Tuesday – six month mark for retiring at 58 with planning and saving for over 30 years. Showered and put on long pants before 0830 – and for crying out loud it wasn’t even Sunday! I thought about shaving, but that is for corporate hacks. Dress up (with a really nice t-shirt and sneakers) was to see a Fidelity Rep to ensure we would not be eating cat food in our 70’s. (DW said cat food is far too expensive – it would have to be dog food.)
Our Fidelity ‘guy’ wore a blue suit with white shirt and red tie, held our hands and in solemn tones said that we would not have to eat cat food at 70 or live under a bridge in a box at 80 because we had planned well and saved. Dog food dinners always remain a remote possibility in a black swan event. Andy is about 32 years young and we are old enough to be his parents. Nice guy, but he probably has more experience receiving allowance from mom and dad than working for wages.
To celebrate a future without cat food, we stopped at a high falutin furniture store on the island for ideas when we win the lottery. Next stop was at the Salvation Army where we dropped of a bazillion old table cloths and bed sheets. Some of these were old enough to have been purchased with S&H Green Stamps. Then we went to Publix and actually bought several steaks and laundry detergent (on sale). DW commented on what a fun date I was.
A neighbor cornered us after the Publix registers and challenged me to take DW on a lunch date; challenge accepted. The Citrus Grill café on the beach with blue sky and pounding surf was a perfect setting. Turkey bacon sandwich and Salmon on rye accompanied by Pino Grigio were great meals. There, DW found and chatted up an old acquaintance and compared the lives of our respective adult children. Back home, DW buckled down and did work for the church. I am so proud of her ministry work.
On the other end of the morality scale, I fortified myself with a rum and coke and plunged into the solar heated pool to repair an underwater light fixture (and pondered how friends and family north of the Mason Dixon Line were fairing this winter). Downing another rum and coke, it was time for the power tool portion of the show. As a sobriety test, I successfully sorted the recyclable trash to ensure that I would not cut off opposable thumbs with the demolition saw that the wife in chief gave me for Christmas. Passing the test, I cut the suction pipe of the pool pump in order to double whammy wrap the pump inlet threads with Teflon tape and stop an air ingress leak.
Back in the kitchen, DW was making delicious chicken burritos. My culinary contribution was to shred the chicken, using a pair of forks after failing to see a safe way to employ the demolition saw. A late dinner with some TV preceded my snoring.
Yes – With a little luck, advanced planning and saving, retired life does not suck at all.
