Traveling After Retirement

Another myth of retirement - you say you want to travel but you won't.

Recently at Red Butte I met a couple from PA who were traveling the continent as they had wanted to after retirement. They still had a large house on a lot of acreage in a rural area where they had lived many years and raised their family. They had owned a travel home of some kind for several years and said until the husband retired, they had used it for annual vacations to here and there, but nothing really far away from their home because they didn't have that much time for travel.

The husband retired in 2010, and they said the intended to take off on their dream long trip, but things happened, including illnesses in other family members, and they just didn't do it. The myth in action, right?

The World is Looking Better

The weather is getting better every day. Soon it will be hot, hot, hot, but right now things are just about perfect. I am feeling much better too. I no longer have cold symptoms, although I am still a bit low on energy. I've been driving around town for short errands more than I really should primarily because I just don't have the energy to do a lot of walking. I still take a nap nearly every day with Smokey Rose.

School has almost finished up for the year. I have just one student taking an incomplete, and I was given no summer school assignment this year (yeah!) so I'm pretty much free to do whatever the heck I want right now. I'll be leaving for the summer home in a couple of weeks. I'm staying in town in order to get in some hours working at Red Butte and to take part in a couple of taiko performances.

I am back to planning for the future. The next myth of retirement to consider is the one that says "your money will last as long as you need it."

Ill Again

Smokey Rose and I have been spending a lot of time together taking naps during the day. I became ill again and that has kind of put my life on hold. I "just" have a cold, but it's been a bad one that just will not go away. I have taken off days from work officially. I have gone to work when I felt awful and just carried on.

Chief Life Officer

"Chief Life Officer" is a phrase from a company that I can't remember (failure of the advertising effort) who sponsors NPR a lot lately. I like that idea so I'm going to make it my own. I am now my own CLO. Not that I have been otherwise in the past, but I have renewed my intention to be responsible and accountable for my life.

As I wrote before I have been pondering that article about myths of retirement, thinking about what kind of actions I need to take to help insure that my life generally moves in directions that I prefer. the first idea that I have thought a lot about is the "myth" that "you will keep your health."

Four More Years

I'm not quite there, but in six weeks or so this school year will be over. We'll be having our annual faculty retirement party....this year for the dean and I'm not sure who else. Four school years later, it will be my turn. My plan is that in April 2017, I'll be cleaning out my office, and part of the party will be for me.

I've been thinking about this actively for several years, but now that this event is only 4 years away (LESS THAN 5!!!!!!!!!) I'm actively studying about it. I am looking forward to this next phase of my life, and I want to do it well.

Refreshed and Gladdened

First of all, I am feeling much better. A few weeks ago I had my hemoglobin re-measured, and it was up to 11 which is much improved. No doubt it is higher now, but I won't have another test until April or so. My symptoms have mostly gone away, and now I just need to get some strength and stamina back.

The weather here seems to have turned a corner, and it looks like spring IS on the way in. I can go out and walk just fine now, and I have returned to my usual activities like taiko drumming and Tai Chi. Soon I'll be back to gardening at Red Butte too, and life will be back to normal.

"How are you?"

I ask it myself all the time. And I get asked this all the time. Of course, it's just a conversational convention. No one really wants the true answer, & no one expects one.

Right now the true answer is "I'm not well at all." I got the numbers from my complete blood count test (CBC). It was worse than I thought. About 10 days ago my hemoglobin was 7.9. When my health care friends hear that, they blanch. Jeeze1 That's low! Very low!