Tag: Retirement

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

First Day of School All Over Again

Chocolate Castles8 Comments

It has happened, Randy has gone back to work. Today was his first day and it was very hard to see him walk away from the car.  I felt like I was 30 again, dropping off my first baby at school.  Yes, I cried. After all, we have been together pretty much 24/7 for 5 years now and it was like, “oh my goodness” who will I talk to? Who will run to the store for me when I am cooking and realize that I’m out of sugar? Who will help me carry up groceries to our home? Who will vacuum? Who will sit on rainy cold days and watch A Place to Call Home with me?

As you can tell, it is still all about me. When he received the letter on Thursday that he was to come to work today, we had tears of joy and just stared at it. What? Is this really happening? Will people think that I nagged him so much that he just couldn’t take it anymore?  Will he be so tired at night that he won’t want to talk to me?  As I sit and write this, I realized that it really is all about me. Let me start with some thoughts about him, so I won’t completely sound spoiled rotten.

First of all, he was excited as a monkey finding a bowl of bananas.  He kept telling me, “you are going to miss me tomorrow”, which I would reply, “oh goodness no, I’m free now to go to lunch with friends and shop and go get my nails done.” All the things that I would feel guilty for doing when he was at home. He has never ever complained about anything I wanted to go do or anytime I was gone, it was just my silly guilty feelings of knowing that he was at home while I was out having lunch or spending money.

Young folks think that is silly Im sure, but we were just raised in a different generation that we didn’t live such separate lives from our spouses as many do today.  When we were first married, I remember telling Randy that I would just never think of spending more than $50 without telling him first. He did the same of me. We didn’t think anything about it. We didn’t have girls nights out or go on vacation with friends. Times were different.

But today, as I was loading the dishwasher and folding clothes and cooking, it was kinda nice to have my kitchen back to myself…..WHAT AM I SAYING?????? IT WAS GREAT, DOUBLE GREAT , TRIPLE GREAT ,TO HAVE MY KITCHEN BACK TO MYSELF!!!!!!!!!!! I actually removed the yellow tape from down the middle of the kitchen that he knew not to cross when I was baking. Today I didn’t have to “redo” stacking the dishes in the dishwasher. With him not here to sit and talk to, I have done 3 loads of laundry, already made a huge dent in dinner prep and dusted. Talked on phone and changed the sheets on both beds.  Why is that? Why do we get more done when the hubbies are not here? I don’t have the answer. If you do, please write and tell me.

Our conversation over the last few days has been about  how it took us 2 years for both of us to accept his retirement. Then the 3rd year, we threw away the divorce attorneys number that we had been keeping beside the phone.  We began to speak to each other again, well other than, “GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN and GO FIND SOMETHING TO DO and “no, I don’t want to go to Home Depot with you”. We  kinda got in the groove of a new routine of him being home and both of us moving and settling in  Arizona. After that 4th year, we both knew that we wanted to settle back in Texas and we had a common goal…….selling our house there and traveling for 6 months before settling down back in Dallas. When you travel, it is so easy to be together  all day, every day, so we really got in the hang of him being home and “helping” me around the house. We have been back in Dallas now since July and Randy has been asking the Lord to give him more of a purpose, other than finding the best deal on vacuum cleaner bags. Thanks to Randy’s brother mentioning Randy’s name to the company he works for, Randy received a phone call last week offering him this job. So we have been out trying to find another car for him to drive to work since we have been a one car couple for these last 5 years.  Because, as Mr. Retirement had pointed out, “why do we need two cars when we will be doing EVERYTHING together?” Our search began last week with Randy telling me that he just wanted a car to drive back and forth to work in. So we had a budget we were going to stick to. After 2 or 3 days and looking at some of the cars that he had found, we (well, me) started to think that maybe if we bought a little cuter car than what he was looking at, wouldn’t it be fun for me to have this little cute car to run around town in while our old car could sit in the parking lot at his work. After all, why should he have the new cute car just sitting there in a parking lot, when I could look so spiffy running around meeting friends for lunch in the new car that I have already named (even though we haven’t bought one yet) .

