I started thinking about retiring a year before it actually happened. I didn’t want to be one of those people who retired without a game plan.
Here’s what I wanted to do. Starting the day AFTER my last day of work I was going to walk a couple of miles every day, learn to play Pickleball, spend more time taking care of my yard/garden, paint my bedroom, clean out closets, travel, join Cemeterians (a local group that goes to various cemeteries to clean and stabilize old headstones), take a cake-decorating class, and go to the shooting range more often.
What I did do the day after I retired was to leave on a 2-3 week road trip with my husband. Since this was the first time taking a road trip with no time constraints, I envisioned taking back roads and actually seeing something besides the scenery flying by at 75 miles per hour. We did NOT take back roads and everything flew by at 75 miles per hour.
The first 8 days were spent in Miami with my son and his family. Their Nanny was on a trip and we were the ‘replacements’. Going home was going to be more leisurely with some stops that I was very excited about.
One stop was going to be two days in Charleston SC because I wanted to see the historic old homes. A guided tour was booked with horse-drawn carriage for the full experience. What I got was checking into our hotel room, a storm warning that prompted the tour company to cancel our tour, and leaving the next morning for my second planned stop. Mount Airy NC.
SO many years of my life has been invested in The Andy Griffith Show that I felt it was my duty as a fan of the show to see Andy’s home town. On the way we saw Pilot Mountain…Mount Pilot in the show. From the minute we drove into Mount Airy, it absolutely felt like home. There’s something about that southern drawl, “yes ma’am, no ma’am,” that makes you feel at home. The people were over-the-top friendly. I found the ‘sheriff’s office’, took pictures sitting at Andy’s desk in the courthouse, saw Emmett’s Fix-It Shop, and the mayor’s office. We stopped at a diner where pictures of the entire cast of the show hung on the walls. To say the least, I was in hog heaven.
From there we headed to Advance NC to visit some friends for one night with plans to head to Memphis for some blues and ribs, and then onto Dyess AR to see the birthplace of Johnny Cash. You see, I was country when country wasn’t cool. After that we were headed home.
We did NOT get to Memphis or Dyess. We left Advance and drove straight through all the way home. There were more storm warnings that we wanted to avoid and we were running out of steam. Johnny’s birthplace will still be there the next time, as will the blues and ribs.
Once I got back home, here’s what I didn’t do…walk a couple of miles every day, paint my bedroom, join Cemeterians, or take a cake-decorating class.
In the last year I have been to Miami every other month for a week to spend time with my son and his family. I also spent three weeks in Kefalonia Greece with family. I’m working two part time jobs…one every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and the other every Monday and Friday morning. The latter one is slowing fading away which is fine with me. Wednesday’s is my day off and is spent trying new recipes. We also wintered in Naples FL this past January and thoroughly enjoyed that. I even went kayaking for the first time with a tour group through the mangroves…and that is now off of my bucket list. On the way home from that trip, we booked the condo again for next January. Being a Type A personality, I have found the adjustment of going from working 40 hours per week to about 20 hours per week much easier than I expected. Little projects around the house have kept me busy also. Some of those projects were necessary and others I simply pulled out of thin air.
What has been on my mind is that this is the last chapter of my life, which sometimes gives me pause that this is actually the last chapter of my life. With that said, it’s time to start thinking about walking those couple of miles every day, continue with Pickleball since I managed to have 2 lessons in Florida, go to the shooting range, and continue to travel. I’m still on the every-other-month rotation in Florida, going to Greece in June (our final time…this will be our 6th time in the last 13 years), and hopefully another road trip out west this fall to Glacier National Park.
In the past year, all of these trips, jobs, adventures, family, friends, and dreams have made me realize just how blessed I am considering that a short 20 years ago I didn’t have two nickels to rub together. My husband and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary this year and he is my biggest cheerleader and support system.
I do not look in the rear view mirror at what could have been, should have been, or would have been. God put eyes in front of our heads to look forward…not backward. We cannot change the past and to be honest, all the good and bad things from my past have made me who I am today. I like who I am. I’m living my best life in this last chapter.
Back to Basics 