Retirement Reaction

A friend on Facebook asked about retirement and what it was like.  He was going to do it soon.  I suspect he is curious.

The first interesting thing I noticed is that I had no emotional reaction to retiring.  I would have expected something: better sleep, worse sleep, laziness or something, but every day just seemed to be like the last Saturday.

Secondly, my views on time have changed.  While I was rarely under time pressure in my career and life, there is almost none of it now.  Spend a bit more time at the driving range?  Sure!  Or linger over that Polish dog at Cafe $1.64 and perhaps a stroll around Costco with the second refill of a finely iced soda.

I'm planning a road trip - there is another travel blog that I will open up in a bit - and I'm pulling together the things I expect to need.  I'm going to do some car camping, so the list is somewhat lengthy.  These chores require some time management and also there are a few things to do around the house before I leave.  But besides these items, time is to be enjoyed and not wrestled over.

I recommend retirement without reservation.  It's a grand feeling after 47 years of straight work with only a bit of time in school to break it up. 

I think that next year will be very different from this year.  If I like the car camping there may be more of that, though probably not as long as planned as this year's.  Otherwise, it will be more time locally.  I'm working on my golf game and there are a few older hobbies that I may resurrect. 

I'd summarize it by saying that it gives you the time to spend time with different things than when you are working -- cooking is no longer a rushed job, but something that can be enjoyed and not hurried.  Allows for more creativity, etc.

Now, as I write this, work has called me back in for a could of weeks of light duty.  The experienced folks are off playing in the desert and leaving the new guy in charge.  Not a problem unless something happens.  So I'm going in every other day for a few hours to fix a bug (today) and pass on some knowledge.  I don't mind it, but it's not what I want to be doing.