Notes from retirement

This is my first blog on notes from retirement. My inspiration came from the recent issue of Time Magazine's Person of the Year issue, the one with my picture on the cover.

With all the attention given to "successful" retirement my the many financial institutions, the various government and corporate sponsored reitrement plans, and articles in newspapers and magazines, I thought it would be of interest to those still working and saving for retirement to get a glimpse of what retirement is really like from one who has been retired for several years, i.e., a professional retiree. I hope my experiences and observations will both interest and benefit those whose path through life will eventually find its way to a rewarding retirement. I look on retirement not as an end point but as a time of immense opportunity to do things that seemed out of the question while we were working and raising a family. I like to think of it as a period of fresh air, open vistas, new experiences, but, unfortunately, depression, illness, loss of friends and family are also integral to retirement.

One obvious aspect of retirement is the opportunity for travel. Most of my life I poo-pooed the idea of getting a motorhome. They were for fat old men who took too long to get to where they were going. Well, guess what, a year ago I got one, 36 foot long, a challenge to drive. It is a plethera of systems and gadgets to learn, maintain and operate. But, it provides lots of material to write about as well as opportunities to see new places and meet new and interesting people. I don't intend this to be a blog about rving, but to tell about rving as part of retirement.