We did find a car that both of us like. Hopefully by the time Mr. Goes To the Market 3 Times Before He Decides Which Loaf Of Bread To Buy, the car we like will still be there. For two days I have been pointing out the positives of why we should get this particular car. For one thing, it is so cute. Secondly, we can both get in and out of it without the need or a fork lift. Thirdly, it is white so it would go with my hair, no matter if I have it colored blonde or red AND it goes beautifully with his silver hair…wait….after thinking about it, he would look much better driving our old red car as silver goes so much better with red than white………so because I’m such a giving person, I will LET him drive the old red car to work and I’ll drive the white car. Because that’s what loving wives do…we give and give and give…..just like I’m going to let him take me out Friday night to celebrate his first week of work.  Doesn’t it make you wonder why he wanted to work and be gone all day away from such a loving wife that makes our marriage all about him? Maybe this week, he will find out just how blessed he is to have such a loving wife when he opens up the Visa bill the end of Feb to see that I missed him so much I had to go shopping and  have lunches with friends so I wouldn’t miss him so much….bless his heart…!!!!!

 

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Memory, Depression & Cholesterol

Chocolate Castles6 Comments

Today was a rude awakening for me. Just returning from the doctor office, I have some great suggestions, some new insights and some new thoughts. First of all, if you are under 40, just go read a different blog and don’t waste your time reading this.  While you are still “fit” and young and can eat anything you like without worrying about wearing sleeveless blouses, or wondering if the Twinkie you are devouring is going to be your last one until your birthday, when you are allowed to have a treat, this blog is not for you.

Upon entering the doctor’s office, I was given a sheet of questions, such as:

Are you depressed, or lack motivation to participate in normal daily activities?

Do you have trouble falling or staying asleep? Well, I didn’t until now, when I will probably stay awake wondering if I passed this stupid test.

How many times have you fallen in the last two months? Really? So the fall that I had back 3 months ago, I can forget about.

Well, I aced that test! I was able to mark NA on all of the awful questions except one. I did walk out of the bedroom the other day forgetting I had just mopped and as soon as I hit the wet floor, I fell, butt first and landed on my elbow. But…because I eat (not drink) lots of milk by consuming my weight (a girl doesn’t get to be this size by just eating veggies and salads) in cakes, puddings and milkshakes, I guess I have great bones.

So I bounced (ok, maybe waddled a little) into the doctor’s office with a little smirk on my face leaving the old folks back in the waiting room, as they probably thought to themselves, “wow, look at her go, she is spry and doesn’t even need to wear orthopedic shoes!”   I was ready to defend any question the Dr might have for me.

But before the dr came in, Donna Nurse walks in and sits down in front of me and informs me that today “we” meaning me I guess, will have a memory test. No sweat. I will show this little teeny bopper I still know what year it is and also still remember who is President, even though it’s been several months since the election. Well, Nurse Donna gives me a list of 5 items which she said she will ask me to repeat. Ok, no problem, I am repeating them over and over in my mind. Wait…what did she just say? She is going to read me a story before asking me to repeat the 5 items? You are kidding me. I missed the first half of the story still trying to keep the list of the 5 items straight in my mind. So I had to ask her to start the story over as I wasn’t concentrating because of the first 5 things I was trying to remember. OK, I missed the lady of the stories name, and when ask to repeat the 5 items, I forgot “pie”. How could I miss the word pie, I bake one everyday for Pete’s sake. So then she tells me I have to give her the number she will give me, in reverse. She says, “78” then I say “87”. So far so good. UNTIL…she gets to 8,753. Im suppose to repeat that as 3, 578. I couldn’t do it. I got the 3 right, and ended with 3,something 5 something. Donna Nurse takes a couple of notes and says “the dr will be right in”…

I had forgot that the other day a friend of mine said that she was given a memory test when she went in for a physical and they ask her to repeat the alphabet backwards. She said, “if you are smart, you will write it on the inside of your hand so you will be able to repeat it to them. I had totally forgot to do that so was so thankful I had a different test.

