Family Stories: Celebrating my 1st Year of Retirement

Family Stories

Celebrating my 1st Year of Retirement

I remember hearing people say, “I’m Retiring”, and I’d think, WOW… when will that happen to me… probably never! Well, it finally happened after much hesitation…  making that transition from a stable job to a “No” job. While I had been thinking, and procrastinating, as I was turning 65 last year! Ouch… where has the time gone… it’s definitely flown by way too fast. But it’s here and I had to make a decision – whether it was right or wrong!

As I threw the retirement thing around in my head, work ended up making the final decision for me when the news came out that a “buyout” was being offered to anyone with twenty-five years or more! Never pass up “free money”! While it wasn’t a huge offer… I’m not a rocket scientist… it was money you’d not walk by if you found it – and it definitely helped to sweeten the pot a bit!

So finally on June 2, 2017, it was over… it felt ever so strange, but in a way, it felt good! While many people walk out, amidst everyone saying goodbye and wishing them well… I chose to walk out just like it was another day, with no one really knowing it was my last day. Why? I am not one for being the center of attention for anything, and I just didn’t want everyone hugging me and saying goodbye… it would have been so hard for me, and I’d definitely have needed a big box of tissues to do that! I can’t just smile and say goodbye, I would have cried, and that was the last thing I wanted to do on my last day… so I had it my way… just like another day!

I kept such a good secret, that not even my husband knew it was my last day until after he picked me up. It was then that I told him, well today was my “last” day… I’m done! I actually took a vacation week the week before everyone was retiring who also took the buyout.

In a few months, I will have been retired for a year and while I’m not missing the daily routine of work, I do miss the friends I had there and our daily rants and laughs we had on all that went on daily. My days now are staying up late, sleeping late the next morning, and going anywhere we want! I’m still not in any pattern other than writing more on my blog and during this past winter, I’ve been knitting more. Finally, I’ve conquered my fear of knitting socks!

I started off strong in my commitment to decluttering my house, but once winter came, that went by the wayside and I knitted most days while watching Netflix. My companion during the day into the evening seems to be “Netflix”… and lately I’m wondering why I haven’t pulled the plug on my cable… as I never seem to watch regular TV.

Our only weekly commitment now is taking the granddaughters to school and daycare once a week… but getting up at 6 a.m. is quite out of the ordinary now, as staying up late has us sleeping in most mornings!

We’ve taken off on several weekend trips to Vermont, New Hamshire and Rhode Island… love those Walt Roast Beef sandwiches that can only be gotten in RI; I think another trip there will be planned soon. The one New England state I haven’t been to yet is Maine and I hope to take a trip there this year. It is good, that when the mood strikes to go… we can just go!

Hubby keeps quite busy doing the day catching up on all the jobs he put off while working… and one by one they are getting done. He’s made himself quite the workshop in the basement, so now when I need something made in wood… it gets done! Just recently I asked for tiny sock blockers (keychain size)… and every time he comes up he brings a couple. Now I just need to knit the tiny sock that goes on them! I’m sure all the granddaughters will want one when they see mine… so either make them one or lose mine!

I’m not nearly as organized as he is… but I do try and keep all my knitting needles in one place, as nothing is more frustrating than when you can’t find the exact size needle you need at the moment But even though I manage to keep most together, I sometimes have to hunt down the ones I somehow mislaid.

I suppose retirement has gone so well, that it’s almost taken me over a year since retiring to finalize this post. Does that mean I’ve been having way too much fun… or just gotten a little lazy. Whichever it is, I do declare I’ve procrastinated on finishing many of the blog drafts I started!

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