Lamar Thames

Sorry I haven’t a lot written lately, but I just have been too busy. I hope you will forgive me.

I know; I know. How can a supposedly “retired” person be too busy to write a column at least once a week? Let me count the ways.

1. At least two days a week, my wife and I are the designated sitters for three of our grandchildren as our daughter works at night. Since I am not currently working that means I cook dinner for all five of us. Of course, I am in charge of dinner for my wife and I two or three other days of the week, too, but the meals for the grandchildren are extra challenging trying to find the proper combination of healthy foods that all of us will eat. Since I am still not very good at meal preparation, it takes me longer  (A LOT LONGER) than most people to, a. choose a menu; b. buy the groceries; and  c. actually do the cooking. Time allotment: four hours, or one day a week. (Retirees don’t work eight-hour days, remember.)

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Lamar Thames

A friend of mine once said that growing old is not for sissies. She was absolutely right, as I am rapidly finding out; too rapidly it seems.

There is another part of aging that I am not all that fond of either — retirement. It is not exactly what I had in mind when I signed up for it. (Of course, some would say that I really didn’t have a choice in the matter, but that is another story.)

I envisioned retirement to be a leisurely endeavor with lots of golf, travel and enjoyment. I am not going to tell you that there is not a lot of enjoyment because there is, but golf and travel? Uh huh. Just not happening, man.

Oh, I have played an occasional round but it is not the twice-per-week frequency that I had imagined. Finances, of course, play a part of it, but there is a bigger issue — there is just so much darn work to do. You know what I mean?

The first thing I did when I “retired” (aka, when I was no longer given the option of drawing a paycheck) was fire my yard maintenance company. At a cost of more than $100 a month, it was an expense that both my wife and I knew we didn’t need. Especially when I was able to do the work myself. Back in November, it seemed like a slam dunk. I mean, what was there to do? Mow the lawn once a month, and rake a few leaves here and there? But now that spring has sprung and things are actually GROWING, it is a far different deal. Hey, there is something to do in the yard EVERY day. I trimmed the hedges just last week and they already need it again. I am getting tired of it. Read the rest of this entry »

      It has only been a month, but I am already getting tired of this thing called “retirement.” I don’t know if I want to do it for the rest of my life.
     Of course, it is not exactly my idea of how retirement was supposed to work. I envisioned picking a day a few years in the future and saying, “That will be the date when I want to retire.” And it would be in conjunction with my wife’s retirement.
       I was planning on paying off the two cars my wife and I drive, putting a few more bucks safely away in our IRAs and doing some of the home repairs that are starting to surface around the old homestead. It is 15 years old, after all. Read the rest of this entry »

      I am now in the third week of my status as a “retired” newspaper editor. I put retired in quote marks because I don’t want anyone (especially, the unemployment office) to get the idea that I am not interested in future job opportunities, because I am.

   I just know that it is going to be difficult for me to find a position with the current state of the economy, my age and my occupation. There just are not that many demands for older weekly newspaper editors in Clay County. Or Northeast Florida for that matter.

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Sent to me by a dear friend. Thanks, Annette:

Many of us over 50, WAY over 50, or on the way to 50 are
quite confused about how we should present ourselves. We’re
unsure about the kind of image we are projecting and whether or not we are correct as we try to conform to current fashions. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi, folks. Since I am new at being “retired,” I thought I would ask you for some advice. I am already learning how to cut expenses while living on a fixed income, but if any of you have any tips for me, I’d appreciate it. Actually, I have always lived on a fixed income (fixed by how much my employer has been willing to pay me) but it is more fixed now. As in zilch, nada, zero. Read the rest of this entry »

I didn’t write this but it is just too funny to pass up. Yesterday I was buying a large bag of dog food for Rusty the wonder dog at a local discount store and was about to check out. A woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

(Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the world to think of crazy things to say.)

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