It’s true that when you don’t have any time, you tend to get more done. Granted most of it consists of doing things that you don’t “want” to do, but have to get done, but you definitely get “more” done. The lure of retirement is that you’ll have “more” time to do the things that you want to do. I haven’t really found that to be the case. The image posted above, retired dude leisurely playing golf, has NOT been my experience.

Add to that, it’s dawned on me that for all of my now self-imposed daily requirements about writing, the one thing I want to do, I generally haven’t been writing about how I’m actually doing or feeling or the non-news things that I’m thinking about. I find that kind of funny given that the vast majority of my writing going back to the 1970s has been more of the “dear diary” sort than anything else. That’s not to say that I don’t impose myself into my frequent posts, it’s just that most of what I’ve been writing has been more “journalistic” than personal reflection. Weird. So that makes this post a little attempt towards an actual “what’s going on” post.

For example, on Thursday I found out that my social security application had been approved. I should also be getting my first check from my teachers’ retirement in little over a week. And I found out this past week that I have a retirement fund from my 15-years with the phone company that I didn’t know about. So between these three funds I’m more hopeful that I’ll make ends meet. It’ll be a far cry from what I made the last couple years teaching (which I should have saved or invested more of…), but it’s too late to fret about that. So, I guess I’m really retired. Weird. 

It’s all an experiment and we’ll see how things go. I’m going to pull my name from all the job searches and focus on building my post-teaching writing experiments. I still want to do a book or books, but definitely have a thing about working on my website. Still trying to find that balance between news stories that pop up in my feeds and the long form stuff that I want to do. And if I find that I can’t pay the bills than I’ll try un-retiring… 

I do find it annoying that my place seems to be in constant need of repair and or long neglected maintenance. I finally replaced some lights in the kitchen only to discover a leak under/near the sink that went undetected (in the darkness). Ack. Fix one thing, then find additional problems. I hope I don’t have to resort to getting a plumber. The other two sinks (in the bathrooms) are showing signs of needing repair too. Ugh. Adulting is no fun! Damn.