Over coffee this morning Ruthie tells me she is none too happy with this project I am making for myself. “When does retirement mean retiring?” she asks…

Indeed a very good question.

But this is really more of a hobby. I can put it down or pick it up. Ruth worries that I cannot stop when I start and that hobby can lead to obsession. She knows me too well. She and I have worked hard enough to enjoy the morning paper and the evening stroll; we do not need my curiousity to disturb the peace. All true. There are hours in between breakfast and our walk after dinner that ask for a filling though and I can only work in a garden for so long! The internet is a gift to these kinds of investigations precisely because I can sit here at the kitchen table and research a whole Diocese worth of financial information. Most parishes have their own websites. Accounting firms publish their reports online. Dicocesan newspapers archive their articles in searchable databases. Even the Vatican library is open to my typed in queries! Friends at the chancery offices are a short phone call away and if I get very curious a drive down to Oakland is not out of the question. I need not give up much to let my instinct take me where it will in this matter. This can stay a hobby I think and I can keep Ruth’s worry a minor thing (she will worry after me no matter what I do anyway).

I had called a few friends downtown yesterday and none have answered yet. While I am awaiting replies, my internet searches have yielded a few good reports to read. For anyone curious, here is what I found:
The Moss Adams report on the Oakland Diocese’s finances in 2011 & 2012
and the Diocesan CFO’s (William Utic) report on finances from the May 19, 2014 Catholic Voice

There is a lot more, but this is good for some reading on the back deck this afternoon after lunch. For now I am off to pull weeds in the front flower bed. Financial statements in the morning and weed pulling after lunch: such is the life of a retiree in suburbia!