caninelover
Full time employment: Posting here.
Its been awhile since I posted, and technically its been 2 years and 2 months so I'm a bit late posting this update.
ER has been simply amazing. The first year was busy as I married by SO of many years and we took an amazing cruise around the Galapagos. The second year was busy with raising a puppy - we welcomed an 8 week old golden retriever puppy in January 2023. Now that puppy is a nearly grown and wonderfully behaved adult dog and this is the first year I've really relaxed into retirement.
The first two years I still felt the need to be productive and felt time constrained (even though I wasn't). I think it was just all the years of w*rking and meeting deadlines, etc. Now I don't really care if I waste a day or morning doing very little.
I've started dabbling in some volunteer activities. I am a volunteer baker for an organization that provides birthday cakes to at-risk and foster youth. I bake about 2 cakes a month so not too taxing and I get to play around with cake decorating (without having to eat all that sugar!).
I am training our puppy to (hopefully) be a therapy dog so we can volunteer together.
We are planning a trip to Patagonia in November to do the W trek, followed by a 4 day cruise around Tierra del Fuego. We are hiking on the weekends to prepare.
DH is planning to retire in 2 years and after that we plan to buy an RV, take ourselves, our pup, and our two cats on the road for a few months at a time. We did a rental RV in 2020 when our Alaska cruise was cancelled due to the pandemic with our two cats and loved it.
Other than that life is good. I always thought I would try a bunch of new things after I retired but I haven't. Mostly I just enjoy the quiet days when I get to take my pup to the park in the mornings and relax at home the rest of the day - cooking, reading, and just doing whatever.
When I told people I was going to ER at the age of 50 I got many of the typical 'you'll be so bored' responses. Glad I ignored them - one thing I have not felt in 2 years of ER is bored!
Hoping for many more years of good health to enjoy this amazing phase of life
ER has been simply amazing. The first year was busy as I married by SO of many years and we took an amazing cruise around the Galapagos. The second year was busy with raising a puppy - we welcomed an 8 week old golden retriever puppy in January 2023. Now that puppy is a nearly grown and wonderfully behaved adult dog and this is the first year I've really relaxed into retirement.
The first two years I still felt the need to be productive and felt time constrained (even though I wasn't). I think it was just all the years of w*rking and meeting deadlines, etc. Now I don't really care if I waste a day or morning doing very little.
I've started dabbling in some volunteer activities. I am a volunteer baker for an organization that provides birthday cakes to at-risk and foster youth. I bake about 2 cakes a month so not too taxing and I get to play around with cake decorating (without having to eat all that sugar!).
I am training our puppy to (hopefully) be a therapy dog so we can volunteer together.
We are planning a trip to Patagonia in November to do the W trek, followed by a 4 day cruise around Tierra del Fuego. We are hiking on the weekends to prepare.
DH is planning to retire in 2 years and after that we plan to buy an RV, take ourselves, our pup, and our two cats on the road for a few months at a time. We did a rental RV in 2020 when our Alaska cruise was cancelled due to the pandemic with our two cats and loved it.
Other than that life is good. I always thought I would try a bunch of new things after I retired but I haven't. Mostly I just enjoy the quiet days when I get to take my pup to the park in the mornings and relax at home the rest of the day - cooking, reading, and just doing whatever.
When I told people I was going to ER at the age of 50 I got many of the typical 'you'll be so bored' responses. Glad I ignored them - one thing I have not felt in 2 years of ER is bored!
Hoping for many more years of good health to enjoy this amazing phase of life
