September 4, 2007 - My first official day of retirement.

September 4, 2007 - My first official day of retirement.

 

Though I retired in June of 2007, that summer found me with a wrenching computer job that I offered to do for an adult student/friend of mine. The result being that I couldn't declare myself fully retired until I submitted final invoices for, as they say in the business, “services rendered.” I didn't bill like I would have billed Exxon-Mobile Oil, but instead charged a rate that was on par with what one gets for mowing lawns. In all I felt it was fair - remember landscapers make a good buck these days. So I was happy that I did the job, that I finished, that it worked (I hope) and I was grateful for the money. 

Now (September) I begin my official retirement, the retirement about which so many people asked, “Have you got something to keep yourself busy?”

                     I Have Lots to Do

I certainly think so. For starters there is daughter Ashley and her three kids with whom I estimate 10 hours per week as an official babysitter / personal assistant. No invoices submitted there. 

 

Add to that another 10 hours with her family when, by choice, I seek out their company because a thought pops into my head that I miss them, like this morning when I got out of bed at 8 AM and raced the four miles up the road to the Florham Park Dunkin Doughnuts so I could meet the family for coffee at 8:20, after Ash drops Emma(5) at school.

 

 Of course there’s plenty of other stuff to be done - there is house maintenance, cleaning, vacuuming, the annual dusting requirement (ha, ha), straightening up my own house, a three BR Cape, such as picking up piles of  “stuff” left about from the day (or month) before.  

 

There’s yard maintenance (mowing, raking, planting, weeding, trimming etc.), plus recycling – sorting bottles and cans and newspapers and cardboard, opening and tossing junk mail (regular and email), exercise at the gym or outdoors, brushing teeth and other personal maintenance functions, eating meals, and of course shopping for food, a little reading here and there (I read lots, but don't always finish books.) My most recent completed book, “Truth and Beauty,” by Ann Pachett, read that some months ago, this year, I believe. 

 

Oh, and I do genealogy too and I created a website called "townscrapbook.com" for my hometown of Warwick, NY. Both of those things I have promised to do more of after retirement. And I write as a hobby so I often tell my kids when their assignments overwhelm me. “Ash,” I say, “I’d love to help you out but remember - I’m a novelist, I have work to do.”  It brings a chuckle, but seldom releases me from duty - but then, I wouldn't want it to. 

                   
                           Mornings at Quickcheck

Every morning I buy a 95 cent cup of coffee at QuickCheck and read the newspaper. That usually takes an hour and is most pleasurable. Why, I am unsure. Is it the coffee addiction or the newspaper addiction or just that I now have endless "free" days? Finally, I proceed to one or more of the items mentioned at the beginning of this piece. Regardless, I honestly do feel very relaxed now like I cannot remember feeling, since “who knows when.” Part of the reason is that the temptation to procrastinate does not seem half as sinful. After all I no longer have work pressures like pressing course preparation. I can always do, what I need to do, tomorrow. I’ve got forever. Obviously, at times, the finite nature of life escapes me. 

 

I get the feeling that will change. 

                     
                            Even the Sun Will Retire

Read yesterday that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old. It’s got 5 billion more years to go before the sun explodes into a “red giant” and sucks up Mercury, Venus and most likely earth, but not the planets beyond earth. Earth, itself, is on the cusp, but it doesn’t take a seer to see that the good old earth will have seen better days. Among other things, the oceans will boil, making earth inhabitable to say the least. 

 

So none of us have forever.

                           Celebrating Retirement at the Beach 

Last year, this time, Labor Day (2006), I was at the NJ shore, on the boardwalk. It was early evening, a perfect day but for the knot in my stomach that related to my classes beginning the next day. I shouted to daughter Ash, that next year we were going to come down again on Labor Day, drink a beer and look at the ocean and reflect on the blessings of not having to worry about class preparation for beginning school the following morning - which is what we did yesterday (next year now, 2007) – more or less.

