Boomer Reflects on First Three Months of Retirement

It's now been a little over three months since I retired.  I figure it's time to report to the world (or at least my 14 followers) how it's going.  First and most importantly, I'm loving being retired.  I particularly like sleeping until I'm ready to get up.  No alarm!

My first goal was to start exercising and lose some weight.  I am happy to report I have lost ten pounds which is just about the amount of weight I gained last year.  And I've gotten at least an hour of exercise almost every day of the week for the past 3 months.   My new exercise goal is to get arms like the Terminator Lady, Sarah what's her name, aka Linda what's her name.   (At 55 I'm afraid my memory for names is pretty much gone.)

My next goal was not to watch too much TV.  You see I like TV but recognize that it is very easy to get sucked into sitting on the couch all night.   Am doing pretty well here.  I allow myself a few guilty pleasures, like Dancing With the Stars and Modern Family.  And I watch Glee on Hulu.com.   No daytime TV except what I see while walking on the treadmill at the gym.  Speaking of daytime TV, what's the deal with the Real Housewives from xxx (insert city)?  It's just spoiled women behaving badly.   Whatever happened to good old fashioned game shows?  

Goal three was to do a little volunteering but not get too wrapped up in anything for now.  Want to keep my summer open.  Darling Daughter was quite worried about this one, but I think she's gotten over it.  So far I've just collected admission fees at a few SW High School band concerts.   Still doing a bit here and there for the Environment Committee for the neighborhood, but resisted the call to serve on the neighborhood board.  

Goal four was to reconnect with friends.  Just getting started here.  Got more lunches to schedule.

Things I haven't done yet?  Still haven't gotten started on decluttering the house.  Cleaned out a couple of closets but that's about it.  Haven't really tackled anything big.  But, we're in the midst of a kitchen remodel and I figure that's a big enough mess for now.    I haven't set up my "project" space where all my partially done and yet to be done crafty projects will live.  Got to declutter first.   Still have a million computer based projects to do but they keep getting deprioritized.  

I've put off until the fall the beginning of my post-work education.  Piano, voice, dance, photography and a million other fun sounding things are possibilities.   But next fall seems early enough to make those commitments.

Darling Daughter and Hubby seem to be adjusting to my greater household presence.  I'm learning to keep a distance from Hubby when he begins to growl his responses to my questions.   And I'm learning to just do my own thing which is just fine with him.

The days fill up quickly.   Time has not slowed down.   I'm just happy that I spend it here at home.

Boomer Ponders the Value of Cleaning

In my opinion, my house is an absolute mess.    We are redoing the kitchen so there's a constant presence of dusty footprints, a constant settling of dust on the furniture and a constant smell from having to put the cat's litter pans in the dining room while the entrance to the basement is blocked.    I've taken to walking through the house with a dust cloth in my hand.  And I've bought every kind of kitty litter odor fighter on the market in addition to a few air freshener aids.    My Darling Daughter (aka Teen) believes I'm obsessive about cleaning.

This observation, unfortunately, is very inaccurate.  I am not a neat person.  Up until the kitchen redo, pulling out the vacuum cleaner more than once a month was rare.    Last week I finally got on my hands and knees and cleaned the bathroom floor.  I have no recollection of when I did that last.

The Darling Daughter observation came on the heels of my vacuuming in HER room.   I have been advised by many, including DD herself, to stay clear of a teen's room.   Her idea of cleaning is picking clothes off the floor and dumping them into the hamper.  And most of the time, I'm okay with that.    But once in awhile my inner "mom" comes out and I just have to get the vacuum cleaner going.

I remember my mom as a vacuuming crazy lady.  We (meaning brothers and dad) would be watching TV on a Saturday and next thing you know...vroom, vroom.  There goes mom vacuuming in front of the TV.  We'd all groan and complain, but she'd keep at it until she was done.    I recall a time when she was so aggravated with me about my room that she dragged me into my bedroom to give me a lesson in how to make my bed.  To this day I always make sure I'm doing "hospital corners" on the sheets.  A lesson given in anger sticks I suppose.   My friends remember how nice and neat she kept things.  So compared to my mom, I fall far short of obsessive cleanliness.

My mom and I do share the same attitude about cleaning up for company.  Company creates both obligation and motivation.   My Hubby and Darling Daughter do not share in this feeling, particularly when the company is related, so shake their head when I start ranting and raving about the condition of the house.  Their philosophy is "it's family...family doesn't care about those things."  My philosophy is that a clean house is a sign of respect for your guests.  And I appreciate entering a clean house when I am invited to their place.   But here's why I'm not obsessive about it.  It's clean when they arrive, but I don't spend time cleaning up behind everyone throughout the visit.    I do like to enjoy my visitors.

As proof of my non-obsessiveness, it's Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and I've not touched a surface in this house.    But I do need to get the Teen out of bed sometime soon.  A little Vroom, vroom should work.