I retired!

[DaveH]

After burning myself out for the past 25 years, I am officially retired as of today - April 1st . . . and it's NOT an April fool's joke!

Actually, I haven't been at work all that much since Dec. 21st when I started my "terminal leave!" I had planned out all my accrued leave/personal days and only needed to work 7 more days . . . that is, until a woman I work with suddenly decided she needed to go out on an unexplained "medical leave" about a week after I started all that. I had to cancel my approved/signed off on/scheduled leave and return to work to fill in for her on a number of days. I have my own ideas about why she went out, but suffice it to say, she's back at work now and was never in any danger of any kind.

Even though I worked more days than I had planned, I have worked harder (physically) at home than I ever had to at work. I installed new laminate flooringin my kitchen, breakfast room, and foyer and then went with ceramic tile in a bathroom and the mudroom. We waaaaay overestimated the laminate and have over 250 sq feet on that left! I have been cutting/loading, hauling, splitting and stacking firewood like it's nobody's business and plowing, dragging, fertilizing and everything else that goes along with getting my food plots ready along with my newest (and MUCH larger) garden. This list is only a tiny fraction of what I've been doing. It's brutal and I like it alot! I plan on starting career #2 (as a personal trainer) in late April when I return from my trip to the mountains to hunt the elusive spring turkey!I can't make it on my pension, but the job was taking it's toll stress-wise.

I haven't been online much because this dial-up is a pain and the site is even slower. That was one good thing about work - faster internet! Anyway, I wanted to let y'all know 'cause I'm celebrating!

[PastorJim08]

Congrats. DaveH,

Sounds like you are living the life my own father told me about after he retired. He said after he had been retired for about a year, that he didn't know how he had time for a job before.

Blessings in your new life.....Pastorjim

[Chuck7]

Congrats Dave H
My wife and i feel like we are semi retired..ALl the boys are out of the house..as of this weel..Lyn has had me building shelves and building closet doors..We love living by ourselves..we have a little 2 seat kitchen table and everything..

[Kosherboy]

Hey ! Glad to see you posting again.
Congrats !

[mudhead1s wife]

Conratulations! My aunt (my dad's twin) just retired not to long ago and she decided that she was going to work at a nursery just so she could afford her gardening habit. She has a nice size back yard and she has utilized every square inch of it for gardening. Plus both of her kids live out of state and she likes to go visit them a few times a year, so she can see them and the grandkids. My MIL told us not to dare move away from her because she promises to come for weeks and stay at our house. She doesn't want her grandbabies far away. They get to see them at least once a week and sometimes more because they only live 15 min. away.

I'm glad you're enjoying it and I know what you mean about the dial up that's what we have and sometimes it really stinks but I just can't justisfy spending the extra cash for faster internet. If it were for work it would be one thing but I just have it mainly so I can get ideas for VBS, the retreats and some of those things. It comes in handy when I need info too! Not big on email because so many of them are mass emails, and forwards.

[dabowhunter]

Congrats Dave. Sure don't sound like your going to be bored. So what kind of personal training are you going to be doing?

[etothepii]

Congrats! Twenty-five years seems pretty short! I can retire when I reach 30 years, but I'll probably go 35.

Enjoy!

[Rebel Hog]

Congrat's bro............................................... .............Hey, did you receive the jail pictures I sent you?

[The Rev]

Well Dave I guess the saying is true about retirement:
Retirement is twice as much husband on half as much income.

[DaveH]

I enjoyed ALL the replies! Thanks guys and gals. The new garden I mentioned is a vegetable garden. I used tohave a fairly large one but reduced it in size each year because no one but me wasmaintaining it! I finally said that I resume growing my own vegetables when I retired and could get out in the garden early each morning before it got too hot and could keep up with it - working midnights didn't allow for that. I plan on growing most of what we eat. Lots of veggies in the garden . . . .and clover & buckwheat to be eaten by the deer which - in turn - get eaten by me! I've even been considering getting some chickens for the eggs . . . and for the chicken! I'm not burning wood from my own property, so I've taken care of heating and I've even looked into getting a windmill for the electric - but the cost was a deal breaker. I'm trying to be as self-sufficient as possible.

Now for the questions some of you asked.

Don, I will betraining people physically getting them into better shape, less fat, more muscle, better health, etc. I've been doing this informally for nearly 30 years and then went to the Cooper Institute in Dallas to get my certification since I trained recruits in our academies for the last 8 years.

Eto-our retirement used to be 30 years, but the stress we encounter wasn't allowing some of us to live that long! Our contribution to it went from nothing to 7% about 15- 20 years ago when it was reduced to 25 years and nearly everyone who works there longs for the day when they can retire . . . like I did!

Reb-I got the pics. Those are some big jails. Ours is in a building phase right now & I'm glad I got out when I did! We will probably be coming down your way again sometime this year - maybe we'll get together again.

Bob--you nailed that! I gotta let up . . . a little. I probably will have to temporarily . . . . . I just got back from the Doc and it looks like the tick that I removed gave me Lyme's disease, so that explains why I've been feeling so fatigued this week . . . and I thought it was just my age catching up with me!