                          That's Enough Sun
After a few hours at the beach in Point Pleasant we moved the picture perfect moment to the porch of a seaside restaurant in Atlantic Highlands. I ordered a draft of Sam Adams, Ash got a white wine and Tom a … something that I never heard of, with rum and lots of limes. We leaned back, brought guarded smiles to our lips.

 

It was perhaps a minute later that Eddie (age 3) lofted his cloth napkin over the railing into the water. Various reprimands were offered – not good restaurant behavior, ocean pollution, and the possible killing of fish or birds that might try to eat the napkin. Eddie offered no defense. He assumed a guilty, not listening, posture.  

 

Johnny (1.5) was surveying the toys placed before him (knife, fork, spoon, sugar packets, salt shaker etc) and asked (a high pitched Yiiiieee! is the bulk of his current vocabulary) for one specific toy. We offered a sugar packet but he issued a few more Yiiieees so we handed over the spoon, whereupon we discovered that a one year old really can make a large exciting (for him) racket banging a spoon on a table. Actually, we knew that. We were having no luck finding a suitable toy so we decided that removing Johnny from the table, in shifts, was the best solution. Each adult got ten minutes or so away from the table. As the honored retiree I got to go third. In the meantime I surveyed the water and the drawbridge that stretched over the Sandy Hook inlet. I kept one eye on Eddie who was now standing on his chair leaning over the railing, ostensibly looking for his napkin. A chorus of “No no’s,” were directed his way, along with one “you don’t stand on chairs in restaurants.”     

My turn for recess supervision with Johnny. I decide to venture some 30 feet out onto the dock clutching his wrist and pointing out a variety of educational items – wa-wa (water), boat, rope, birdy etc – when the drawbridge starts to open. I hurry back to the table.

“Wanted to watch the drawbridge and drink a beer,” I offer apologetically to my co-workers. We all take a sip of our drinks. Ash gets up to do her shift with Johnny.

                         What's that You're Drinking?

I lean back. “What’s that you’re drinking?” I say to Tom.

“Caipirinha,” he says.

“Huh?”

“Caipirinha.”

 

“Hrrumph, never heard of it,” I say. He looks at me as if I might be kidding. I wasn’t. Screwdrivers, Seven & Seven, Tom Collins, Slo Gin Fiz,, Whiskey Sour and Scotch and Soda, were the drinks I knew. The new drinks made me think of a lot of new things that I’m going to avoid or simply not bother to learn, namely iPods, DSs, Blackberries, Blue Ray to name a few. I’m sorry to say that I gave in to a cell phone. I lived, fine, for so long without one, why would I need one? “So I can get you,” Ashley informed me, so I relented.  

The drawbridge went up – then down. Our dinners went down too – hurriedly - and we headed for the car and the ride home on the Parkway. I expected a standstill traffic jam, but we sailed home at 6 PM on Labor Day Monday. Perfect end to a perfect day.

                         September 17, 2007 - two weeks later

 

Not much has happened as far as my new retirement life is concerned. Halfway into September already and I’ve yet to settle in to a new life.

For a long time now I have tried, with little success, to develop a routine that would one day take on a life of its own, something that would both inspire and propel me toward what I could think of as achievement, eventually becoming automatic-pilot-like, in other words, (key word here) effortless. Now that I’ve retired maybe I can do it. Anyway I think I’ve got the start of it pretty much down – that would be the effortless part -  coffee and newspaper.

It’s Monday morning, a week after Labor Day and I’m in the Quick Check lot with coffee and the newspaper opened. My cell phone rings.

“Can you come over? One fish in the aquarium is eating the other fish, he’s already k-i-l-l-e-d two (the word "killed" is a no-no, must be spelled). The kids are hysterical, I’ve got to take Emma to school. Can you go and buy another tank so we can separate them? Quickly”

This, I’m thinking, might be the best of what I’ll get as far as the achievement part of a new life is concerned. It is, and though not exactly effortless, my response is kind of automatic, or propelled.   

 

I eventually complete the task: come over, watch kids, buy another tank, separate the fish. Done.