Mirage

Retirement has been great! I want to say that first, before you get the wrong idea. In the two months since I walked away from the treadmill of working for someone else, my mind has drifted back to the office three times. In each case it was because a friend called with a question. Otherwise, I have not missed the daily grind…at all.

Now my plans for retirement included making more time to write, more time to blog, more time on the archery, pistol, and rifle ranges, more time fishing, more time working on and driving my radio-controlled trucks, more time reading, and more time traveling with my wife. That was my plan before I actually retired. But plans are like the waves of heat rising from the sun-baked earth, a mirage. They are never quite what we think they will be.

The reality has been: two weeks of pre-planned medical appointments, landscape work, home repairs, landscape work, repair a utility trailer, landscape work, remove diseased trees and buckthorn (black locust), landscape work, a trip to Iowa, a trip to Chippewa Falls, and some more landscape work. Along the way, I did finish the final chapter revisions of my novel, Snake Rattles and start the second book in the series. I also have been able to squeeze in a new truck build that is almost complete. Almost. Oh, And I did make it over to MN for the Father’s Day traditional archery shoot.

As you can see the work and play balance has been a little lopsided in favor of work. I have learned two very important things. One, at sixty-one and a half, I can still work hard and do the things that need to be done physically. Two, my body takes a bit longer to recover from moving a couple tons of rock than it did when I was twenty-three. Thank you OTC anti-inflammatory products.

The good news is the back log of projects is getting smaller and I’m getting more comfortable with the new schedule. By the way, I have been right for the past forty years, a one-hour nap in the afternoon should be mandatory in the workplace. It improves attitude and performance in every worker in my household. Write your Legislators and demand that they make this a law. Hell, they should be able to fit it into one of those otherwise meaningless multi trillion dollar bills they seem to pass every other month. Oops, I broke my own rule. Sorry.

Anyway, I do enjoy my new situation. I believe the work/play balance will improve and my initial plans will become more of a reality. Like a long-range precision shooter, learning to read the mirage is a key skill to becoming successful. I will watch the waves of my plan and make adjustments as necessary until I feel I have achieved the right mix of want tos and have tos.