Retirement on Sacramento DELTA

Three years ago Nancy and I made the decision to move from Saginaw, Michigan to Rio Vista, California. The decision was easy. For health reasons, it was becoming obvious that I could not make regular trips to California to visit our daughter and her family. We wanted to live close to Emily, Ken and our young grandson Thomas. Emily, Ken and Thomas live about 45 minutes from Rio Vista.

It was also important that we find a home we could afford. California is an expensive state. It was impossible for us to find affordable housing near San Francisco. Then Nancy and Emily, on a trip through the Sacramento Delta, found the gated community named TRILOGY. This is a 55+ community with beautiful homes, an 18 hole golf course and lots of other amenities. The HOA fees are reasonable. There are roughly 6000 residents in this affordable gated community of seniors. TRILOGY is part of the city of Rio Vista, population roughly 10,000, located on he shore of he Sacramento River–and the Sacramento DELTA. Rio Vista is halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento. We love our home on Riviera Drive complete with a casita (pictured) my study and man-cave with private entrance.

I’m still getting used to life in a small town. We have no doctors. One good grocery store, a pharmacy and hardware store take care of our immediate needs. The fire department comes to the house once a year to change smoke detector batteries. I have a great barber who comes outside to help me and my walker in and out of my car. McDonalds and KFC/Taco Bell are the only fast-food outlets on highway 12 that runs through our small town. Main Street and Front Street have a number of good restaurants, bars, small shops–all great for tourists. Several small churches can be found in Rio Vista–no Methodist, Lutheran or Presbyterian churches in Rio Vista. We travel once or twice w week the 20-30 miles to do major shopping, visit doctors. We pass by Travis Air Force Base on our trips to Fairfield, about 15 minutes from our home. NAPA and several wineries are within thirty minutes of our home. Nancy has found several groups she thoroughly loves–quilting with friends on Wednesdays, playing cards, a couple of service projects including making pillow cases for children with Cancer. This takes her to Sacramento once or twice a month to deliver what she and her friends make. She loves having Wednesday nights out with her friends–and trips once or twice a week to Concord to visit Emily and her family. We love taking our lunch to a couple of places along the shore of the Sacramento River. I always look forward to visits from the ‘kids’ — especially Tommy who is now seven. I’d have to say playing with Legos is our favorite activity. While we still miss all that was available when living in Saginaw, Michigan, our home for 30 years, nothing can replace quality time we can now spend with our California family and friends.

SO WHAT IS THE SACRAMENTO DELTA?

A triangle of land just east and inland from the San Francisco Bay Area, the Sacramento DELTA provides drinking water for more than 20 million Californians (2008 statistic). The Delta is an expansive inland river delta and estuary formed by the confluence of the Sacrament and San Joaquin rivers–just east of where the rivers enter the Suisun Bay. The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers are major shipping channels–depth of over 30 feet. The DELTA is also a major boating, fishing, camping, touring wonderland offering many attactions for tourists.

Because of these rivers, we cross several bridges to get just about ANYWHERE! Nothing is worse than trying to cross the Rio Vista Bridge when a big ship is traveling to or from Sacramento. We can be held up in traffic for up to thirty minutes. Because all we have are two-lane roads in and out of town, one accident can tie up traffic for hours.

There is much to learn as we continue adjusting to Delta living. I hope this brief introduction will help friends and family understand where we now live.

RIO VISTA GAS FIELD and WIND FARM

Rio Vista is also known as one of the largest natural gas fields in the nation. Spanning portions of three counties and covering over 29,000 acres, it is the largest natural gas field in California. –fifteenth largest in the United States. Driving through TRILOGY and the 3000 homes and parks and golf course, one will also see several locations where this gas field has active outlets. One cannot avoid seeing on the horizon, leaving the gates of TRILOGY, the hundreds of wind turbines. The delta is also known for the low-elevation hills and brisk breezes allowing for this source of natural energy–the future in California. Also o note, after we made our move to California, are all the solar panels on home roofs that capture energy from the sun. So far, we have not made he decision to install solar panels on our house.

Wind is a ‘big deal’ for us on the Delta. With the winds come the threat of fires. Power outages are also common throughout the Delta. We’ve been lucky so far when it comes to the fires. The new normal for people living in California are these threats of fire and power outages. This will be a topic to address at another time.

I thought it was time to write a few things about life in Rio Vista and the Sacramento Delta. Take a close look at the map of the Delta–lots of things to see and do. Enjoy.

