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I retired a couple of years ago -- something I had not expected to happen. A generous gift from a relative made that possible. I had always told people I would retire "feet first". It's great to have been wrong about that.
And let me counter some misinformation out there. From the my earliest days as a wage-earner I heard my co-workers predict that Social Security would be extinct by the time I retired -- that it was a government rip-off, and even if I did get Social Security benefits it would never be enough to retire on.
Wrong on both counts. My wife and I are living very comfortably on our Social Security benefits. And doing quite well with Medicare, despite some major medical issues. I have a sizable amount of retirement savings on top of that which we are pretty much leaving alone.
Keep your government hands off my Social Security and Medicare!
I do not regret those paycheck deductions over all those many years.
Sorry for the digression...
Another story I used to hear at work was about men who retired and then died a year or two later because without a job they became bored, listless, and wasted away. (Or, alternatively, they lost their will to live being unable to escape their wives all day.) That, I was certain, would not be me because I have always been deeply involved with my hobbies, always had several projects on the boil and more simmering on the back burners, and enjoyed all of them immensely.
Well now a couple of years in I am having days when the prospect of working on my hobbies just does not inspire me. Some of that has to do with the state of my projects. Few of my projects are straight-forward, with a clear and well-defined scope of work from start to finish. Almost every one involves finding a way to execute something I have never done before, and either requires developing skills I do not have, or inventing a solution that simply doesn't exist. When I hit one of those barriers I frequently back off and give myself time to either accumulate the energy to charge ahead, or time to come up with new and hopefully better ideas.
Trouble is, after a while I can accumulate a number of projects that have all stalled out in that manner. Faced with a bunch of projects with no good way forward on any of them, I can get bummed.
One solution is to go take a nap. Being retired gives me that freedom. For those of you who are not yet retired it is something you can look forward to. The clock is no longer your tyrant.
And even just lying down for 20 minutes is often enough to recharge me. And then I can do an end run around the issue. I can find a job that only requires mindless effort. Cleaning up the kitchen. Mowing the grass. Filing papers in my office.
Or writing posts for SCI.
Look, I shouldn't complain. It is a great problem to have. I'm privileged, and I know it.
There are some projects I may never finish.
And there is one hobby I am giving up entirely. I am selling off my motorcycles. I've probably have as much fun working on them as riding them. But I haven't been riding them much at all the last few years, so it makes sense to sell them.
On the other hand I've revived an old hobby. I am refurbishing my old HO model railroad layout. I'm also trying to get my head around a new digital control system that I purchased several years ago. Intricate and frustrating that.
And I've taken up a new hobby -- 3D printing. Mostly I am making parts for my other new hobby -- 1/32nd slotcars. That one I picked up when I started racing with the IHSR club a couple years' back.
Okay. I'm done slacking off for now. I have a project for my model railroad out in the garage that needs a little more of my time.
Hope you enjoyed the read.
Ed Bianchi
And let me counter some misinformation out there. From the my earliest days as a wage-earner I heard my co-workers predict that Social Security would be extinct by the time I retired -- that it was a government rip-off, and even if I did get Social Security benefits it would never be enough to retire on.
Wrong on both counts. My wife and I are living very comfortably on our Social Security benefits. And doing quite well with Medicare, despite some major medical issues. I have a sizable amount of retirement savings on top of that which we are pretty much leaving alone.
Keep your government hands off my Social Security and Medicare!
I do not regret those paycheck deductions over all those many years.
Sorry for the digression...
Another story I used to hear at work was about men who retired and then died a year or two later because without a job they became bored, listless, and wasted away. (Or, alternatively, they lost their will to live being unable to escape their wives all day.) That, I was certain, would not be me because I have always been deeply involved with my hobbies, always had several projects on the boil and more simmering on the back burners, and enjoyed all of them immensely.
Well now a couple of years in I am having days when the prospect of working on my hobbies just does not inspire me. Some of that has to do with the state of my projects. Few of my projects are straight-forward, with a clear and well-defined scope of work from start to finish. Almost every one involves finding a way to execute something I have never done before, and either requires developing skills I do not have, or inventing a solution that simply doesn't exist. When I hit one of those barriers I frequently back off and give myself time to either accumulate the energy to charge ahead, or time to come up with new and hopefully better ideas.
Trouble is, after a while I can accumulate a number of projects that have all stalled out in that manner. Faced with a bunch of projects with no good way forward on any of them, I can get bummed.
One solution is to go take a nap. Being retired gives me that freedom. For those of you who are not yet retired it is something you can look forward to. The clock is no longer your tyrant.
And even just lying down for 20 minutes is often enough to recharge me. And then I can do an end run around the issue. I can find a job that only requires mindless effort. Cleaning up the kitchen. Mowing the grass. Filing papers in my office.
Or writing posts for SCI.
Look, I shouldn't complain. It is a great problem to have. I'm privileged, and I know it.
There are some projects I may never finish.
And there is one hobby I am giving up entirely. I am selling off my motorcycles. I've probably have as much fun working on them as riding them. But I haven't been riding them much at all the last few years, so it makes sense to sell them.
On the other hand I've revived an old hobby. I am refurbishing my old HO model railroad layout. I'm also trying to get my head around a new digital control system that I purchased several years ago. Intricate and frustrating that.
And I've taken up a new hobby -- 3D printing. Mostly I am making parts for my other new hobby -- 1/32nd slotcars. That one I picked up when I started racing with the IHSR club a couple years' back.
Okay. I'm done slacking off for now. I have a project for my model railroad out in the garage that needs a little more of my time.
Hope you enjoyed the read.
Ed Bianchi
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