I can only imagine...
Prime example!I can only imagine...
I was a bit later than Dennis. The wife and I both retired together on June 30, 2014. Within two weeks, we had packed up the RV and headed out on our adventures. Took those two weeks to get to Colorado Springs and spent 20 months in that area so the wife could have "sister time" with her two sisters. Then, 17 months in Oregon, followed by 9 months in Utah. Lots of pictures taken in those years.
Now, we've got a Summer work gig that lets us get paid for driving around different states doing road condition surveys. Yes, we went back to work, but both in 2019 and 2020, we only put in about 3 months of working. However, how can one call it "working" when one is getting to see new things every day.
Been back in Oklahoma now since July of 2018, but still getting in travel and picture taking.
I'm here to tell you that retirement is a real killer.
Now, we've got a Summer work gig that lets us get paid for driving around different states doing road condition surveys. Yes, we went back to work, but both in 2019 and 2020, we only put in about 3 months of working. However, how can one call it "working" when one is getting to see new things every day.
Been back in Oklahoma now since July of 2018, but still getting in travel and picture taking.
I'm here to tell you that retirement is a real killer.
For the record, wife and I called and talked to Terry and his wife before purchasing our first rig for advice.
I was ready to pull the trigger but wife needed opinions from those already on the road.
We kept their knowledge in our minds moving forward.
Thank you guys[emoji106][emoji106]
I was ready to pull the trigger but wife needed opinions from those already on the road.
We kept their knowledge in our minds moving forward.
Thank you guys[emoji106][emoji106]
Yeppers. You are welcome. It was also a blessing that we got to meet you at the Claremore "eat and greet" where we also toured the J.M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum. However, I don't remember your wife being there. If she wasn't, that is one we need to rectify.
Retirement. What a ride!
I was working overseas at the time. I had a deadline coming up in a couple weeks to submit paper work for an extension of another two years in my position. Wife and I had been discussing retiring or extending. I had been working on an extension memo and a retirement application. But we had not made a decision.
Got a call from the boss in the US. He spent an hour ripping me up one side and down the other about how we were not doing our job right. At the end of the conversation he told me he wanted my extension memo. I told him the wife and I were discussing it and I would have it in by the deadline. He said he wanted it now, Close of business. I hung up the phone, opened my brief case and pulled out the extension memo and the retirement application. Since it was afternoon where I was- COB was in 20 minutes, it was still morning back in the states. I was forced into making an important decision immediately. So I signed the retirement papers and dropped them in the FAX to the retirement office and sent my boss a CC, and went home.
10 o'clock that night, afternoon in the states, I got a phone call at home from my boss all upset, telling me all the problems I had created for him to find a replacement for me on short notice. He actually asked me to retract my retirement app. Ha!
I retired March 2008.
We came back to the the US and drove around places we had lived or thought we would like to live and finally settled in Montana. We loved the open country and the hunting up there. We even liked the winters.
I had been retired a couple of months and was a lost soul. I puttered and piddled around a bit and was moping around the wife annoying her when she said, "Find something to do, or I will find something for you!".
The neighbor was a wheat farmer and he took me on for harvest. He put me in a swather and drove me up and down the field for a one pass showing me how operate the machine. He got out, pointed out across the prairie and said there is 25,000 acres out there, when you are finished let me know, and I will put you in the grain truck behind the combine.
Been busy ever since.
We did the RV trip one time. Didn't know how to do it right. Didn't have the right equipment. Truck broke down. The Wife died on that trip.
I stumbled around as a widower for a while. I put on Victorian Rifleman Gathering's in Pennsylvania and Montana. I also did a Cannon shot in Montana. I went back to college for a semester. Then I decided to take on a contractors job in Afghanistan. Did that for a year.
On one of my R&R's from Afghanistan, I travelled to Paris, France and meet an Okie gal-married her 11 months later. There is story for the Hallmark Love story channel. We tried to travel back and forth between the two places. OK-MT for a while , but the 1500 mile separation was to much. I sold the Montana house and moved to Edmond.
Our life in Edmond is hectic. We have schedule book to keep track of all our activities. Something we often ponder is when did we ever have time for a J-O-B.
All during my working career I was told to put away money for retirement, and I did. When I retired I was surprised how much we had. When I was saving no one ever said what you used it for after retirement. After retirement, at first I was frugal and we used it for things like a new roof on the house or added insulation in the attic. I didn't want to take too much out. My late wife had been a stay at home mom and later a stay at home wife. She had social security, but no other pension income. My pension was our sole retirement income. When I passed she would still get a pension, but reduced. I wanted to hang on to as much of the retirement nest egg as possible for her to have it after I was gone. When she passed I wasn't sure what to do with the money.
The Okie gal has her own income, I have mine and that makes us comfortable. We have traveled to 35 states putting over 125,000 mile on our two vehicles, mostly on my pickup. We have also travelled to 14 countries. My nest egg money makes that possible for me now.
