Retirement, Simple Living, and Me
I wanted to update everyone on the life of a retired early childhood educator, beginning blogger, and lover of hound dogs. Having time to do the things I want to do has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. While retirement from full time work has given me time to read, write, travel, and walk my hound dogs, it has also provided me with many opportunities to turn my brain to complete mush.
How you might ask? Let me count the ways.
Let's start with You Tube. While I, of course, was familiar with it and had watched some music videos, etc in the past, nothing compares to the mind numbing amount of things I now watch.
As you may know, I am all into simple living, tiny houses, and minimalism. You would not believe the amount of videos on just those three subjects! Never mind the number of music videos and now my latest watch, Sister Pooh.
Now let me just say that I have no intention of throwing Sister Pooh under the bus, because the lady has some very important things to say. She covers safety topics, for example, "don''t go in the ocean because that's the shark's house and there is a good chance you will get "ate up" and health topics such as the use of the "courtesy flush" and putting on "powders" to stay fresh. Fair warning, she talks a lot about meat, since she claims to be in the "meat ministry", so vegetarians might be offended. Just wanted you to know.
The other big time killer for me is going to various websites to plan trips. In every article I have read about retirement, and I have read several, invariably there are those people who say they plan "to travel the world" after they retire. Really? Have they forgotten they are going to be old and possibly disoriented most of the time following working for 40 some odd years?
But, putting that aside, I have planned trips to Quebec City, Maine, San Francisco, Yosemite, France, Scotland, and I have even gone so far as to throw in a trip to Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. You can find really good deals on that one!
I would be remiss if I didn't mention HGTV in all of this. But then I have to ask, who among you does not watch HGTV until you drop? Just go out in public and say "Chip and Joanna" and watch people get all starry eyed and that will answer that question.
My two favorites are Tiny House Hunters and House Hunters International. When they say, "could you live in a tiny house?" I want to jump up and shout "yes, I could". And I probably could for about a week. After that, my back would be "out" from climbing up and down to the loft, which, by the way, always looks so inviting, and I would probably be disenchanted with the composting toilet as well.
Now, House Hunters International is another story all together. I especially love the episodes in Europe. I can actually picture my self in every single country that has been featured. My only question is: when they say they can only spend X amount of dollars and not a penny more, why do they invariably go with the property that is "just a little above", as in twice the amount, of that number? Also, it might be a little more realistic if they ever mentioned that it's not as easy or glamorous as it looks. Like for instance, it's hard to believe that all there is to do is walk around the quaint streets eating massive amounts of food, usually, large sticky buns or chocolate in some form, and discussing those three "great" properties. These would be the same properties they just bad mouthed for the last 30 minutes. But that is neither here nor there. I still love the show!
And I have saved the best for last. Of course I must speak about, ( drums beating ), Facebook. For years my daughters have been trying to get me to join FB so I could "keep up" with the family. So, I finally bit the bullet. After all I have nothing but time now that I have retired, right?
Well, it started out fine and sure enough I have been able to keep up with family and friends. I have learned about vacation trips, birthday events, and first days of high school and college. I have also learned about vacations, birthdays, and "firsts" for the children of friends and of a friend who has a friend that has another friend who wants to be a friend of that other person's friend and all the other friends in the whole world. Now, I'm not knocking it because I have actually seen some pretty cute kids and I wish them all well in their endeavors. I'm just wondering, am I the only person who says, "who the heck are these people?"
I'll end with some quotes about retirement.
" I'm now as free as the breeze--with roughly the same income." Gene Perrett
"The money is no better in retirement but the hours are." Anonymous
"There is never enough time to do all the nothing you want." Bill Watterson- Calvin and Hobbes
That's it for now.
Check back again!
Comments and questions always welcome!
How you might ask? Let me count the ways.
Let's start with You Tube. While I, of course, was familiar with it and had watched some music videos, etc in the past, nothing compares to the mind numbing amount of things I now watch.
As you may know, I am all into simple living, tiny houses, and minimalism. You would not believe the amount of videos on just those three subjects! Never mind the number of music videos and now my latest watch, Sister Pooh.
Now let me just say that I have no intention of throwing Sister Pooh under the bus, because the lady has some very important things to say. She covers safety topics, for example, "don''t go in the ocean because that's the shark's house and there is a good chance you will get "ate up" and health topics such as the use of the "courtesy flush" and putting on "powders" to stay fresh. Fair warning, she talks a lot about meat, since she claims to be in the "meat ministry", so vegetarians might be offended. Just wanted you to know.
The other big time killer for me is going to various websites to plan trips. In every article I have read about retirement, and I have read several, invariably there are those people who say they plan "to travel the world" after they retire. Really? Have they forgotten they are going to be old and possibly disoriented most of the time following working for 40 some odd years?
But, putting that aside, I have planned trips to Quebec City, Maine, San Francisco, Yosemite, France, Scotland, and I have even gone so far as to throw in a trip to Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. You can find really good deals on that one!
I would be remiss if I didn't mention HGTV in all of this. But then I have to ask, who among you does not watch HGTV until you drop? Just go out in public and say "Chip and Joanna" and watch people get all starry eyed and that will answer that question.
My two favorites are Tiny House Hunters and House Hunters International. When they say, "could you live in a tiny house?" I want to jump up and shout "yes, I could". And I probably could for about a week. After that, my back would be "out" from climbing up and down to the loft, which, by the way, always looks so inviting, and I would probably be disenchanted with the composting toilet as well.
Now, House Hunters International is another story all together. I especially love the episodes in Europe. I can actually picture my self in every single country that has been featured. My only question is: when they say they can only spend X amount of dollars and not a penny more, why do they invariably go with the property that is "just a little above", as in twice the amount, of that number? Also, it might be a little more realistic if they ever mentioned that it's not as easy or glamorous as it looks. Like for instance, it's hard to believe that all there is to do is walk around the quaint streets eating massive amounts of food, usually, large sticky buns or chocolate in some form, and discussing those three "great" properties. These would be the same properties they just bad mouthed for the last 30 minutes. But that is neither here nor there. I still love the show!
And I have saved the best for last. Of course I must speak about, ( drums beating ), Facebook. For years my daughters have been trying to get me to join FB so I could "keep up" with the family. So, I finally bit the bullet. After all I have nothing but time now that I have retired, right?
Well, it started out fine and sure enough I have been able to keep up with family and friends. I have learned about vacation trips, birthday events, and first days of high school and college. I have also learned about vacations, birthdays, and "firsts" for the children of friends and of a friend who has a friend that has another friend who wants to be a friend of that other person's friend and all the other friends in the whole world. Now, I'm not knocking it because I have actually seen some pretty cute kids and I wish them all well in their endeavors. I'm just wondering, am I the only person who says, "who the heck are these people?"
I'll end with some quotes about retirement.
" I'm now as free as the breeze--with roughly the same income." Gene Perrett
"The money is no better in retirement but the hours are." Anonymous
"There is never enough time to do all the nothing you want." Bill Watterson- Calvin and Hobbes
That's it for now.
Check back again!
Comments and questions always welcome!
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