Two Milestones in One Day

Yesterday, I achieved two milestones in one day – it was my 65th birthday and exactly 10 years since I retired. I remember being in my twenties and thinking that 65 was really ancient and wondering what could one possibly do at that age? Now that I'm one of them, it doesn't feel so bad and, in fact, I’m just glad I made it – a few good friends who retired when I did weren’t so fortunate.

Lot's more days like this to come - Paulette & me!


But, 65 doesn’t seem that old now, funny how that works! I’m in very good health, as far as I know, and am looking forward to many, many more years of RV'ing with Paulette - snowbirds in the winter months, and travelling around in the summer with our 5th wheel. I feel pretty young for an “old guy”!

We didn't do anything special yesterday for my birthday. Instead, we are having a big family barbeque here this coming Sunday. We have a few special events to celebrate, so we are going to combine them all into one big party! Looks like we are definitely going to need more than one cake!

We hope to travel in our 5'er for many years to come.


As for 10 years of retirement – what’s not to like? It’s been great. To me, the the biggest benefit of retirement has always been that I get to operate on my own schedule - get up, go to bed, watch TV, read, eat or just go out for coffee whenever I want to. My hobbies aren't "busy" things - they're "fun" things. Also, I've never had to attend a wretched meeting since retiring. I grew to detest meetings during my working career and to this day refuse to join any organizations, even our local ratepayers, because it would mean I might have to attend a meeting - those days are over.

This is the kind of job I enjoy today!


So, now my philosophy is pretty much this very wise saying I once heard - "I get up around 7:00am, usually with nothing much to do, and by 5:00pm, I manage to get it all done". It’s worked for 10 years now and I hope it will be the same for many more.