So now the doctor comes in and sits across from me, writing notes on his computer. When he looked up at me, he told me that all my blood work had come back normal except, and here it is folks, cholesterol. I was WAY over 200 and according to him, I guess I shouldn’t wait on filling out a Living Will paper, as he sent for one for me to fill out. So my suggestions to the medical personal is this:

Wait until after the doctor visit to have us fill our the sheets that ask about depression or lack of interest in daily activities. I came in feeling great and left with a sense of doom and gloom. I came home and threw away the firm bananas, as I probably won’t live long enough to see them ripen. I have now lost any desire to pursue daily activities as “why bother, since he had me fill out my LW, I probably won’t live long enough to finish painting a picture. Or, why get involved with the new season of Designated Survivor, I probably won’t live to see the last episode”.

Instead of telling you how bad your health looks and then telling the nurse to go get a living will for the patient to sign, maybe just have the LW in a packet of papers and suggest that we might go home and read over and think about what we might want. I felt that if I didn’t sign it before leaving, I might not get the chance to make the decision as apparently he was worried I might not make it home.

When I inquired about having a hearing test done, he told me that maybe I didn’t really want to hear better, as I might not want to hear what he had to say about diet and exercise. He is such a smart alec.   He ended up telling me that because of the new guidelines, he has to ask me a couple of questions that will make me wonder “what business is it of his” but I told him to proceed. Here are the questions he ask.

! What type of heat do we have in our home, gas or electric?

2. Are there any guns in the house. I told him no, that I had a rolling pin and didn’t need a gun when I had rolling pin that was perfect for pies and combat. He looked at me and told me that maybe that was why my cholesterol was so high.

I guess that the medical professionals are now worried that when we leave their offices they want to know if we have a gas oven or gun in the house in case we are so depressed when we leave, we take our Living Will paper and go stick our heads in the oven. I would have except I have to wait until the cake I baked is finished baking. If i’m going out soon, why bother with dieting.

After I got home I was able to go over all the details with Randy and we both decide that it is so good that old folks are already retired. We would never be allowed to take off work as much as we needed to go have all these awful tests done. After reading all the tests that he is sending me for, more depression and gloom set it. So now I guess I have to call and make another appointment to see if I can get a prescription for an antidepressant. But wait, then I will have to go have more blood tests done to be sure that medication is not effecting my liver….and so it goes!

And they wonder why we put off going to the doctor? I think from now on, I will just go on line and google my medical questions.  You aren’t required to do a memory test. As long as I can remember how to google, I’m good!

