Today was my last day working in a full-time corporate job; officially I’m now laid off due to a Reduction In Force, with retirement starting on October 1st. But for practical purposes I’m as good as retired.

Good bye and good riddance.

Whatever my corporate career was to be when I started, it’s ended with the owners of my circle of Corporate America’s version of Dante’s Inferno doing their very best to crush the life, spirit, and independent thinking out of me. I succeeded in remaining a bit of an eccentric maverick through most of my time in it. And I come out of it more cynical than when I entered.

At the same time, I also became a bit more hopeful due the people I worked with and have known working all these long years. Seeing the dignity and humor with which people lived their lives as they faced increasingly meaningless work, idiotic rules, and ineffective managers – a number of whom were vainglorious jerks – was a source of inspiration and optimism.

So now to begin the new journey in what some call the third act of life.

Many retirement books I’ve read say, and from what I’ve heard from friends who have retired, it takes several months to let go of the corporate zeitgeist. So, I’m going with the flow and I’m not setting up a schedule.

Beyond that, I look upon this next part of life as setting out on the ocean. I’m not quite sure yet what course to steer, but I’ve got enough to do while I’m thinking about it. Several jobs around the house will take up a good deal of October.And there are dogs that need their daily walk. And getting out into the water with fly rod in hand.

To those I leave behind, I salute you.