My Retirement Path

My greatest fear was I would retire and lose all sense of purpose. Would I sleep 'till noon? Never change out of sleepwear? Park myself in front of the TV all day?

When I announced my retirement everyone asked what I would do: contracting, consulting, freelancing? I like what I did for a living. I'm good at it. I liked the people I worked for and worked with. But I worked hard to escape working for a boss. And while some may think freelancing makes you your own boss, it doesn't. It just makes clients your new bosses.

I told my coworkers and friends, "I want to work for myself. I have plenty of hobbies. I have some work on the yard and house that needs doing. I want to compose some music, write some books, do some woodworking, lose some weight and travel. Of course, I will still work on Excel and launch 5G." But secretly I wondered if I would do any of those things.

On the Monday that marked my first day of retirement, my body, after decades of being trained to get up around 6:15 AM, rebooted my brain and wouldn't let it go back to sleep mode. I gave into my routine. Showered, shaved, dressed and had a cup of coffee. I sat on the deck and relaxed. The day was mine. I could do anything I wanted.

"Are you going to fix the trellis?" asked my wife. Hmm... I like wood working. I guess I want to do that.

Our old plastic trellis lost a fight with our wisteria vine which crushed the life out of it. So I sat down in front of my computer and used Sketchup to design its replacement. Then I went to the lumber yard, got everything I needed and, within the first week, finished what you see in the picture.

"You did a great job, sweetheart. The white paint matches the fence perfectly. What about painting the deck? I'll help."

Yep. The deck needed painting. It also needed the handrail replaced. That's wood working. I like wood working. I guess I want to do that.

Painting a deck isn't something we can do at one time. We have to blow it off, power wash it, scrub it down and apply at least 3 coats which take 24 hours to dry in between. The afternoons were too brutal to work so I decided to work on the deck in the evenings when it was cool, work on launching 5G (my Excel work) during the hottest part of the day, and run, - or more accurately - walk and jog in the mornings. I have a goal to run 5Ks again. But at 67 and 25 pounds over running weight, that may be a stretch. Still, I wanted to lose weight and get back in shape. So yeah, I did that too.

"Honey, I invited some neighbors, family and friends over to celebrate your retirement. Can you make some desert crepes, naan-pizzas, and work the grill?" Yeah, I like to cook. Did I mention I'm 25 pounds overweight. Now you know why. So sure, I guess I want to do that.

"Don't forget that my cousin's grand daughter is getting baptized in the river on Sunday." Supporting family is important so yeah, I guess I want to do that.

"This Wednesday my brother is traveling to Blowing Rock North Carolina as a tribute to my parents. It's their anniversary and Blowing Rock is where they spent their honeymoon." It has been almost a year since my wife's mother passed. Her father passed a few years before that. That's as good a reason as any to get out of the house and do some traveling. I wanted to travel, so yeah, I want to do that too.

"We need to get hotel reservations for our trip to Maine to see our daughter and visit friends and family along the way. And then we need to book our flight Pasadena to see your brother and our son. And then..."

The trellis is my metaphor for my retirement. It symbolizes my new path. I'm not sleeping late. I'm not watching TV all day. I'm doing some woodworking, taking care of the house and yard, losing some weight and getting in better shape, traveling, and working on 5G. But it seems I haven't escaped working for a boss... Thank God.