For the past 11 months we have been isolating. For a retired couple with reasonably good health it has been hard. But it is amazing how many little projects that were left undone around here, are now getting done.
One of the new obligations I took on in retirement is to make sure the dogs get there nap-every day at 1 o'clock. Tough job but it must be done.
So there is my story. To sum it up, retirement is not for the weak or timid. When you are retired, you no longer get weekends and holidays off, no vacation time or sick leave. Every day is a retirement day. You must show up-unless you get a job or die, and I have no intention of doing either one of those anytime soon.
I was working overseas at the time. I had a deadline coming up in a couple weeks to submit paper work for an extension of another two years in my position. Wife and I had been discussing retiring or extending. I had been working on an extension memo and a retirement application. But we had not made a decision.
Got a call from the boss in the US. He spent an hour ripping me up one side and down the other about how we were not doing our job right. At the end of the conversation he told me he wanted my extension memo. I told him the wife and I were discussing it and I would have it in by the deadline. He said he wanted it now, Close of business. I hung up the phone, opened my brief case and pulled out the extension memo and the retirement application. Since it was afternoon where I was- COB was in 20 minutes, it was still morning back in the states. I was forced into making an important decision immediately. So I signed the retirement papers and dropped them in the FAX to the retirement office and sent my boss a CC, and went home.
10 o'clock that night, afternoon in the states, I got a phone call at home from my boss all upset, telling me all the problems I had created for him to find a replacement for me on short notice. He actually asked me to retract my retirement app. Ha!
I retired March 2008.
We came back to the the US and drove around places we had lived or thought we would like to live and finally settled in Montana. We loved the open country and the hunting up there. We even liked the winters.
I had been retired a couple of months and was a lost soul. I puttered and piddled around a bit and was moping around the wife annoying her when she said, "Find something to do, or I will find something for you!".
The neighbor was a wheat farmer and he took me on for harvest. He put me in a swather and drove me up and down the field for a one pass showing me how operate the machine. He got out, pointed out across the prairie and said there is 25,000 acres out there, when you are finished let me know, and I will put you in the grain truck behind the combine.
Been busy ever since.
We did the RV trip one time. Didn't know how to do it right. Didn't have the right equipment. Truck broke down. The Wife died on that trip.
I stumbled around as a widower for a while. I put on Victorian Rifleman Gathering's in Pennsylvania and Montana. I also did a Cannon shot in Montana. I went back to college for a semester. Then I decided to take on a contractors job in Afghanistan. Did that for a year.
On one of my R&R's from Afghanistan, I travelled to Paris, France and meet an Okie gal-married her 11 months later. There is story for the Hallmark Love story channel. We tried to travel back and forth between the two places. OK-MT for a while , but the 1500 mile separation was to much. I sold the Montana house and moved to Edmond.
Our life in Edmond is hectic. We have schedule book to keep track of all our activities. Something we often ponder is when did we ever have time for a J-O-B.
All during my working career I was told to put away money for retirement, and I did. When I retired I was surprised how much we had. When I was saving no one ever said what you used it for after retirement. After retirement, at first I was frugal and we used it for things like a new roof on the house or added insulation in the attic. I didn't want to take too much out. My late wife had been a stay at home mom and later a stay at home wife. She had social security, but no other pension income. My pension was our sole retirement income. When I passed she would still get a pension, but reduced. I wanted to hang on to as much of the retirement nest egg as possible for her to have it after I was gone. When she passed I wasn't sure what to do with the money.
The Okie gal has her own income, I have mine and that makes us comfortable. We have traveled to 35 states putting over 125,000 mile on our two vehicles, mostly on my pickup. We have also travelled to 14 countries. My nest egg money makes that possible for me now.
For the past 11 months we have been isolating. For a retired couple with reasonably good health it has been hard. But it is amazing how many little projects that were left undone around here, are now getting done.
One of the new obligations I took on in retirement is to make sure the dogs get there nap-every day at 1 o'clock. Tough job but it must be done.
So there is my story. To sum it up, retirement is not for the weak or timid. When you are retired, you no longer get weekends and holidays off, no vacation time or sick leave. Every day is a retirement day. You must show up-unless you get a job or die, and I have no intention of doing either one of those anytime soon.
Costs too much. I’d have to find then buy full auto fun I could mount on it.Ya can put some of 'em in the deuce and a half you'll need to pull a RV full of gun safes, ammo, mags, etc...
She wasn't there. She has basically zero interest in most museums. I spend way too much time looking at the displays and trying to absorb the history of each for her liking.
She wasn't there. She has basically zero interest in most museums. I spend way too much time looking at the displays and trying to absorb the history of each for her liking.
I think I'm ready to tour that museum again! Think I'd start it in reverse order from last time. By the time I'd gotten to the last cases, my eyes were glassed over from the 'overload'.
.
I retired in 2016 and couldn't go back to work due to a pending divorce. Unless I wanted to pay spousal support for the rest of my life anyway... It was the longest year of my life. I couldn't wait to be able to go back to work. The first month was great though.
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