I Love Retirement

Return Path To The House In The Upper Left Corner

I love doing nothing or anything that I choose to do. It is a huge pleasure to be away from the life of a job that turned into nothing but days full of meetings and enough Power Point slide presentations that make me hate the words "Power Point". There is nothing I miss about working. Sad to say, but not even the people. I no longer have the "blues" on Sunday nights and most of the time my iPhone has to show me what day it is because I lose track of the days.

I will admit the days go by extremely fast being retired.

I had no doubts that I would enjoy retirement when I was trying to decide the past year on what to do, but I did think at times I might have second thoughts about the decision but only for financial reasons. A "workaholic" friend of mine that retired a couple of years before me, told me in March 2014 that "You will miss the income but you'll love the freedom you have everyday". Just a day shy of 3 months since my last day at work, I agree with part of his comment.

I haven't really thought about the difference in income because I haven't noticed it. Before leaving work I adjusted my budget, sold some assets and basically the "net" income is about the same because I decreased debt. I also made some adjustments in areas of what I bought on impulse and the number of times I go out to eat. It wasn't hard to do. I do agree with what he said about the new found freedom. There is nothing better.

Since I am basically a 'homebody' I have also noticed that I am spending much less than anticipated in gasoline. Since not doing even a short 25 mile round trip to work 20 times per month, that has made a difference in the gas expense.

So I must say I am very happy with the new freedom I have. I do not miss one thing about my past work experience. Zip, nada.

After my big burst of motivation over the weekend and getting a few things done, I spent Monday recovering some slight soreness and watched one thunderstorm after another. I did a lot of reading but like I mentioned before I am only reading one book at a time. Tuesday was another day of passing thunderstorms but by Tuesday night it was nice, low humidity and temps in the mid-70's. It has really been a nice mild spring and summer in the "tropics" of southern Indiana. I've been kicking back these last three days.

I've had my satellite internet for a couple of weeks now. It is as fast as advertised. It also has NOT dropped offline even during the storms. I didn't think it would but after reading various reviews online by customers you would have thought there was not any kind of a chance to have good consistent and fast internet service with a satellite dish. Maybe it's my location, who knows but at least at this address I would have to give Exede Satellite Internet Service an A+.

I've had my Verizon cell phone service the same amount of time. It's the little things I like about Verizon after being an AT&T customer for 15 years or more. Two things come to mind in the differences between service where I am located (rural area). One is better customer service over the phone or on their online chats. In fact there is no comparison. Verizon customer service wins going away. Second, my calls are much more clear and a stronger signal. Having that stronger signal is strange because in the middle of the second field behind my house is one large AT&T tower.

I am also happy that I did not wait and spend more money than I needed to for the iPhone 6. It will be a nice new toy from what I have read but all I really want is a phone, some email, texting and a little internet but not much. Verizon gave me 10Gb's for their basic plan where AT&T have me 3Gb for data. I rarely came close to that 3Gb's. The extra can be used if i ever get close to the monthly 15Gb allowance on the Exede internet per month.

It has also been a few weeks since I decided AGAIN that I would not do any major traveling over a period of months with 3 hounds and 2 hands. I've had the same response as I did in the past when I made similar decisions. That response being, a feeling of contentment, happy where I am and enjoying things I had forgot about in the daily routines.

I am finding out it's ok if I spend all day and night, look back on it and realize I didn't do a damn thing that day. Much like the lives of my 3 hounds. I can come and go as I please, take siesta's if needed, wash my Mini Cooper now and then, mow the yard once per week and have some ice tea while I see my old comrades flying to work at a high rate of speed on the highway in front of my house that is a 100' down the hill.

My Cincinnati Reds have snuck back near the top of the division, only 3.5 games out of first. Their starting pitching is strong but their lack of a bench may be their downfall by the end of October. Just as in past years, I have noticed anytime I turn them on tv bad things happen. They don't win a lot of the games I watch on tv, so if I see they have the lead online I am hesitant to turn on the tv in the last 3 innings for fear that "I" would be the cause of them losing their lead. Other Red's fans on Twitter state they have the same illness, so it's just not me that had the black cloud hanging over them while watching Reds baseball.

College football is less than 60 days away and Pro football will soon follow a few weeks later. I love those two sports  but it will be interesting to see if my diet goes back to chips, salsa, sandwiches and Pepsi once those games are on my tv screen. I hope not, I want to keep the weight I have lost .. off.

I'm big into watching the Tour de France. Not only the racing but the viewing of the different European landscapes and towns is fantastic from the air. They show the race live every morning but I usually catch the tape at noon. Unless you have raced or know bike racing it is hard to watch. It looks like there are just a bunch of men riding a bike through the country side, when there is so much more going on and at a high rate of speed, 35-50mph. So that will keep me occupied for the next 3 weeks as it does every year at this time.

The hounds are good. Heidi is battling her normal allergy rash where it is bad enough for monthly shots. This month I decided enough is enough. I don't like shooting that many meds into my hounds so i have found a organic supplement from Dinovite.com that I am optimistic about after 6 days of use. I am hoping this organic supplement eliminate the needed allergy shots.

Winston is battling older age and hot weather. He walks are slower than slow, one paw at a time. I've been letting him walk off the leash and as he falls behind us, he is smart enough to break off at the 1/2 way point and then head up the path that we will be returning on. Wagging his tail as the bloodhound, the other basset and I walk down the slight decline. The photo of that path is the background photo of my Google+ account. He seems in great shape but has that lower back flares up at times where its hard for him to get up a couple of steps into the house.

Sadie is just Sadie ... nothing bothers her and she is in a world of her own. She has been more demanding though for a late night session of fetch inside, with her 3 different Kong Balls. She will actually bring the ball back to me and has never been taught how to fetch. When she is done with the fetching, she is soon fast asleep in the deep snoring state for the rest of the night.

Retirement life is good ... and I also do NOT watch the news ... can't do anything about it and it only tics me off when I do watch a couple of minutes of it.

Heading out for the daily hound walk.