retirement – The Hermits' Rest

Book Report: How the Hell Did I Not Know That?

I needed some light and humorous reading this week, so I picked up this book to read before bedtime rather than the depressing memoir I’m reading at other times of the day. How the Hell Did I Not Know That: My midlife year from couch to curiosity, by Lucie Frost, certainly provided me with laughs and gave me other things to think about than cults of personality and so on.

One of my friends from when my kids were younger recommended the book, and I believe most everything this friend says, so I bought it. Lucie Frost lives in San Antonio and is an actual Native Texan (who lived in Mexico for some time as a child, so also speaks Spanish). She is also sort of foul-mouthed in an endearing way, so if you don’t like curse words in your books, skip this one.

The idea here is that Frost retired early, in her 50s, then didn’t know what to do with herself. She came up with the idea of trying to learn new things to get herself to stop bingeing on reality television and wine. Spoiler: she got better.

The fun of the book is going along with Frost’s journey of knowledge, in which she freely admits to being ignorant about things many people know about, but also bravely provides a peek at how her mind functions in coming up with questions to ask. She has a pretty funny mind. My favorite of her discoveries is what the balls for different ball sports were made of when the sports were invented. Hint: animals.

While this may not be the most well-written book on earth, it’s quite entertaining and worth spending some pre-snooze time on. Since she and I have much in common spiritually and philosophically, I probably got more out of the book than some folks I know. But if you’re “a person like Suna,” you can get a good chuckle or two from Frost’s stories, and you’ll heartily agree with her conclusions that by keeping your senses open to new things and living in the world with a curious mindset, you’ll feel a lot better.

Example of Vicki’s extremely cute Sheltie puppies. Don’t tell Lee his hair is thinning.

Let me know if this was too controversial and I’ll try harder next time. I’m now limiting Facebook/Instagram posts to cute little animals, except for blog links, which mostly will be cute little animals and book reviews for the near future.

Talk Me Out of This

Oh my. Just as I was getting to think I was going to be okay with not working for a living, I got one of those LinkedIn job recruitment deals. Usually those are fake. I did respond to one a few weeks ago but I literally couldn’t understand what the recruiter said and never heard back after my initial resume (I think I know why now).

Yes, I’m embarrassed I couldn’t understand someone speaking a different dialect of English.

Today, though, the letter was refreshingly friendly and contained details about the job. I may have gotten a solicitation about the same job yesterday, but it was so vague I ignored it. This job is another of those “made for me” positions doing pretty much what I did at Dell.

This is also what I do well, photography of tiny bugs on flowers.

Even though I’m not sure I want to work again, I did do an initial chat with the recruiter. Then I answered their 6 screening questions because well, I love writing about the software I used to support, and I love helping people succeed at managing projects with that weird but powerful product. I went ahead and gave the company some caveats I figured out at that last job. At least I could help a little even if I don’t take a job there.

Anyway, they started sending me all these emails about benefits and 401Ks. It’s sounding pretty serious and fast moving. And I’d make more money. I’ve already got my Medicare, too. No need for other insurance.

I will miss finding these guys if I’m in the house all day again.

Do I want this? Another year of meetings and job aids and individual help sessions? Working on Pacific Time? No time for horses?

Not being able to dress like this every day?

Talk me out of going back to work for a year. Please. Money isn’t everything. Lack of stress is so heavenly.

So Far, Retiring Is Heavy on the “Tiring” Part

And that’s good, really! I just hope not all future days are quite this busy, because I’m tired! I can really come up with things to do given the opportunity. Let’s see what this hermit got up to today.

A big dog with a yummy stick is a highlight of any day.

In the morning I went to our beautiful local bakery to meet with the folks who helped Lee get his Medicare supplement so I could get mine. They are pretty funny folks, and the poor wife can get confused, but I got something reasonable from a reputable company, plus a sticky bun.

When we finished, I had an hour before my usual friends’ lunch. So, since I hadn’t talked to Anita in over a month, I dropped by her house. We had a nice chat, just our normal conversation between two people who know each other very well. I need to have relaxed conversations more. I don’t have to explain what I mean when I talk to her. She knows my biases and idiosyncrasies so dang well.

Old but good photo. Anita and I have also stuck through a lot. Still are.

After our talk, I went to lunch. It was a small group, but we had so much fun. One member shared some of her late mother’s jewelry and it was like we were little kids trying the various quirky and beautiful items on. It was so kind of her to share her mother’s taste and personality with us.

