Retired Guys
- Thread starter JMerc2
- Start date
TJC, I was simply saying that my dad, like you would read a lot of news and spend a lot of time watching Fox News. Your online news consumption is clear based on the number of threads you start with links to and you have mentioned your affinity for FNC (Megyn Kelly in particular) on multiple occasions.
OK, HCTC. Sorry if I misinterpreted your post. I actually only watch Fox & Friends while I get off to my usual slow start for the day drinking coffee and having breakfast. And, I try to watch Neil Cavuto if I'm home in the afternoon.
Don't see any ill will from HCTC. It's good to stay informed - but I do think it's better to read up on history as opposed to stressing yourself out with cable news. To each their own though - if that's what gets you rolling in the morning then roll with it.
My father in law retired from full time work 3 years ago. He took a part time job with a security company, which soon turned into 30-40 hours a week. He retired from that gig on January 23rd. Hurray for him! A big family celebration is planned for the end of February! But the man needs to keep busy & the weather is shitty...so he went back to work there on Monday. Only 2 or 3 days a week, he says. Only until the spring, he says. Not sure my mother in law is buying that.
This obsession with work in old age is something that I don't fully comprehend. If it's a money thing and you just can't afford to retire, I get it. But I think it's more than that. Nobody in my family is retired (parents in their 50's and grandparents all dead), but I've heard that a lot of it comes down to "feeling useful." Hey man, sorry that you need to feel useful, but there are unemployed people with young families who actually need those jobs way more than you need to feel useful.
One thing that I'm looking forward to in retirement is the ability to pursue random interests. For example, I don't know the first thing about gardening. One spring, I could just decide "hey, I'm going to learn how to garden." I could spend all day on the internet reading about how to do it, going to garden stores, planning/setting up my garden, and maybe in a year or two enter some sort of competition (assuming they have those). Just, on a whim, becoming an expert on something. Maybe the next year I could set up my own aquarium. A few months after that, build a model train set in my basement. None of these things are of particular interest to me now, but if I was retired and had all the time in the world? Who knows. Maybe I'd buy an old boat, sail around the coast for a little, and then sell the thing next year before it turns into too much of a money pit. Learn how to cook mexican food. A few paint scuffs in my hallway from when the grandkids came over? Spend some random Monday repainting it a new color. Wax the car. Pick up birdwatching. Learn to identify every tree in my neighborhood. Get a telescope and take a look at Saturn. Go to a weekend golf school and finally figure out how to get some bite on my pitch shots.
None of these things is particularly expensive or physically demanding (except maybe the boat), but with the time to actually learn new things I can see how they can be fulfilling. I can't fathom how anyone can choose to work if they have the means to not be working. The world is too damn cool to sit in an office all day.
Villanova U, I'm not sure it's as much about feeling useless as it is about feeling productive. My mother lived until she was 89 and was healthy until she was 85. Before she got sick she always had something going on. I asked her why she did all the stuff she did and just didn't sit back and take life easy. She told me that her activities kept her "young." I didn't understand that back then but I do now. There's all kinds of things you can volunteer to do that not only keep you "young" but can provide the satisfaction of helping others.
I hear ya, Villanova U.
To my father in law's credit, over the past 3 years he did take a lot of time off to travel. My in-laws have been to Alaska, Hawaii, across the Great Plains. etc. since my mother in law retired 2 years ago. Going to Ireland this fall. Has a ton of hobbies too.
A lot of it comes down to whether you like your work. He does, and he travels only 3 miles to get there. I think his biggest mistake was retiring in the middle of winter.
To my father in law's credit, over the past 3 years he did take a lot of time off to travel. My in-laws have been to Alaska, Hawaii, across the Great Plains. etc. since my mother in law retired 2 years ago. Going to Ireland this fall. Has a ton of hobbies too.
A lot of it comes down to whether you like your work. He does, and he travels only 3 miles to get there. I think his biggest mistake was retiring in the middle of winter.
tjc--I chuckled when you mentioned volunteering, because in his 9 day "retirement", he spent 2 days doing fix-it projects at his town's firehouse/ambulance corps. Got to keep busy.