Happy double nickel Beth!

Joe got a 58’ TV and we ate pizza and watched Tampa Bay take on the Philly’s in the World Series. What a TV! It’s like being at the drive in.

We went back to WNY for a bit this summer. Wayne decided that gas was too expensive to take the motor home so that meant that we would have to go north in shifts. RC stayed and cared for the animals and Wayne & I took off at the end of May. We have a cottage on a private Lake a few minutes from 6 Flags Darien Lake. We bought the cottage with my in-laws the year Erika was born and we never spent enough time there. It is nice and quiet but I get restless and after 6 weeks I was glad to switch places with RC and head back to The Villages.

One of the things I realized on my trip back to NY was that we were very fortunate to find this alternative lifestyle that we have found in TV. We visited some of our old haunts and I was a little disturbed to see that nothing much had changed. I could have predicted who would have been sitting on which barstools at which local bars. A few of my friends found new jobs, but many were simply marching in place. The same life without the regiment of work would not have been a good thing for me.

No one has mapped out how we boomer retirees should proceed. Never has a generation of people been faced with the possibilities that we have been faced with. It is truly a blessing that we have been given the opportunity to retire young, but with that said, how should we be filling our time? The generation before us saw themselves as work horses defined solely by their work. They planned to work until they were unable, and then die. We, on the other hand, planned, saved, and raced toward the golden ring of retirement, and may face four decades or more of “life after job”.

The beauty of the Villages is the variety of things to do. In our little band, we have all found little niche businesses or part time jobs. One of us has taken a job in retail, one has taken a part time job keeping the facilities at Sumter in tip top shape, one does home repair and we repair snaps and straps on cart covers. We also have a couple of carts that we rent out and that keeps the guys busy enough. I have been threatening to get my Real-estate license again, but I really like this retirement pace. Every one of us has tried something very different from what we did in our past work life.

People work for different reasons. It is very interesting to me to realize that it may be more than the primal need to feed and shelter the pups that drives us to work. I think there is some guilt driving the need to continue to work, as our culture defines our worth by our job, but I seem to be getting over this. In a bad economy, it seems almost selfish to take a job from someone that needs one (or am I rationalizing?).

Again I have to thank the UAW for giving us all the chance to retire with dignity, comfortably, young and healthy.