Two items I got were these incredible handmade scarf slides. Both have snakes on them. I can’t wait to wear them with my Western clothing.

After lunch, I drove out to the place my phone always thinks I live, Burlington, a very small community north of here. I went to visit with some folks who are clients of a relative of ours. We supposedly had things in common.

For example, we both like rough-leafed dogwood.

That turned out to be very true, and I had a fine time with the woman I met looking at the plants on the property where camp and are adding a storage building. We talked about birds, photography, native plants, and other similar interests. Then she asked me what I did for my job, and when I said technical writing she burst out laughing because she’s also one. Ha!

I left all the fun plants and many migrating monarchs and was able to rest a half hour or so before heading out to Tarrin’s training facility again, this time with Sara and the lovely Jhayati, who is almost two years old now.

Glamour shot. I got to groom her, and you know how I love a thick tail. Hers has gray in it, like her face. She’ll eventually be all gray.

It was a special day, so I went along to take photos of Jhayati’s first experience with saddling. So exciting for us all! Sara and Tarrin have prepared the filly very well, and as a result, she handled the saddle well.

They practiced the saddle falling off, too, to teach her to stop and look if someone or something falls off. That’s good safety! I learned a lot about how to get a horse off to a good start.

Jhayati did very well walking and trotting with the saddle on, though I think she got a bit tired.

Finally, she got to jump a little (not too much, since she is still growing). I enjoyed watching how well Sara handled her and how you could see the concentration in Jhayati’s eyes.

In the end, she even walked back to the trailer like a good princess. I was so impressed. Even the continued dust and wind didn’t phase her.

I’ll sure miss those two when they move to the new farm in Wisconsin. If you want to follow their new venture, here’s a link to the blog.

By the time I got home and did all my horse stuff, it was time for dinner. Whew. I didn’t even have the energy to crochet much! I’m pretty sure tomorrow will have fewer trips and visits.

Today Was Pretend Retirement Day

How do you want to retire?

I doubt my retirement will differ much from my working years. I’m not particularly interested in not working on something, so maybe I’ll just do something more in line with my hobbies and not 40 hours a week.

There WILL be travel. I do not tire of this view coming into the area where we are staying.

If I were retired, I’d still be active and running around looking for birds, like I did today. I’d spend even more time with the horses and go around traveling, too, long as I have a horse sitter.

Lesser Goldfinch, from a distance. Retired me will learn to use a real camera.

I’ll probably drive Lee bonkers just like today, when I disappeared into a nature preserve and didn’t realize he couldn’t track me or that I had taken the car keys. I felt awful about that.

This sign shows how many birds have been found at the Bubbling ponds preserve.

BUT I found a hidden Audubon Society trail next to a fishery and made Lee take me in there. It was really something!

The trail goes through undisturbed land covered in native vegetation, which the builders have kindly labeled. I wish I could have stayed longer. As it is, I heard or saw five new birds, on top of two I found near the condo.

*Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Northern Waterthrush
Bridled Titmouse
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Mexican Duck
Phainopepla (condo) (looks like a solid black Cardinal with red eyes)
Black-throated Sparrow (condo)

There was even a family of Mexican ducks, which do live up here.

I was so excited that I lost track of time. Plus there were squirrels and a sweet deer.

I’ll have to go back before I leave, and to the nearby wetland preserve. These are in an area called Page Creek, where there are lots of wineries. In total, today I saw or heard 38 birds!

Here’s the back of a Northern Waterthrush.

It’s no Antelope Canyon, but with all the fruit trees and native plants, I sure did better with birds today. Retired me will look for these hidden gems.

My Next Challenge

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

The next six months bring a lot of challenges. There’s no way to avoid changes at the macro and micro level. My main one will be to decide whether to retire or keep working. If I retire, my income goes way down, so I’ll have to change a lot. If I keep working, I’ll still be dealing with changes made by the company where I work.

I guess the good thing about being a “senior citizen” is that whatever happens, the consequences won’t last too long, because neither will you. Ha ha. Elder humor. And yes, I do realize I could drag on another 30 or more years. I plan to be ancient.

My fingernails will keep me alive by being so loud.

Today was fine, other than human beings disappointing me (vandalism at the nearby cemetery and getting a weird email from the city saying the Red House on Fannin had been reported for…something).

I saw the first bluebonnets on our road, had a nice ride on Apache, and enjoyed the moon for the second evening in a row. Lee and I watched it rise while we sat by the pool discussing our challenges.

Tomorrow should be fun, so I’ll just leave it there.