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

MotorSpeedway in Mesa

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

This morning was really our first “normal” day of being by ourselves since moving here last Thursday. Because we are now staying in a casita until we can get in our new place, we ventured out to go get a few things at the neighborhood Walmart. We have discovered that there are quite a few (ok, maybe more like: DOES ANYHONE LIVE HERE THAT IS UNDER 80?) old folks. Fine, I got that off my chest. So we get out of the car in the parking lot and we begin to dodge the most aggressive blue hairs in their motored scooters. We made our way inside the store only to be greeted by the youngest Walmart Greeter we have ever seen. He could not have been more than 20 and was dancing a jig. When he saw us, he really broke out in a dance routine as we went up to him to tell him how fun it was to see someone enjoying their job. he finally spoke up to say welcome and we ask him if we were the only ones in the store without a scooter. He began to laugh and tell us that we probably were the only ones. I had been warned that the oldies, when behind the wheel of a scooter, became aggressive and deserving of being the first in line. That warning was not unfounded. It became apparent to both Randy and I that in order to not look like an outsider, we would be having to get us our own scooter. He informed me that if I would just buy a pair of gold tennis shoes and a jogging suit I would look like I belonged. We both decided that unless we are truly crippled, we would do everything possible not to ever ride around the store in a scooter. We just do not have the aggressive temperament to drive one.
This past couple of weeks,I have learned a few things about Randy that has me a little worried about this new season. As we were driving to Arizona from Texas we stopped in Midland for lunch. Because we had Whataburger for breakfast we found a barbeque place so we parked and went inside. We got in line to order and looked up and noticed on the sign that there was a $8.50 minimum for each person. Randy looked at me and said, “don’t you think that is a lot to spend for lunch, as that is just the meat and we would still have to buy our drinks and sides? Why don’t we just go across the parking lot to Whataburger and order a hamburger and get some barbeque sauce to put on it?” Seriously, really? But that’s exactly what we did. The very next day we stopped at McDonalds for tea and Mr. COM (crotchety old man, his new name since he retired.) decides he wants an ice cream cone. Our purchase comes to $1.71. Mr. CoM pulls out his pocket full of change and proceeds to count out $1.71. Now I know that this doesn’t sound like a big deal but when I reenacted the scene for our kids, they were rolling on the floor. Let’s just say that the high school kid behind the counter waiting for the money grew a beard while waiting for the money. After the first 5 Minutes of waiting for him to count out the money, I was so embarrassed that I walked away to escape the scathing stares from the folks in line behind him. I can tell you that his ice cream cone was half melted by the time the clerk handed it to him. I made him eat it in the car so we did’t have people looking at us like we were just more old people moving into the million “over 55 communities”here.
Note to self: to avoid looking like we are just another retiree couple, we will never ride a scooter, we will always just buy with bills, instead of change,and never wear black knee socks. Never wear a jogging suit and never dye my hair blue. Purple maybe but never blue!

Daily Thoughts

Retirement & Insurance

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

As the weekend approaches and we are getting excited about going to AZ for Thanksgiving to visit, we have had a “to do” list that we are checking off little by little. One of the items was to get a RX refilled before leaving town, so today we went to pick it up. As I walked up to the pick up window inside the store, the young man ask for id and for insurance. He quickly informed me that if I didn’t have insurance my medication would cost $140.00. And they wonder why we have headaches. Anyway, since I did have insurance the medicine cost $ .39. Yep, that’s right 39 cents. The only catch was that with the insurance card, instead of getting the 50 which the prescription was for, they could only give you 9 pills and you would have to come back every 3 days if you needed more. So let’s see. I can get all 50 of them for $140 now, if I don’t use insurance or get 9 at a time, every 3 days for 39 cents. This just does not make sense to me, but we took my 9 pills and left.

On the way home, I began to tell Frosty that I just couldn’t sleep last night. I was up half the night thinking about my new book that will be coming out soon! . I know it will include different trials that we go through along with great dessert recipes. Well, you know women, that made me think of the season which we went through the year. 2015 and Randys retirement. I had this thought that just won’t leave my mind. Why don’t people start out retiring? Think about this. Remember when you were first married and you couldn’t keep your hands off your new mate? You walked them to the door when they left for work in the mornings, after making anything they wanted for breakfast. During the day, I just couldn’t want until hubby walked in the door at 5, throwing my arms around his neck and smothering him with kisses before leading him to the dining table where his favorite meal would be waiting. I cried when he had to leave town for 2 days. Anything he wanted to watch, of course, I “wanted” to watch. It was important to learn all about the people at the office so I could feel like I was apart of his daily world when he was at work.  If I made his lunch, I put little love notes in the sack. We called back and forth during the day just to say hi and ask what was going on. He would call me on his way home every day and talk to me until the car pulled into the garage.

So my thoughts are this. Why not have retirement at the beginning of marriage when we are so in love we want to be with them 24/7? We wouldn’t mind them standing right in the middle of the kitchen blocking us from opening the dishwasher. We wouldn’t mind them falling asleep in the lazy boy as they are watching the 5th football game of the day. It would just give us more of a chance to wait on those precious young men that we couldn’t wait to attach their last names to our first name.

