Retirement – Year 5

Starting Year 6

I’m busier than I could ever have imagined. However I wasn’t expecting that being retired would mean that I would find myself just being tired.

After 5 years I have a daily routine. Some morning writing, solving the daily Worldle, a Tai Chi class in Temple, a walk with Carl Toko through the Smithville Cemetery. We check to see if our names are on the stones and if not, it is a good day. I do the family cooking so I spend some time planning meals and shopping. After that I make an effort to get rid of all the clutter and decide it is beyond my capabilities. Also I’m too tired.

My Bucket List

This is something I would never consider. No Bucket list for me.  I do have some goals. Play more music, take more photos, travel to new places. But realistically life keep throwing you curves. Did anyone expect the disruptions of COVID? Imagine how the people of Ukraine are having their lives disrupted. Phooey on a Bucket List. Just try to be a good person and enjoy the ride. As Jim Morrison said No One Here Gets Out Alive.

New Ipswich Historical Society

I’m privileged to live in a town with a lot of historical sites that haven’t been bulldozed into strip malls. I’m spending a lot of time pouring over old photographs and writing a daily newsletter for the New Ipswich Historical Society and feeling like I’m living in the early twentieth century. It was simpler back then but you died of common diseases and there was no internet.

Photography

Photography remains one of my principal passions and having no time restraints of a job has been the great blessing of retirement. My goal (not a Bucket List item) is to take at least one photo a day. It may not be a Pulitzer prize moment but it will be a frozen moment of time.

Prayers, Weapons and Aid for Ukraine

I am a baby boomer, born after WWII. I never expected that the black and white footage from that time would appear in full color on my screen. It is pure evil. We need to do everything to help this nation.