The countdown is on, at
least in my own head.
Today is my final day of being 64, and tomorrow, my 65th year on this earth will conclude, and I will be in the first day of my 66th year.
Isn’t that what birthdays really are?
They are actually the conclusion of one year, and the beginning of another year in one’s life.
I guess that is not the most popular way to look at it—when I am asked how old I am during the next year, I will say “65,” and not “living my 65th year as I progress to age 66,” but that is really what it is.
Tomorrow signifies the 65th anniversary of when I was born—the very first day of my life—but it leads to the beginning of my 66th year here.
(Yes, I do have to stop being so clinical about it, because it takes away from the fun of the day.)
Today, my last day at age 64, I actually have a very busy day ahead of me.
For work—yes, I am semi-retired—I have to cover a conference later this morning, so that will tie me down for the length of the conference—two hours—and then the writing up of what was said there, which will take me a couple of more hours to complete.
In the middle of all of this, I have to pick up my son from work. My wife will take him there, but she has recently started a new job herself—she is now a professional dog walker, so she is semi-retired just like me—and she has to work in the afternoon, so I will have to break from my writing and pick up our son in the afternoon.
My wife retired in November, and she has been looking for something to bide away her time—and put a few bucks in her wallet.
She applied to a few dog-walking jobs on a local message board, to no avail, but I found a professional service that handled this job, she applied, and got the job.
It is really an ingenious service. Everything is done online, my wife is given about five places that she is expected to go to per day, and she has to route her actions as she does them.
Now that more people have gone back to work, there is more of a need for such a service, and the walks can last as short as 15 minutes or as long as an hour.
So far, the dogs have been very friendly to my wife—obviously, these dogs are well trained by their owners, mixed in with my wife's love of dogs—and she not only walks the dogs, she plays with them, and gives them plenty of outdoor time.
My wife has always been a dog person, and we have had two dogs since we were married nearly 29 years ago, both since deceased.
She wants another one, and this job allows her to at least step her foot in the water of owning her own dog again … and she gets paid for it too!
And let me tell you, whatever money she gets is quite welcome.
Prices on everything continue to rise at spiraling levels—gas just went up about a nickel this week after going up about 10 cents last week—so whatever extra money you can get into your pocket is not only welcome, it really is necessary.
We semi-retired people simply can’t get along on Social Security alone; it really is a pittance, so work as long as you can (I will repeat that advice until the day I die!).
So there you have it.
My family is as busy as can be the day before I turn the big 6-5, and believe me, I am not complaining at all about it.
Better to be busy than to sit around doing nothing … even though that is what retirement once was thought to be, or at least doing what you want to do when you want to do it.
Today is my final day of being 64, and tomorrow, my 65th year on this earth will conclude, and I will be in the first day of my 66th year.
Isn’t that what birthdays really are?
They are actually the conclusion of one year, and the beginning of another year in one’s life.
I guess that is not the most popular way to look at it—when I am asked how old I am during the next year, I will say “65,” and not “living my 65th year as I progress to age 66,” but that is really what it is.
Tomorrow signifies the 65th anniversary of when I was born—the very first day of my life—but it leads to the beginning of my 66th year here.
(Yes, I do have to stop being so clinical about it, because it takes away from the fun of the day.)
Today, my last day at age 64, I actually have a very busy day ahead of me.
For work—yes, I am semi-retired—I have to cover a conference later this morning, so that will tie me down for the length of the conference—two hours—and then the writing up of what was said there, which will take me a couple of more hours to complete.
In the middle of all of this, I have to pick up my son from work. My wife will take him there, but she has recently started a new job herself—she is now a professional dog walker, so she is semi-retired just like me—and she has to work in the afternoon, so I will have to break from my writing and pick up our son in the afternoon.
My wife retired in November, and she has been looking for something to bide away her time—and put a few bucks in her wallet.
She applied to a few dog-walking jobs on a local message board, to no avail, but I found a professional service that handled this job, she applied, and got the job.
It is really an ingenious service. Everything is done online, my wife is given about five places that she is expected to go to per day, and she has to route her actions as she does them.
Now that more people have gone back to work, there is more of a need for such a service, and the walks can last as short as 15 minutes or as long as an hour.
So far, the dogs have been very friendly to my wife—obviously, these dogs are well trained by their owners, mixed in with my wife's love of dogs—and she not only walks the dogs, she plays with them, and gives them plenty of outdoor time.
My wife has always been a dog person, and we have had two dogs since we were married nearly 29 years ago, both since deceased.
She wants another one, and this job allows her to at least step her foot in the water of owning her own dog again … and she gets paid for it too!
And let me tell you, whatever money she gets is quite welcome.
Prices on everything continue to rise at spiraling levels—gas just went up about a nickel this week after going up about 10 cents last week—so whatever extra money you can get into your pocket is not only welcome, it really is necessary.
We semi-retired people simply can’t get along on Social Security alone; it really is a pittance, so work as long as you can (I will repeat that advice until the day I die!).
So there you have it.
My family is as busy as can be the day before I turn the big 6-5, and believe me, I am not complaining at all about it.
Better to be busy than to sit around doing nothing … even though that is what retirement once was thought to be, or at least doing what you want to do when you want to do it.
And if that is nothing, then bully for you!
Well, it simply isn’t that anymore, if it ever really was that.
Retirement is tough, way tougher than I thought it would be when I figured I would work until I was 70 and then pack it all in.
Let me tell you, if that would have happened, I will tell you that I still would be working on some type of basis, because with the environment that we are in, you really cannot afford to have what I thought a real retirement was.
And as usual, it all has to do with money, or MAH-NEE! as Jimmy Walker says in those annoying Social Security commercials that run all day, everyday.
I wish I had money to burn, but as I ring up another notch on my life, nothing could be further from the truth.
It is sad, but looking ahead, unless my health fails me, I think I will be doing some kind of work for the rest of my life, which means never really retiring.
I used to wonder why I would see 80-something grannies working in McDonalds.
I would ask myself why they were there at such an age, but now I know …
And somehow, I wish that I didn’t.
Well, it simply isn’t that anymore, if it ever really was that.
Retirement is tough, way tougher than I thought it would be when I figured I would work until I was 70 and then pack it all in.
Let me tell you, if that would have happened, I will tell you that I still would be working on some type of basis, because with the environment that we are in, you really cannot afford to have what I thought a real retirement was.
And as usual, it all has to do with money, or MAH-NEE! as Jimmy Walker says in those annoying Social Security commercials that run all day, everyday.
I wish I had money to burn, but as I ring up another notch on my life, nothing could be further from the truth.
It is sad, but looking ahead, unless my health fails me, I think I will be doing some kind of work for the rest of my life, which means never really retiring.
I used to wonder why I would see 80-something grannies working in McDonalds.
I would ask myself why they were there at such an age, but now I know …
And somehow, I wish that I didn’t.
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