Capitol Hill Blue Forums Life and Moral Issues Issues of Aging Retired ? Is it what you thought it would be?

Ran into an acquaintance at a grocery store a few weeks & had a short discussion on retirement. We came away with the short summation “it’s fun & productive, it can be productive fun”. Just not always both at the same time. I find, with most of the day to myself, I let my mood dictate the path. I mostly like & trust my moods. They certainly guide my music. Just hafta know how to walk happily away from some of them.

I laughed at your ‘half the day gone’ comment. My wife & kids would tell you one of my standard weekend comments, usually around 10 AM, was ‘half the day is already wasted’ as I waited impatiently for them to get up & around.

Pondered - thanks for the comment about wasting time. It's becoming a huge time sink for me.

I am not retired, not officially, but I've developed some cognitive issues which may or may not heal over time. I am currently on (private insurance) disability. At 59 you might say I'm unofficially retired.

Given the situation I often feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, although I have no idea what that other shoe might be. I love not having to beat my head against the wall every day to try to fake skills I no longer have. I love getting a reasonable amount of sleep.

I would not trade an uncertain retirement for the certain income of my old job. My natural rhythm is to start moving sometime in mid-morning; 9AM meetings are a crime against my humanity. I am re-learning how to cook, I am reading again, I have an electric piano waiting for me/giving me side-eye; I even enjoy cleaning my apartment. I love being semi-unofficially-retired, and I suspect that other-shoe-dropping feeling is one that we all share, more related to the world than to myself.

I also think the world will open up a lot after I have a knee replacement, Real Soon Now.

Two comments really resonated with me, Julia: that shoe-drop feeling, and cooking! My wife and I have been cooking more, and cooking more together, which is a great deal of fun. We're trying "Hello Fresh" right now, but don't plan on continuing with it because a) too expensive, but really b) just too much packaging. We may take a shot at "Blue Apron", but I suspect we'll find the same thing. It's fun, but I can't get over the waste. We used to be a member of a local CSA, but with all our travel kept giving away so much of the produce, or it would go bad before we got a chance to prepare something with it. Honey has a habit of "shopping with good intentions" - buying things we should eat, but it being neglected in favor of convenience food. I prefer to buy tonight's ingredients when we want to cook it.

That impending footware clatter is omnipresent. We have reasonable resources, but her health is fragile and I can imagine just one incident biting deep. I had a mini-stroke 10 years ago, so I know I'm not immune, either, but I have the VA as a fallback resource to protect the family resources. I'm/We're in "transitional retirement", not working, but not getting all of our anticipated pension benefits either. That's the downside of "early retirement". We each have a State retirement to come, and I'm not getting SS for a decade, yet. In the meantime we're filling the gap with savings. The impending downturn is scary, financially.

Your comment about packaging and buying with good intentions really resonated over here.

PACKAGING!!
OMG WTAF is with the obsession with cardboard? My wife decided to replace the O-ring in our blender and she ordered the part, and this three and a half inch O-ring came to us in a cardboard box INSIDE ANOTHER cardboard box, which was filled with inflatable plastic air cushion packs...for a rubber O-ring!

We're drowning in cardboard and I finally held a brief informal family meeting over it, by summoning the bunch to the living room where they saw the pile of cardboard generated by a month's purchases. We were forced to get a second blue recycle bin due to the amount of cardboard we're dealing with.

My daughter decided that we needed to eat a more healthy diet and she took the initiative and without consulting, returned with a lot of stuff that "makes you feel good" but which no one really wanted.
And it sat in the fridge waiting to be eaten, and was ultimately thrown out. Most of it was exotic, with Korean writing, so we didn't even know what most of it was half the time.
Another meeting...are we buying stuff that signals we are doing the right thing but which NO ONE wants?

Hate to say it but online purchasing is not environmentally sustainable. Millions of trucks delivering cat litter and O-rings is not sustainable.

Jeffery - I try to limit my online purchases to books (apologies to the independent bookstore down the street; I just can't afford you.) The last three non-book purchases I made arrived in boxes close to a reasonable size. I think enough people are screaming about ridiculous packaging that it's beginning to take effect. I hope so, anyway. Like you, I've had more than my share of the stupendously-huge full-of-air boxes.

Most of my non-book orders are due to mobility issues. Large stores are a pain in the rear, both from a physical and mental point of view (what is all this "shite," and who's buying it?) I think the overproduction of crap and aggressive marketing of same are just as bad as the on-line packaging.

If the local-chain hardware store doesn't sell it, I'm likely to buy on-line.

For me that would eat up two hours and about three gallons of gas. I shop on the 3rd when my check hits then around the 15th for whatever I've run out of. With luck those two trips to town are the only time I leave here.

I live on the equivalent of $7.21 an hour. And I live very very well.

I raise chickens for eggs, bake my own bread, and make everything from scratch. I pre-cook lots of stuff and Freeze meal sized portions. I make huge vats of bone broth and chicken stock and freeze it in quart containers for future soups and stews. Chez Mark's Kitchen has one of the best fast food burgers on the planet and breakfast here is a Michelin star experience. Fried chicken is ALWAYS on the menu and the wings are incredible! I can make a tri-tip you'd swear was prime rib.

I live nestled into the woods on a meandering creek, a wide lawn and an orange grove in front of me. I have some neighbors nearby, not close enough to see their houses but near enough to hear their roosters crow. Twice a day I walk a quarter mile out from the house to the mailbox with my dog. Seldom see anybody, occasionally might see a car go by on the clay road. Neighbor might come out to the fence and we'll gossip a spell.

I don't worry about other shoes dropping. They will drop and I will die. I'm okay with that. But until that happens I plan to enjoy every single minute of every day. I worry about you folks who have significant others. You should get a dog before that happens. Dog can get you through anything.

I do envy your privacy, Greger, although most people would say I'm too isolated in the middle of my apartment complex. But I find myself moving (rapidly) from introvert to hermit, even though I may speak to only 3 or 4 people a week.

Two hours and three gallons of gas if I run in to ace hardware for an o-ring.

One truck to a bunch of houses to deliver or countless cars started and driven to the store. Sometimes store to store in search of just the right item.

Cardboard is 100% recyclable.

The box is in a box so no one can see whats sitting on your doorstep before you bring it in. It might just be an o-ring but it might be a $6000 camera.

The packers at Amazon don't randomly decide which box to put it in. The computer tells them which box they have to use. Sometimes it's weird and they roll their eyes when they pack it just like you do when you unpack it.

Couple days ago, Jerry, my UPS man delivered a new television. It wasn't in a bigger box and was pretty obviously a television. He rang the doorbell and when I answered he said "It's pretty heavy. Where you want it?"
By the time I wobbled into the living room behind him he had it open and was pulling it out of the box. He put the legs on it plugged the PS4 in and was out the door in under 5 minutes.

It's not just sustainable it's preferable for most things. We'll always need greengrocers and butcher shops for fresh ingredients, meats, and dry goods, but even these local establishments have begun offering home deliveries again, just like you could back when America was great! Huge inefficient malls are closing in favor of a system that works out better for everyone.

I don't even see that many unless I go to town. I talk to the dog a lot because your voice will get rusty if you don't use it some. Like if you answer the phone after three days of monk-like silence and can only croak like a frog.

Well now that we have TWO blue recycle bins instead of the always-full ONE blue bin, a LOT of cardboard will be making its way to the recyclers.

It's a rather stupid problem to have..our garbage company refuses to take cardboard unless it is IN the BIN, even if it is flattened and sitting ON TOP of the bing. It has be IN the bin.