Wednesday

It has rained all day today except for two short walks with Toby.

We’ve all gone a bit stir crazy. When you live next to a place (St. Petersburg & Clearwater) that holds the Guinness record for most consecutive days of sunshine (768), you get a bit resentful of a day-long rain event (almost 2 inches so far). We’re spoiled, I know.

We didn’t get to see much of the outdoors today.

We tried really hard to keep Toby engaged in positive behavior. He overwhelmed us several times and had to spend time in his crate. There was no fetching and only shorts walks. He had to pee in a downpour twice. Cold rain on a puppy is like touching a live wire: sparks will fly as he zooms around the house trying to get warm.

Above, is a licking pad filled with baby food and frozen in the freezer. We got 10 precious minutes of peace from that.

He’s exhausted now and sleeping.

Being cooped us does give one time to reflect.

Today is my one year retirement anniversary.  Retirement experts say that most people can be happy in retirement for two years; it’s after that when some get bored and have regrets leaving the workplace. They say there are only so many golf games and tennis games you can play. They also say that retirement is not like a vacation and many folks expect it to be.

If the experts are correct, I have another year to wait before I can judge my retirement fully.

But I can make some preliminary conclusions:

I think people whose identity is wrapped up in their career have more trouble adjusting to retirement. The college changed so much that I no longer found fulfillment in what I did. I was not reluctant to leave; I wanted to leave. The main problem was that academics for many of those in administrative positions became secondary to other agendas.

A successful retirement requires something to retire to. For me, that meant relocating to a place with a better climate for outdoor fun. Living in the same place where you used to work would only emphasize what was missing, at least for me. I’ve never worked in Florida, so work has never been a part of my routine here. I’ve only been a kid here (moved to NC at 13) and vacationed here, so, for me, Florida has always been a place of fun and little responsibility.

Supposedly, retirement is not supposed to be like a vacation, according to the experts, but I’ve found that it is. (Maybe my vacations weren’t extravagant enough?) Sure, there are mundane moments where you have to focus on home repairs, taxes, yard work, doctor visits that you don’t have to do on vacations, but those things can be fun, too. (For example, I ride my bike to the dentist, and last December, I rode my bike for my annual physical.) Outside of those mundane duties, there’s plenty of time to do whatever you want, whenever you want, and that’s what vacations are like. It helps that there are so many things to do here.

Most important is to have someone to spend retirement with whom you really enjoy being with. John is smart, resourceful, kind, fiercely devoted to me and Toby, and endlessly amusing. We’ve spent a lot of time planning and imagining what our retirement would be like, and so far, we have not been disappointed.

Miles walked: 5

Miles biked: 0