Retirement, year one, 365 days ago today my company said, “be seeing ya” have a nice life. As you may know I worked construction and the economy has gone south, not wanting to do so, go south that is. I looked into and took my retirement package, which was a fixed income, now I see why they call it a fixed income; it is in bad need of fixen’. Now a whole year has come and gone and did it sail by, not as one would think, everyone says time fly’s when you get older, the secret is not to get older. Back when I was forty, about twenty years ago, a coworker said you are a ten year old locked in a forty year olds body. I concur with that whole heartily. The first few month’s I keep waiting for the “boredom” to set in, didn’t happen, each day has been an adventure. True I have not taken up coach potato mode. On that note, just like the ten year old I love to watch movies in the afternoon, matinees so to speak. We get our movies in the mail and if you were to ask my wife she would say I specialize in “B” Syfy black and white movies or as I always said, “if it is not on tape and they don’t wear a cape I don’t watch them”. There is nothing like getting the mail and not having a job for that day, head up the stairs to the bed room and slip the DVD in the player, flip on the air and have a coke and chips.
Speaking of jobs, it is not that I have been sitting on the sidewalk, twiddling my thumbs. I have remolded a room for our daughter, fixed up another one for a different daughter, plus done several carpenter jobs for friends. Also our local church has a day school and I was called to sub a few days last winter and hope to do so again this winter, did some remodeling there as well. As well the local saw mill that cuts logs into boards and firewood needed someone part time so I have been stacking fire wood, in trade for firewood. Our garden has produced abundance and we have eaten very healthy this summer. This spring I was in a local play, I am one mean Nazi officer. Just like the ten year old I got to pretend.
We have a ten year old niece who loves to say she is bored, that is where being ten in a sixty year old body comes in handy, I love to read as well, almost a book a week this past 52 weeks, as well enough comic books to fill a long box. The book store, library and comic shops are in love with me.
True, we have had to cut back on some things, but not that much if you think about it, goes back to being ten, needs are not that big, food, shelter, play and a little work. One big advantage of my retirement to some is I am young enough and healthy enough to be very active. Not a day has gone by that my dog and I have not walked three to five miles each day, as well in warm weather our pool has gotten a good work out. I did have this thought the other day, ten year olds are called “tweens” not yet a teen, but not a kid either. I am going to start calling myself a “Reteen” or retired in-between, not yet “old” as some call old, but too old for much of the hard labor I have done all my life, a carpenter/labor by trade.
A ten year old gets up when they want, well in the summer, not in school time. Many people my age are going back to school also, I thought about it for a nanosecond, like that perpetual ten year old; no school for me. A ten year old gets hungry they eat, me too, a ten year old needs a nap in the hot afternoon, me too. A ten year old wants to play with some toy or a game with a friend, yep, me too. Many ten year olds want to wear old, torn dirty jeans, up me too, until my wife says different. Yes, retirement year one is so much like being ten years old again, time is filled up and not sailing as fast as I thought it might, it is not standing still let me clue you. Ride the bike to town, I do that, play ball with the dog, I do that. Have I missed the company? “Sure, NOT”. A ten year old response for sure.
Yes, retirement year one has had ups and downs, but all said and done, best year I have had since JFK was in office. As I sit here barefoot, another thing we have in common, no shoes when I don’t feel like them. My t-shirt has a cape on it, no not on the back, but a picture of some hero flying to save the world. Yes, happy trails to me said the old cowboy, one thing I have not done this year is borrow a wooden stick horse, not that I have not thought about it. So all I can really say about retirement is I’m like the man falling off the 30 story building, as he went by each floor, people asked “how are you doing?” Only response, so far, so good.