Making progress in retirement

My retirement continues to progress rapidly; I am now at the point where I have no idea what day of the week it is at any point in time.  I am guessing that is a good thing because it means I am in a new mode.  On the other hand, I still wake up at 5:00 am with an urge to go to Paneras for coffee.

Retirement means I get to spend more time with my grandchildren and indeed that is a fact.  Recently I took one grandson to lunch, quality time I think they call it these days, but it also gave me an excuse for a dish of chocolate ice cream, as I couldn’t let him eat alone could I?

All this free time has also afforded me the opportunity to make new friends and even learn a new language; Manny is teaching me.

So to all my readers, Olah!

Did you know there is actually a dog that is bigger than a three-story building?  Did I mention he is red, imagine a big red dog.  And, I thought a 90-pound black lab was a big dog.  I am gaining experience with poop bags for the lab, but that big red fellow seems a challenge.

Some of my other new friends include Thomas, Percy, Diesel, Gordon, and Harold.  We meet often for tea and occasionally breakfast.  These guys live on an island so it is tough for them to get here.  Sodor looks like a nice place, but I am worried about its pollution issues, coalmines, an overabundance of steam trains and not one wind farm in sight.

As I mentioned earlier one of my other new friends is Manny, that Manny is quite handy and unlike me fluent in two languages, you can learn I lot from Manny.  Unfortunately, he hangs around with a strange bunch of folks, they are a little screwed up and inclined to throw a wrench into things from time to time. 

Bob is a more down to earth fellow, very industrious, he even volunteers often for Habitat for Humanity.  I was thinking of doing that myself, but after they checked my references, I was banned from going within three blocks of one of their projects.  That is not really fair; today I actually changed the valves on two

radiators without stripping the threads.  I hope this retirement thing isn’t changing me into a stay at home mom.   Bob does hang around with a few strange characters though and I have not been able to warm up to Spud.

Some things never change, I am writing this from my favorite table in the local Paneras, but instead of it being 6:00 am it is 1:30 pm (guess I better buy something to eat before they charge rent for this desk….err table).

Now that I am nearing week three of retirement you can see I am progressing nicely. Inflation is starting to be a worry though, my property taxes are going up $2,000 and my former employer is threatening to take away my prescription drug coverage, oh well, I guess you gotta expect the unexpected.  Being on a fixed income is serious business.

P.S. Don’t get me started on Word World, I am creeped out at those animals made up of letters.

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