Well, it's hard to believe that I am sitting here writing this. Like my co-worker said the day I told him I was quitting, "I never thought you would actually do it."
Wednesday of the first week, I caught my self saying "Well half way to the weekend." The thought might still creep into my mind even now.
I've not had a problem keeping busy. In fact, I am starting to feel like I traded a five day work week for a seven day work week. When people told me that it would be like "Every day is Saturday", I did not realize that they meant 10 hours of cleaning the house and working in the yard. I imagine I will eventually run out of things to catch up on or realize that I can relax once in a while. I am actually taking a break here and there already.
There was one thread that asked "What did you do when they tried to talk you into staying longer?" In my case, the trigger for quitting was being made responsible for an impossible project due in December. When I told my boss I was giving one month notice, he said "Why don't you stay until December?" No exaggeration, my response was a very loud and immediate (over the phone) "NO". I think he was a bit shocked.
So far I have no regrets, despite walking away from a pretty good paycheck at age 59. My main beef was that they were "squeezing blood from a stone" by running our group super lean and not investing in staff hiring or development. They opened three position requisitions for medium level staff to replace me and tried to spin it as really making an investment. However, they did not put in a dime above what they had been paying me and from what I hear they stalled the process and now have a "hiring freeze." Blood from a stone . . .
Each week other than the first, I have had one lunch per week with some of the people from work. These were nice and it was said that these should continue every month or so. I have limited it to one or two people at a time so we can talk. It is nice to get out but I imagine this will wind down. No one ever invited me to do anything after work in the 15 years I was there, so why would they start now? I hope it continues, but we shall see.
During the last few months at work I had been eating way to much ice cream, plus buying lunch out (way to large portions) and gained about 20 pounds. My goal is to focus on my health and get back in shape. I have been doing a lot of walking and go as far as 4 miles at a time now. I bought "Super Feet" insoles for all of my boots and shoes. That really helped because I seem to have high arches and needed the extra support.
I am starting a body weight training program based on a book called "Convict Conditioning." This program will have me doing four exercises: push up, leg lift, squat and pull up. The starting plan is to do two on Monday and two on Thursday, so I won't be over doing it. Each exercise has 10 formats that start out easy and let you work up. This allows you to concentrate on correct form and avoid pushing too hard and forcing more reps but with poor form. I am looking forward to building up some muscle.
As I mentioned earlier, I am spending a lot of time reclaiming my yard, which had become overgrown by pricker bushes, weeds and poison ivy. I got the septic tank pumped and will get the driveway sealed once I finish chopping back the weeks on the edge of it. I have a lot of chopped wood, so I will either learn how to clean my chimney or have the guy come so I can burn wood this winter and save on oil (even though it is relatively cheap now).
Well if any of you stayed awake to the end of this, thanks for reading.
Thanks for all the inspiration this forum has given me over the years. I don't think I would be FIRE'd today had I not found this place several years ago.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I seem stuck in penny pinching mode. Although I had done rough annual expense summaries, I am now trying to record every single dollar - at least for a few months. I am also trying to expand my planning spreadsheets and to look for recurring expenses that I can trim down, like cable and cell phone plans.
I am probably going overboard on this, and I hope that I can get used to spending money again. I don't think I will enjoy 30 or more years of pinching every penny. I don't like caviar, but I suppose I could acquire a taste for it. I did for scotch
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