One Year Later

Now that I've been retired for a baker's year, it seems like a good time to take stock of things. I read a lot about people who atrophy after retirement; many even die soon thereafter. They've spent their whole lives working and suddenly find themselves feeling lost and worthless. That has definitely not been the case. It is true that there are occasions, especially recently, winter blahs and all, when I find myself feeling incredibly bored, but other than that, it has been a busy 13 months.

We have done a lot of traveling, probably about as much as I anticipated. There was the wonderful trip to Disney, of course. But we also took a four week trip out west visiting 8 resorts in Tennessee, Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, and Illinois and getting our first looks at both the Grand Canyon and the grandbaby. We spent almost two weeks getting a taste of the mountains of New England in Massachusetts, Vermont and Pennsylvania. And we also had return trips to the Smokies in Tennessee as well as Myrtle Beach and Edisto Island in South Carolina. We look forward to doing as much traveling this year, having already gotten started with a trip that took us to North Carolina, Panama City Beach, Orlando and Santee. We already have plans to visit Myrtle Beach (our favorite place) in both May and November. Since I tend to plan most trips at the last minute to take advantage of discounts, I don't know where else or when, but we will go as the spirit moves us.

Here at home we were able to do a number of things with the money I had received at retirement. This included all new badly needed appliances (except the washer and dryer, which, knock on wood, seem to be doing well despite their age). We also did some remodeling and now eat dinner in an actual dining room rather than off of TV trays. This was partly made possible because after the girls moved out we were able to redo the upstairs so that Kim now has a large craft room, and I did some rearranging to allow us to use the old front room as a dining room. We still have a lot more things that need to be done, but feel we've gotten a pretty good start.

One of the best things about no longer having a work schedule is the freedom to go hiking whenever we want, or at least whenever the weather allows. Before, it seemed like we could always count on rain whenever I had a day off, but now, well, if it rains today, there's always tomorrow. So altogether, we hiked several hundred miles last year, not counting treadmill miles this winter. As a result of that and some dietary adjustments, I lost 15 pounds. But the best part is that I have not put any of it back on this winter. If I can lose another 15 pounds this summer, I will be quite happy.

There are some things I thought I would be doing that I haven't gotten to yet. I thought I would be doing more blogging and personal writing. There are some other personal things that I am working on which will be finished sometime this year, and then perhaps those other things will fall into place. But that's actually good news I think. Who would have thought that even after retirement, there are still not enough hours in the day.