That way, they would be at home with us when we are needing help raising children. They would be around to take out the dirty diapers, take the kids for a walk so we could take naps, entertain the little darlings outside while we cooked dinner.

After the kids are grown, and we really are empty nesters; THEN send our hubbies to work. Why this might even cut down on office romances. I just bet that those cute little office girls wouldn’t be as quick to grab on to the “oldies with the hair growing out their ears. Their bellies that shakes now like a bowl full of jelly, just isn’t as appealing as the tight chested hunks that they use to be.   Did I mention that we would then have the house to ourselves. That because they worked all day, when they got home, they would be so tired that they wouldn’t even be able to stay awake to watch every football game, so we would still be able to watch  House Hunters or Castle. Am I the only one that this sounds like a great plan?   That instead of having to dodge the yellow tape that divides our house to keep us from killing each other during these “golden years”; I would be thrilled when he drove into the garage, knowing that he might be even to tired to think about wanting dinner and go straight to bed. Not having to share the remote or the recliner again tonight. And that would be true “golden years”.

Daily Thoughts

Retirement Isn’t For Sissies

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

Twenty years ago, I remember Randy and I talking about when he retired, all the wonderful things we would do. We would travel to far away lands. We would adventure out while at home, going to all the restaurants that we hadn’t had time to explore. We would have time to get up early and go walking to keep our cholesterol down from all the wonderful foods we would be sampling. There would be no store to far for us to go to find just the perfect little item that we just knew we couldn’t live without.

Fast forward to reality. Yes, we are retired and yes we still talk about all those wonderful bucket lists of “wants”. But we find ourselves frequenting the same 2 Walmarts that is within a 5 mile radius of our home. All those great new little restaurants? Well, we did venture out to a new Costco to see if their $1.50 hot dogs were as good as the Costco by our house.

Last night, we ran to Walmart (for the second time that day) to pick up some prescriptions. We received a phone call about 6:30 p.m. and were told that if we didn’t pick them up, they would be put back, as they had been there for 6 days already. If we had known they were ready, we would have picked them up, but either we received a phone call and forgot, as is probably the case, or they were old and forgot to call us. Either way, if we had known, we would have gone to that particular store in the first place that morning, instead of getting out of our comfort zone and venturing out to the Wally World that is a little further away. But, seeing that we are “retired” and have lots of time, we hustled over after dinner to pick the meds that promise to keep us younger, longer.

When pulling into the parking lot, I remembered a few items that I had forgot earlier in the day, so I told Randy that I would go in with him. He went over to the Pharmacy while I went to buy some cards.  We met over by the candy aisle, where he told me that he had found a shirt that he thought would go with his new red shorts that we found at Macy’s. ( I tell you that so you will know that not all our clothes do not come from Walmart). So off we go over to look at the shirts. He shows me the shirt and I had to agree it was actually pretty cute. So we find his size and off to the checkout counter we go. I am telling him all the way there that if our kids comment on his new shirt, what ever he does, DO NOT TELL THEM it came from Walmart. They will never invite us out to eat, for fear we might be wearing a Walmart outfit. Ok, back to the story. We stand in line behind 3 other customers, when Randy remembers that he forgot something. He tells me that he will be right back and I suddenly feel something on the back of me. He has hung his shirt that he is buying, which Is still on the plastic hanger, on the back of my shirt, for me to “hold”, while he goes off to get the forgotten item. I am quickly trying to get the hanger out of my shirt, but it gets caught on my collar. People who are inline behind me begin to giggle as I have my arms up in the air trying to unhook the stupid hanger from inside my shirt.

By the time, Mr. Retiree returns, I am not a happy camper! He walks up grinning and I am wanting to throw his cute little shirt at him, but just smile, so the people in line will just think, “oh how cute, look how much fun they have”.

I tell him to walk quickly out after paying for our goods. After this, I think we will have to get out of our routine and find us a new store for awhile. It seems to me that in retirement, there are less and less stores that we are able to return to. What happened to the man I married, that hardly went anywhere without a 3 piece suit or briefcase? Oh, I remember, he is retired and has found that he likes red shorts and Walmart shirts.

