Retirement

What I’ve learned in retirement:

-Even “young” retirees like we are lose track of the day of the week and the date.  There’s really no reason (usually) to remember them, they are all like a weekend, only the TV shows are different.

-Hearing aid batteries last a lot longer.  By the time you get up (maybe an hour later than you did before), read the paper, do the Sudoku/Word Jumble/Crossword puzzles, and go for a walk; it’s at least 2-3 hours later than you use to put your hearing aids in.  Multiple that by 7 days and you gain at least an extra day of battery life (these little batteries are not the cheapest things in the world!).

-Being a grandparent is wonderful.  You get all of the fun and enjoyment of parenthood without any of the heavy duty responsibility and angst.

-Pay attention to where you are in the time zone.  If you are on the western edge and enjoying a nice, lovely, long daylight evening before taking off early the next day for a long travel day; recognize that this means it will be dark later the morning!  Closing up and hitching up a 5^th wheel in the dark (Pat used his cell phone as a flashlight) is NOT fun.

-Even in retirement; you are the same people.  The first thing Pat & I did when we headed off for two days of touring the Black Hills of South Dakota (Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Badlands, and Wall’s Drug Store) was go to a cemetery where some of my ancestors are buried!  I assume the town was larger 120 years ago (no stores, no people, no post office now); however, it’s always sort of awesome to stand where you know your ancestors stood at one time.  And, we now know what people mean about the prairie wind.  It didn’t feel that windy to us; but the silence was so absolute that you could hear the wind:  constant, non-stop.  I really like wind; but I think that could drive me batty.

-Remember, Canada is a foreign country:  your cell phone plan does not apply there.