I know one of those. She does at least have a financial advisor. I don’t understand it. She should be doing great. She did have a lodestone around her neck. Her sister that did not work.
If you saw our men’s club, you’d agree.
I haven’t played chess in probably over 30 years, but I’m not sure I’d have the patience for it now. I also know how to play cribbage. My stepfather taught me when I was a teen. I used to enjoy pinochle, euchre, and canasta, but it’s been even longer for those than for chess. I wouldn’t mind a low-stakes poker game now and then, but nobody here seems interested.
My wife is sort of in a womans ‘club’. I think it’s called 100 women that make a difference. They get together every quarter and everyone donates $100 to the ‘pot’. Then they discuss/debate what charity/organization it should go to and they vote on it. It’s not huge, but it’s a chunk of change.
Politics and religion are two lines that they will not cross. You are not even supposed to talk about it. I think the last donation was Meals on Wheels.
I was burnt out as a school librarian after 20 years. I’d need a bunch of classes to be certified in the Maryland county where I’m now subbing, and I haven’t enjoyed a single class I’ve taken since I finished my Masters in 1991. My pension is a good bit less than I was making, but with the little bit I’m making subbing we’re getting by. I’ve gone from being a school librarian not supported by administration to a sub that every teacher wants when they are out. I get more appreciation from principals now that I have for a decade.
Yup. I was just at a national conference where I did a little teaching. For the next two days, people were grabbing my hands and tearing up as they told me what a wonderful teacher I am and what a difference the 2-hour class had made in their lives. That was… not what I was getting from my university, let us say.
We spent 50+ years backpacking, canoeing, off road camping, and travel trailering all over the Southwest US. There are at least a dozen places I’d give anything to see again but old age issues finally grounded us and at 75 and 80 our travel days are behind us.
Balls.
Anyone who thinks knitting isn’t mentally challenging has never knit.
I was thinking the same, but I guess you can just do it and not even look can you not? Well, say for a one color scarf or something.
But there are so many patterns, and knot types I’m sure.
I enjoy jigsaw puzzles, too. And not in a “i can’t think, I’ll just sit here and watch TV” way, they require more active thought.
(No, that’s not the kind of puzzles my user name is about. But i like jigsaw puzzles as well as more varied mechanical puzzles.)
I retired formally on the last day of 1999. I was three weeks short of 63, but my university was about to change to new actuarial tables and gave us 6 months to retire using the old one. The reason they had to change was that professors were living too long. Hah, I have now been collecting for 26+ years.
For a long time nothing much changed. I still had an office, although five years later they made me move to share it with another retiree. I still had my seminar, although someone else was gradually taking over much of the planning. I still had my research grant, although it was reduced. I was putting the finishing touches on a book that summarized several years of research.
My wife and I traveled some. Two or (mostly) three weeks in Barbados every winter. Lovely place with the friendliest people imaginable. We visited our kids regularly. A collaborator spent 6 weeks here every spring and, along with a third person from another university in Montreal, we wrote and published at least one paper a year. I was also an avid gardener.
Gradually, things changed. The grant ended in 2016. My friend visited for 6 weeks every year anyway, even if I could no longer pay his expenses. Until 2000, pandemic time. He hasn’t come since and now his wife is too ill anyway. No more papers although we do zoom from time to time. Around 2018, I realized I no longer enjoyed gardening. Taking the trash cans down the driveway to the curb became harder and harder, especially when the drive was covered in ice. My wife had to take the laundry down two flights to the washer and dryer in the basement and then schlep the clean clothes up two flights. We came to realize that we would be happier on one level and eventually bought a condo and moved in nearly 7 years ago. Only slight regrets.
Traveling has gotten harder. First our kids strongly recommended we not drive long distance, so we would fly to Boston to visit one of them, take a train to NY for another, while the third, from Seattle has taken to spending a month visiting us. Two months ago he drove us to New London, CT where the Boston son has since moved and our NY daughter drove up and stayed overnight. Even that trip was very hard for us. And we canceled Barbados in 2020 and have never been back. Even that was getting harder every year.
What do I do every day? Read the newspapers and do the puzzles, mostly. Watch the Blue Jays (pretend to) play baseball in season. I still have about 15 recorded games of the World Men’s Curling Championship to watch. As a result of my wife’s increasing dementia I have gradually taken over much of the clothes washing and most of the cooking. It is downhill all the way.
Interesting. I only can’t do puzzles when watching TV when I’m watching a foreign language show with captions on MHz. Some shows are better than others. Antiques Roadshow is great - see the object, than do the puzzle while it is discussed.
Back before Zoom I used to do audio conferences for work when I was home. That was very compatible with puzzle doing. The part of my brain processing the audio is different from the one doing the puzzle.
I agree that it doesn’t use the language part of the brain. But it does use something. I’m much better at them when I’m awake, not exhausted.
Amen, Sister. It’s with crossword puzzles for me.
I’m in the “involuntarily retired” category. I was laid off in November of 2024. I had some phone and video interviews, but no offers (I am / was a software developer). Last week I talked to my finance guy and will be transferring my 401(k) into an IRA (said IRA was created from my last job’s 401(k) – long story). I turn 60 in June. I was at my previous job 17 years and got 34.5 weeks of severance + a pro-rated yearly bonus of 2024 plus 6 months of COBRA. I have not spent all of of my severance yet (I’m pretty frugal)
After crunching the numbers I think I can retire. I stopped looking for a job a month or so ago (after a year+ it was getting frustrating)
I’m not telling anyone – though right now I’m thinking of saying “I’m taking a gap year, maybe will get a part time job” though I probably won’t unless my dream job happens. Maybe volunteer (most likely at a “Friends of State Park”)
Brian