I guess all the trips to the store yesterday wore him out. I’m not saying he slept late, but when the first thing he says when coming downstairs is, “what’s for lunch?” it tells me that we might need to go back to the pharmacy to get some energy vitamins. Might wait a few days just in case they remember us from last night. Retirement is wearing us out. Think we might need to look for a part time job to rest up.

Daily Thoughts

Frosty’s Big Surprise

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

We have hit an all time low. Today after running errands, Frosty tells me he has a big surprise for me. Since it was around lunch time, I began to wonder if this was going to be the day he drove us down to Neiman’s for a special lunch ending with our favorite coconut cake that has always been one of the huge reasons we would drive down to North Park. But as we pulled into QT, I’m thinking that he will be filling the gas tank for our little trip across town, when he pulls past the gas pumps right up to the front door. I thought that maybe he was going in to get a drink so I wouldn’t get thirsty driving so far, but as he puts the car in park, he just looks at me and tells me that, “surprise, we are getting some of the best hot dogs and they are 2 for $2.12..what a deal. They have all the condiments you could want” he says, I just look at him and follow him into the store. We head to the hot dog counter where Frosty pulls out the buns from out of the warming tray. Is this gourmet or what? When I tell him that it’s not a real hot dog unless we have chile and that I don’t see any pot of chile. He points to a machine that has a lever which lets you pull it for chile  or cheese. You have got to be kidding me. I am topping a hot dog that has been warming for probably several hours with chile that comes out of a machine just like getting soft ice cream at Dairy Queen. I get enough napkins to cover my face for the walk back to the car. My big surprise was lunch at QT. It was at this moment that I gave thanks for our car windows being tinted and that you can’t really see in. The thought that friends might visit QT and see us sitting in our car eating hot dogs was just too much. It’s ok to do that at Sonic, but QT? It was not to long ago that he surprised me with a Walmart picnic. He buys Hawaiian rolls and gets chicken strips from their deli and sits in the car with his sandwich of chicken strips on the rolls. We do live an adventuresome life, Walmart parking lot picnics one week and QT picnics the next. Retirement just keeps getting better and better. Who knows what next week will hold? But if he pulls our car into Golden Corral Thanksgiving day, I will be calling a divorce attorney first thing Friday morn. It will be easy to find Frosty to serve him the papers. I know at the swell places where he hangs out now.

Daily Thoughts

Taking Back My Kitchen

Chocolate Castles5 Comments

I remember it like it was yesterday, the day Randy retired. Sure it sounded like a great idea at the time. We had plans to take cooking classes together, drive in to Sonic every afternoon at 3 to get a buy one-get one free-cherry cola, watch movies until midnight, all cuddled up eating popcorn and feasting on the homemade brownies that we would bake together in the early evenings, right before our stroll, hand in hand through the neighborhood.

Those were the plans 6 months ago. Today, well, let’s just say that plans have changed.  By early afternoons, we are barely speaking. Driving to Sonic would actually make us ride closed up in the same car, which is not going to happen any time soon. I made sure that the guns we had in the house have been sold on Craig’s Lists. Just didn’t want to take any chances.

One day last week, while I am in the kitchen making frosting for a cake, unbeknownst to me, as I am scraping the cream cheese just to be sure I got every last drop of it (as I am constantly reminded that we are now on a retirement budget), he comes right beside me and proceeds to unwrap the butter and ask me if it goes in the same bowl as the cream cheese. Really? I can no longer make frosting by myself? What has happened to our glorious plans of how retirement was suppose to go? I have forgotten the way to WallMart because I never get to drive there myself. Shopping at Macy’s? Not anymore. I am told that with us being “retired”, how many blouses do I really need anyway? He even watches Ellen with me. Last week, he told me that he had been thinking that maybe he should get a pedicure just to see what they are like so would I make “us” an appointment for next week. He is now clipping Hobby Lobby coupons for me and has rearranged the garage so many times that my car doesn’t know which side to park when the garage door goes up.

