Wednesday, December 10, 2014

What No One Tells You About Retirement

The truth about being retired, traveling and living in the sunshine in the winter is surprising. I know. You are dreaming of all that freedom and exotic living and tan line in places on your body that have never seen the sun. I understand. But SURPRISE...life happens, even in retirement!

He thought we were here laying in the sun but....
My morning started with a call from our stock broker. Now, if you had told me when we were young that I would actually have a stock broker let alone one what I actually liked and calls to just chat as well as take care of business, I would have said you were nuts. No way! But call he did.

He is in awe of the life we lead (maybe because he knows how much money we really have and cannot figure out how we manage it. ) We talked about the weather here in Tucson and I commiserated with him about the Oregon rain.






This what we were really doing.
Then he asked what we were doing today. I hated to burst his bubble but the answer was "The toilet is broken...yikes!" I almost hated to tell him. It was like taking a toy away from a child!

See, life happens even in our world of leisure and sunshine. In fact, we find that "life happening" is very time consuming and often wonder how we ever worked and still had time to sleep. We don't even have much time to play and sleep.

When we tell people that we are traveling they are so envious. Last week I told about writing blogs using the microphone technology on my iPhone because we were on the road. It all sounded very glamorous. But those that thought that did not see the "roads" we were traveling down. We were returning to Tucson after being away for 7 months. The drive from Oregon to Arizona is very long. We have come down every road between here and there. What we once loved is not so much fun anymore. We will fly back and forth soon. We love to travel but once we have gone down a road 15 time we are pretty much done.
Traveling through Nevada the "short way home"!

I did love this...the first time I saw it!
This is only the tip of the iceberg. There is much more no one ever told you about retirement. More later maybe.

Just some thoughts from b+ on a Wednesday (I think) afternoon.

6 comments:

  1. Retired in 2009. Understand completely. Look forward to more of your cogent insights. There are concerns now that seemed so manageable before that claim a kind of ultimacy now. I look back upon our working years and wonder how the heck did we do that? A new frontier, eh?

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    Replies
    1. Yes it is...in fact I think that the term "retirement" has taken on a whole new meaning since we began 18 years ago. Boomers have cause a wave of difference for all of us.

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  2. Still ... I notice you're in shorts and tee shirt, not bundled up in rain gear, or boots and hats and gloves. Actually, I'll be in Florida soon, but I'm renting -- so no toilet fixing for me!

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    Replies
    1. Tom,

      So you think that installing a new toilet is more fun in shorts and a t-shirt? I am no sure my husband would agree.

      Have fun in Florida!

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  3. I was trying to find a "fresh" route to Portland and back for next summer's trip...couldn't do it. There are very few ways to get from here to there in a 30 foot RV, and we have driven them all. I can relate completely!

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    Replies
    1. We took the back roads between somewhere in Nevada to Lakeview last year. That interior basin is a vast and wonderful wasteland that God forgot to finish. If you are a geologist it must be very interesting. We went almost all day and did not see another car save a couple of ranch pick ups! No one but Earl and I even considered going that way. I don't think we were the smart ones for sure.

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