I'm coming up on the two-month anniversary of my retirement tomorrow. I've done about five freelance projects during that time and turned down one, and other than that my days have been made up mostly of trips to the coffee shop, followed by naps and trips to the pizza place.
I used to buy a lot of books, but that has tapered off, and I think I've bought two during the last 60 days. But I have read and reread (yet again) Wen-Tzu, D.T. Suzuki and Shunryu Suzuki and Seung Sahn, and I still read almost every day. There are a few books out there I still want to read, but the bookstores seem farther away than they used to be. Maybe I'll order them online so I don't have to go to Borders or B&N.
I seem to have fallen off the 'no-call' list, so my home phone rings almost every day with out-of-state calls that I assume are people wanting to sell me stuff or donate money to something.
I have a friend who, after her retirement a few years ago, became almost a complete recluse. I am beginning to understand how that happened. My house is the right size for me, but it's a little small to stay cooped up in all the time. If it were a little larger and more favorably situated, I'd be less motivated to go to the coffee shop or the pizza place every day.
I've begun to retire from thinking as well. I'd always heard warnings about how retired people lose their faculties because they don't have any intellectual challenges. I don't have any and I don't want any. I kind of like not having to think, now that I've tried it.
A couple of my friends have remarked that I seem to have visibly slowed down over the past two months. I think this may be more the result of being loaded up with antihistamines all the time because of fall allergies, and that I'll perk back up again in a few more weeks.
Maybe.
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