My blog friend Tom has a great post on retirement.
Which got me thinking about successful retirement. Redefining oneself.
There are many retired teachers and some retired professors in my community. And truth tell they "do" a lot of TV and shopping. By "Shopping" I mean driving in and out of town, which here is the capital city of St. John's about 1-1/2 hours one way on the "Old Road", maybe an hour on the highway. And it always involves many carts rattling out of Costco.
Shed life is big here. The Boys gather in sheds and work on "stuff" like trucks and snowmobiles and boats and generators and ATVs which are used for hunting. Hunting and fishing are huge and there's no retirement age from either.
Women volunteer in church: cleaning and altar fixing and choir committees and parish committees and church fundraising. If they have spare time (church volunteering becoming a dead art, so to speak) they community volunteer in card games for seniors, exercise class and library duty and 50+ club events.
Whatcha at? Is an all purpose catchphrase here. Used when you pick up the phone. I've adopted it as it is quick to the chase. "Whatcha at?" they say to me. "Oh, I'm knitting," I say, or "Getting ready for a walk", "watching Netflix", etc. And you're off and running with a conversation.
I hung out a small tax service shingle, metaphorically speaking, this year. I had basically terminated my tax business a few years back, apart from a few diehards, but felt a little financial need due to power bills being so enormous in NL. You can be freezing your arse off and the bill can be $400 for the month. Full heat would be close to a $1,000. And that's with a wood burning stove. As I type this, I'm cold. And I
My time is always full. I had 3 clients drop in this morning. I have my volunteer municipal job that I love. I'm building a data base for the town library. I continue to write. I am taking bookings for my hospitality Airbnb and that will keep me busy from Spring on to late September. Needs must. And yes, knitting products for sale. Thinking of getting an Etsy account to sell on line perhaps. And cards. I sell my own cards too.
I'm a wearer of many hats.
Bored? What's that?
So - Whatcha At my friends?
Today I posted to my Facebook page that the Zodys would get to stay home all day. That is a luxury. No place to be, no makeup to put on, no obligations to meet. After a busy week and weekend, we are happy to do little today. Tomorrow the pace will pick up and there will be a list of things to do. Our days are filled with volunteer activities and now church work since we have each taken on a titled position. I'm hopeful the grandchildren will visit next week, it is their spring break. Mine is not for another two weeks as this school district revolves spring break about Easter.
ReplyDeleteAh you're like myself. I count days off as "Pyjama Days" where I won't answer anything and stay indoors reading or messing about. Love those days. All too rare.
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What is your "hospitality airnb?" I assumed you were selling the house, so if keeping, doesn't it then also want heating?
ReplyDeleteI worked several hours totalling $208 for the year a couple a go, and got knocked off GIS pension for my efforts. Do they take a different tack for airnb, knitting and such?
I don't respond to anonymous comments anymore. Don't know who are. Especially about taxes etc.
DeleteAnd personal stuff. Email me if legit.
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Yes of course legit. No need to respond it wasn't question as much as not understanding and irritation at the unfairness. Here we are poor enough to be getting the "supplement" on a wee, enterprising income.
DeleteOh my WWW! You put me to shame! I'm not a mixer and mingler, not a religious type, and fear I'd have little in common with local people, apart from husband's family, so I pretty much tinker online much of the time, when we're not out and about exploring antique stores etc. Evenings are Netflix time, or similar. We'll be doing a few improvements and some refurbishing to the old homestead during coming months, so that will keep me engaged for a while. Could be tootling off for a belated birthday jaunt for Himself later this week too.
ReplyDeleteI've loved, for every single minute of it, the feeling of freedom retirement brought me after a lifetime of work's discipline. :-)
I'm a gregarious loner, T. Definitely the oddball in the village as I'm also an atheist. So I abhor much of the time filling doings around me. I love what I am doing as it's my choice.
ReplyDeleteWell the tax work not so much but it helps the financial pinch of my life. Single older woman. Not complaining but proactive in alleviating.
