, and, oh yes, I’ll write some things about DoDDS after I am off the rolls. I look forward to having you come back and visit. And certainly this site needs an upgrade in its look. Are there any website gurus out there who can offer suggestions for improvement on the header and the look of this site? Retired-Ed (but not quite)
Found your blog through your daughter’s blog. As a fellow educator I am very interested in reading about how you adjust to retired life. I am an elementary principal at a small school in Ontario, Canada………five years away from retirement. I have considered getting a principal position abroad but my job keeps me so busy no time to actually look into it. Now that you are retiring, maybe there is a position for me??? LOL
Sue, working abroad is a blast. However, I assume that you are Canadian, so our schools are out. You must be an American citizen. But we do have one school that is a combination of several schools of different countries and one of them is Canada. I think that they have their own principal. The best bet, though, is the international schools. The pay is great and in some places the benefits are outstanding. A friend of mine worked in one of the Gulf states in the mid-east. I forgot which one. Anyway, when she and her husband arrived, they were handed $10,000 to go buy furniture to put in their house. Not bad. Check it out! Thanks for checking in with me.
Hello Ed!
I am sitting in the apartment of you soon-to-be-married daughter, Wendy, my bestest of all friends. She shared your blog and I laughed joyously several times!
Congratulations on your retirement–an accomplished career in education is no small feat.
I think that until Becky retires you should strap on some lederhosen and serve up some local brews at the town pub. You would be fantastic at that!
You could also adopt a dog. Nice long walks in the forest with a canine partner are quite wonderful! Looking forward to hearing more.
Chad
Thanks, THB. I read your comments on Wendy’s blog all the time. By the way, I have actually been to the “Teahouse of the August Moon”, but I think that you are not of that particular heritage. “My” teahouse is on Okinawa.
Just found you! I hope you are enjoying retirement as much as I. Send me you address and I’ll bring you up to date. I’m hoping that my email address is being sent to you ??
May 1st, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Are you going to keep the neon pink?
May 2nd, 2009 at 5:15 am
Hmm, I would buy worm poop, but then there’s that shipping issue. Can you pole dance
Just kidding!!!! (sorry Wendy).
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:17 am
Found your blog through your daughter’s blog. As a fellow educator I am very interested in reading about how you adjust to retired life. I am an elementary principal at a small school in Ontario, Canada………five years away from retirement. I have considered getting a principal position abroad but my job keeps me so busy no time to actually look into it. Now that you are retiring, maybe there is a position for me??? LOL
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:38 am
The neon pink is supposed to be red. What can I say? That’s why this site needs some help. The default is blue. Should I go with blue?
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:42 am
Sue, working abroad is a blast. However, I assume that you are Canadian, so our schools are out. You must be an American citizen. But we do have one school that is a combination of several schools of different countries and one of them is Canada. I think that they have their own principal. The best bet, though, is the international schools. The pay is great and in some places the benefits are outstanding. A friend of mine worked in one of the Gulf states in the mid-east. I forgot which one. Anyway, when she and her husband arrived, they were handed $10,000 to go buy furniture to put in their house. Not bad. Check it out! Thanks for checking in with me.
May 2nd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Yes, I think go with the default blue until you find someone to help with the design.
Enjoy your party tonight!!
May 2nd, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Hello Ed!
I am sitting in the apartment of you soon-to-be-married daughter, Wendy, my bestest of all friends. She shared your blog and I laughed joyously several times!
Congratulations on your retirement–an accomplished career in education is no small feat.
I think that until Becky retires you should strap on some lederhosen and serve up some local brews at the town pub. You would be fantastic at that!
You could also adopt a dog. Nice long walks in the forest with a canine partner are quite wonderful! Looking forward to hearing more.
Chad
May 3rd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Hi Wendy’s Dad!
I look forward to reading your blog!
Wendy’s friend Brooke, in Chicago
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Hi Brooke. Is business still dead?
May 5th, 2009 at 2:34 am
What a great site! I think there’s a huge market now in worm poop! Seriously!
Looking forward to your blog!
May 5th, 2009 at 5:21 am
Thanks, THB. I read your comments on Wendy’s blog all the time. By the way, I have actually been to the “Teahouse of the August Moon”, but I think that you are not of that particular heritage. “My” teahouse is on Okinawa.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Hi, Ed, congratulations on your retirement! I’ll be a faithful reader of your blog. What a great idea!
June 4th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting.
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:29 am
Hi Ed,
Just found you! I hope you are enjoying retirement as much as I. Send me you address and I’ll bring you up to date. I’m hoping that my email address is being sent to you ??
Pat