Yeah, this is the life.
I started at Dell in August of 1997 and retired August 2017. I had actually planned to work longer (better Social Security benefits), but my hand was a bit forced by circumstances. The details are unimportant.
So what’s to say after five years? I enjoy myself. I have, so far, avoided Covid. I have always been easily amused, so I watch a lot movies (I have most of the streaming services). I play video games several hours a day. Once it cools down, I’ll go out and do some work in the yard.
I am not really into travelling; Dorothy was right.
I tried golf once, didn’t care for it. All those videos of old guys playing golf is fine, but not for me. My back won’t let me bowl, so that’s out. I do like to drive around on occasion, but with the price of gas these days, I have to limit that a bit.
The house is paid off, my truck is paid off, and Social Security pays me enough that I can eat, pay bills and have enough left over to get myself something cool, now and then.
I hear a lot of folks get bored with not working, but I’ve never really been a fan of hard work. Or easy work. Of work in general.
My attitude is more like this:
The worst part of living long is losing friends along the way. An old friend died in 2019 and his wife died last year. They were both retired I’m not sure if boredom had nything to do with it.
I have a couple of friends, older than me, who haven’t retired because they don’t know what to do with themselves when they do. I hope they figure that out.
But, so far, I’m not bored. There still aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. I get some moderate exercise, mostly on the treadmill while watching some TV (multi-tasking!), but once it’s not 85 degrees in the morning, I’ll go walking again and see how the neighborhood had changed.
That’s all to report. Retirement is great — everyone should do it.
