It is done. Today I submitted my letter of resignation making my retirement effective as of January 1, 2012. Now I will need to work on the items on my retirement checklist, so hopefully things will be in place come the new year. As I work on that checklist I suspect the whole business of retirement will become more and more real. For now it appears as a relatively minor occurrence when placed along side of Carol's continued hospitalization, which is now it its second month. This says a lot about perspective and the relative nature of things.