He has shown me a much cleaver way to fold clothes. I never knew that how I folded them wasn’t “cleaver”.

We now make shopping lists since we don’t want to waste gas having to go back and forth to the store. That was my only way to get out of the house. Using the excuse that I had forgot to buy bread and cocoa. I am having to become a little more creative of why I need to leave the house. Please don’t tell him that 64 year old women don’t just, poof, start having periods again, since I used that excuse to have to run to the store the other day.

I now tell him that I didn’t have a check with me when I had a manicure so I need to run a check up to the salon. It is my little secret that I have started adding just a little “Benedryl” to his afternoon coffee so that  his normal 15 minute nap that he likes to take now, lasts an hour. Ah…an hour to myself. What do I want to do with my hour? Read, bake? The  excitement of all the possibilities of  the things I could do while he is asleep, wears me out and I usually end up falling asleep, only to wake up to him standing over me telling me that it’s time for us to watch Ellen and boy, wouldn’t a bowl of fresh popped popcorn taste good. It is so great that he doesn’t like to visit people in the hospital so that has become my new hobby. I visit people I don’t even know.

The golden years, isn’t that what they call this season of life? I guess that’s because the tape that is used to mark off our own territory in our homes is yellow,  Next time you are invited to a retirement party, forget the gift cards or the travel brochures to give the couple. Give them a roll of Yellow Duct tape. It might just save their marriage.

Daily Thoughts

Retirement for Dummies

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

We have just completed our first week of Frosty’s retirement. All our friends have been asking him the last couple of years when he was going to retire. His answer was always the same, “I don’t know if I will ever retire” Every time we are leaving Walmart and the little old man at the door tells us “have a good day”, my sweet hubby always says, “I could do that if I ever retire”.

This past week found us the first few days trying to decide if he really wanted to look for a new adventure or truly just retire. I told him that I knew what I wanted him to do. Guess I should have not spoken that idea out loud. Actually, at the first of the week, we were both saying, “this might be great” we can go anywhere, do anything and stay up as late as we wanted, not having to get up at the crack of dawn. That was Monday. By Tuesday, we realized that even when we didn’t have to get up early or go to bed at 10, we were so used to going to bed at 10 and getting up at 6:30 a.m,.that our bodies apparently hadn’t realized that we were now in our “retirement” season. We were still falling asleep on the couch by 9:30 and waking up each morning at 6:30.

As we relaxed that first night, pondering our new season of life, we had grand plans. We would cook together, go to grocery shop together and he agreed to watch Ellen with me at 4 in the afternoons. OK, I was getting excited about having a friend by my side all during the day. We could go get pedicures together, walk around the mall, lazily in the afternoons, all the while sipping a Starbucks. We would have time to do all the things we always said we never had the time. I had this all planned. Mondays he could fold clothes while I vacuumed the house. I would now have someone to help me change the sheets. How fun, is this going to be great or what?

Tuesday arrives. It was” what”. We made it a whole day before we began to set up some rules. But…I’m sure that we just have to get used to this. This was our week, at a glance:

Monday….excited about new adventure and made all our plans of what we would do together.  So fun.

Tuesday…we are still speaking, but the tone isn’t as sweet as it was yesterday; trying to remember why this was fun yesterday.

Wednesday…I’m watching Ellen by myself. He is in den watching a recorded football game from last week.

Thursday….we have yellow tape down the middle of the kitchen. He is not allowed on my half, except when he is doing his half of the dishes. Barely speaking.

Friday…just shoot me!

Maybe next week we will sign up for a class on How To Do Retirement. Our lists we made last week, of fun things to do,  were thrown out the car window today when I suggested that maybe tomorrow he might want to go to Walmart to see if they had an opening as a door greeter.

If we survive next week, I will update you on our progress or ask if anyone knows a good lawyer.