Dave's Retirement Adventure

Dalcon International, Inc. was founded by David L. Condra in 1978, and incorporated in 1979 in Nashville Tennessee. The company initially did business as Nashville Computer Center, subsequently changed the DBA to Dalcon Computer Systems in 1981. The product focus of the company was business computer systems designed to meet the needs of small businesses. As an indication of how early Dalcon was in the Nashville market, it was the first company to be listed under the then new Nashville Yellow Pages listing, “Computers”. Although personal computers were just coming into businesses for use by individuals, Dalcon’s focus was on systems to run an entire small company, which required multiple simultaneous users accessing a common database, which was not then supported by personal computers. Consequently, Dalcon based its solutions on the Alpha Micro , which enabled the development of multi-user application software such as would be required for a business that had a number of peopl...

This blog is a continuing chronicle of our transition from a working life to retirement—with odd other posts as something comes up. I write it to crystallize my own thoughts and also for the few folks reading who might be contemplating their own retirement options and plans. As I hit 70 and decided to fully retire, Estelle and I conceived the idea that it would be an adventure to spend six months living in South Africa. It is a comfortable second country for us, given her upbringing there and our short visits over the years. A secondary benefit of living somewhere else for six months, particularly in different rental apartments and homes, is that we get to try out a different lifestyle than the one in our home we’ve known for the past 36 yrs.   A chance to explore some questions such as how do we live in a one or two-bedroom apartment? And, what do we miss compared to living in our house and living in central Nashville? The preparation for a six month stay involved fi...