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Life in Rio Vista: Lions and Coyotes

As a ‘newbie’ in Rio Vista, California, I am now an official resident of the California Delta—located between Sacramento and San Francisco along the Sacramento River. I am learning that residency requires large doses of sensitivity and tolerance toward those who live in this agricultural/ranching community. It’s hard to imagine, but Trilogy, the 3000 resident golf course complex where we live, is like an Island in the middle of tens of thousand acres of some of some of the most fertile land in the country that provides billions of dollars to the economy of California.

In the Trilogy community, where Nancy and I have purchased a lovely home, there are heated conversations about the threat of fires, dust, farm-traffic, and noise that go hand-in-hand with living in Rio Vista. For me, the biggest adjustment has been the heat. In the month of June we’ve experienced many days in the mid-90’s reaching well in the 100’s. We’ve had no rain…sun every day! On the plus side, we also enjoy evenings with windows wide open with temps in the 50’s. This is great sleeping weather. The ‘Delta Breezes are a new reality for us – winds that seem to be blowing all the time. In the negative column are all the threats of fire—a reality for all of us living in this delta community.

Of interest these past few days is the issue of guns and canons going off throughout the night as farmers combat the Coyotes coming down from the hills to feast on the sheep and cattle—I also understand horses are occasional victims of the Coyotes! One farmer said he has lost as many as 15 sheep in one night! The guns and canons are a common deterrent – and residents of the residential complex where we live have been complaining to the local authorities about the endless noise. I have also heard that some of the canons are set on timers to go off every few minutes as a deterrent. Not sure if this is true, but I have also heard that Mountain Lions also come down out of the hills looking to feast on lamb or beef. Lions have been spotted near highway 160.

What is required of me living in this new reality of the California Delta? Two things come to mine:

First, sensitivity toward those who have lived and work the land around where we live for many, many years. There is a lot learn about the history and people of this beautiful delta land!

Second, tolerance is required of me an my neighbors when it comes to the inconveniences that go with living in this resort community in the Delta.

One question comes to mind that still has to be answered: Why did the developer of TRILOGY pick this particular place, Rio Visa, to plant a golf course and resort community? All I know for sure: I’m glad they did—this is a lovely place to live!

Needless to say there is a lot for me to learn as a neighbor and friend committed to living in this agriculturally rich Delta!

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The Magical World of Retirement

Jack Stotts, former President of Austin Theological Seminary, said upon his retirement:

“My initial conclusion about retirement is that it is a magical world. Now each month checks appear magically in our bank account, courtesy of wire transfers. The economic threat has been tamed, at least for now. In this magical time of retirement, the burden of “dressing up” for work every day is whisked away. I can select my own uniform. Now I can ask, “What do I want to do?” rather than, “What do I have to do for the seminary today? The boundaries of my little world, small though it was, have collapsed. The terrain has shifted. I am free to erect different boundaries, to rearrange the landscape of my life. And that is just the problem. For in retirement I not only can but must reorder my life. In that sense the magical world of retirement is also threatening.”

The question I continue to ask myself is how to reorder my life now that my wife and I have made the decision to move almost 3000 miles to California. Within a new Presbytery in a location where there are few Presbyterian churches (Redwoods Presbytery), how will I live out my “Call” as a Teaching Elder / Minister of Word and Sacrament?

Three things I affirm with conviction in approaching this challenge of reordering my life as a pastor:

I will never stop serving God.

Jesus never retires.

The church, the living and vibrant body of Christ, doesn’t retire!

Returning to Jack Stotts for some insights in living in this world of retirement, this is an insightful article on retirement found at this link:

http://media.sabda.org/alkitab-2/Religion-Online.org%20Books/Stotts%2c%20Jack%20L-Aging%20Well-%20Theological%20Reflections%20on%20the%20Ca.pdf

Jack Stotts says,

“Retirement is not a condition of our self-hood; it is a context for our selfhood. We must adapt, even as we have adapted to new contexts when we have moved from one physical location to another. The late Dr. Joseph Haroutunian, professor of theology at McCormick Theological Seminary and later at the University of Chicago, dropped this pearl in class one day: ‘Our bodies precede our spirits and our spirits must catch up with our bodies,’ referring to those who move geographically from one place to another. We find ourselves having to grow into a new culture as well as into a new house. Those of us who have moved many times can agree that it takes our emotions and our spirits longer to feel at home than it does n our bodies.”

Traveling over 3000 miles to a new home in California near where our daughter lives, my first task “called to ministry” will be to move and adjust to living in a new context and culture closer to members of our family. I have also done some initial networking by emailing Presbytery officers where I will be living to establish some new contacts/relationships. Nancy and I will be look for a new church home. As this journey continues, I hope to keep up with pulling together some of my thoughts for this blog. These are first steps, ‘baby steps’ as I travel into this magical world of retirement.

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