I love that you love your life!
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I'm having trouble sleeping, and with taking care of himself, the hours seem to fill regardless. I pulled almost all of my tax stuff together yesterday. Preparer will pick up this week, and I have lunch today with a friend and tomorrow is the weekly shop...I've started a journal offline just to keep the writing going as the blog has become an unintended ongoing narrative about the cat, it seems. They do take over our lives, these animal friends.
ReplyDeleteI'm having trouble pulling my own tax shyte together. I get to claim trips to docs, pharmacy and hospitals and this past year sees me disorganised due to health stress and my darling Ansa. These days not much sends me over the edge and I see it on my blood pressure readings and blood glucose levels
DeleteMeditation is called for.
I hope your sleeping improves, nothing worse.
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I'm working on a novel again, and it's lovely and also frustrating to return to writing fiction. Because this novel was prompted by learning that my father and his brother were brought to a lynching as eleven- and twelve-year-olds, the subject matter is difficult to settle into and I'm having more trouble establishing a schedule than I used to have. I also spend an hour or so researching, calling my representatives' offices or the White House comment line, and filling out protest post cards. And, because I spent years in rapid physical decline before last year's brain surgery, I revel in taking exercise classes, an impossibility a year ago. I study higher-level mathematics online on Khan Academy because occasionally my high-school aged grandchildren FaceTime me for homework help with their AP (college level) mathematics classes. That's happening less and less frequently, but it gives me a reason to return to the mathematics I also love. I have other grandchildren headed into high school, and I enjoy being the go-to homework help for mathematics and Spanish. And I plunk around on the piano, teaching myself. I'm inept, with a chronic condition rendering my hands nearly useless for any fine work, but I love learning about the structure of music, at least.
ReplyDeleteLinda I found you enormously inspiring and challenging (to myself). Wow, you do accomplish a lot in spite of barriers. Thank you for this. You made my day!
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I've pretty much been homebound by illness the last few months but have not been idle. I've been "at genetics" (a field I have 20+ years experience in), working out finding that my British-born grandfather's mother was 1/4 Native American and Sub-Sharan African, and jaw-droppingly, descended from a sister, 1st cousin, or aunt of my North Carolina Native American/African 4th great-grandfather. An English cousin of g-granny matches my NA/SS 4th g-granddad's children, brother's and sisters. Reading the history, appears great-gran's ancestor was one of 1,000 Natives kidnapped in one fell swoop in 1713 and sold into slavery into Jamaica. One of her children/ grandchildren was sent to England as a small boy to serve as a "page" about 1765. When he was 16 he was "adopted out" to a village family, married in 1782 and is my great-gran's grandfather. She came to US in 1873 and my grandfather married a Native/European woman descended from my Native 4th g-grandfather the *same* ancestor. I have about 60 individuals in these two families who have had autosomal DNA testing, plus 40+ years of genealogy documentation of the families, which allowed me to match these families up. Lots of midnight oil burned, but boy it's been fun! :)
ReplyDeleteGosh there's a book there Deb, how incredible your history is. I must send in some DNA for mine, I'm sure there are some surprises. I know one of my aunts let something slip a few years ago that shocked me so more study needed. But not, I truly believe, as fascinating as yours!
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Just to annoy you, I am in full retirement!
ReplyDeleteWhat does that mean though, Ramana?
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I do exactly what I want to do and not what I am expected to do.
DeleteI think I've said before that just reading about your 101 activities is exhausting. Where do you get the energy? Most "retirees" nowadays seem to be almost as busy as when they had a paid job. Jenny has officially retired but has all sorts of interesting activities on the go. Her diary is always full.
ReplyDeleteI was a busy retiree until stricken with ill health. I wish I'd spent more time playing and traveling, though I did as much of it as I could.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good idea. If you are creative and have some ideas to create something unique, you can eaisly generate income for your creations from etsy.
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