Three years ago today was my last working day. After 42 years at the coalface, I terminated my employment and began my journey into the final frontier; retirement.

The transition was easy, mostly because it occurred at the tail-end of the Covid crisis when I had been working remotely, from home, for nearly three years. I also didn’t have close relationships with co-workers. Sure, we were friendly with each other, but didn’t do things together after work. This had been a problem for my Dad when he retired as his co-workers were also his fishing and hunting buddies.

I’m disappointed, though not really surprised, that I haven’t done all the things I wanted to do by this point. It’s been a period of upheaval as we moved to a new town (not far away) and a into a new house shortly after retirement. And at my age, the process of moving wasn’t an easy one but was made necessary by circumstances.

“We do what we do to get the job done” - Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

It’s been good though and I wish now I would have retired a few years sooner. It probably helps (financially) that we never had notions of traveling the world or anything like that in retirement. I traveled the world (many times) when I was working and I’d be happy to never stand in line to board an airplane ever again.

I enjoy waking up early as I don’t like wasting the day. But some adjustments have been advisable. For instance, when we first moved I was outside walking at 6am, then as the days grew short I complained to someone that I didn’t like going for my morning walk in the dark. She said to me, “well, you’re retired, why don’t you just take your walk a little later in the day?” Hmmm. Somehow that hadn’t occurred to me.

There’s little point in talking about money. Living on a fixed income is different though I’ve spent more generously since retiring than before, a trend that can’t continue indefinitely. But I’m much more aware that any day could be my last and you can’t take it with you. Had I known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself! Now health is a more pressing concern and we spend more time and money on it than before. I’ve reached that age where I can hurt myself just backing out of the driveway - “I turned around to make sure the area was clear and twisted my neck…”

More walking, better eating, fewer sweets, less junk. My 37 year-old kid saw me drinking a Mountain Dew a few weeks ago and said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone over the age of thirty drink one of those” which was pretty sobering. I used to order french fries with my hamburger, now it’s coleslaw or some vegetable side instead. Sometimes it’s not even a hamburger!

There’s been more time for ham radio though looking up and realizing you’ve been in the shack for eight straight hours doesn’t make me feel any better. I want to use retirement to shift my radio time into slots when others are working. The bands are too crowded on weekends so I tend to avoid operating then. I have the time and the money to visit any hamfest on the planet, I just have no urge. I’m going to Dayton in May to attend the DX Dinner and a few other meetings, but I’m not going to the fairgrounds. I’ve lost the hamfest fever. There are still plenty of radio things I want to accomplish, but I’ve quit making lists.

Bottom line, even a bad day of retirement beats a good day of working.