The passing of our days...
I have been retired now for almost 2 years. Someone recently asked what I was doing now and indicated puzzlement about how I could retire. Like my only value was tied up in my career. My first thought was that they don't know me now, they knew me when I was working but my life has changed. But I realized as we talked that they think of retirement as their parents did. Work stopped completely for them. My generation looks at retirement in a completely different way. I am busier now than I was when I was working. I tried to explain that but I could see that they didn't get it so I gave up. The last part of working, I was doing a 4-40. I left the house at 6:15 AM and got home about 6:45 PM. I had little time for anything else. Granted I had a 3 day weekend every week but those of us who worked that schedule agreed that Friday was mostly spent recovering from being tired all week. And part of my job was traveling all over visiting libraries. When I stopped working I was really tired, both mentally and physically. I spent about 6 months really doing nothing but recovering from that kind of life style. Since then, I have filled my days and every day when I get up I decide what I want to do that day. And there aren't enough hours it seems to do it all. When my friends and I want to get together we have to schedule a couple weeks out because our days are so full. I have always been an organizer, I like an environment that is organized and I am in the middle of organizing the house so that everything has a place and I don't have to search for anything, I hate wasting time looking for things. I want every closet, drawer, and cupboard to be organized just so and I want to know where everything is. Yes, I do sound anal. I also am photographing and inventorying all the special family heirlooms, etc. so the kids will know whether something is a family heirloom or I bought it on ebay. My daughter is really pushing me to do this and write the background stories as well. And then there are all the photos...so much work to do there. I am the only one who can identify the old ones and my husband is pushing me to get them scanned and organized. That is a huge project that will go on for some time. And there are all the genealogy files from my decades of research that need scanning and organizing. That alone will take a few years. Lately I spend time doing more research instead of organizing what I already have. Right now I am documenting our surname in the 1650's in MA. Going through probate records and land deeds from that time period and I love it. Truth be told I would rather do that than almost anything else. I like to spend special time with family too now and I have time to see my brothers that I didn't have before. I am getting into cooking again, gathering recipes and trying new things. And then there is the garden, I work in the garden every day now, just spent two hours out there. There is always something that needs doing out there and I do enjoy that. And I haven't even mentioned the second home we are furnishing at the moment or the traveling I have done and will continue to do. So, what am I doing in retirement? The answer is, all of the above, and the days pass very quickly.