January 24th, my 11 month retirement anniversary, has come and gone, and I am a little late in posting this, but who cares? I’m retired!
It was such a joy to be off during the holidays for the third time in my working life. To not have to work on Thanksgiving or Black Friday was a blessing, and so was not having to get up early on the day after Christmas to go to work. New Years was fun, too, though like every other year I was in bed by 10:00. So I didn’t miss work, but I sort of missed not being there with my friends as the Modesto Sears store that I worked at for over 20 years went through the holiday season knowing it would be closing in January. I’m not sure how I would have acted, but I suspect I would have had the same attitude I had 30 years earlier when another place I had worked – Handy Andy TV & Appliances – went out of business.
During that “going-out-of-business” sale, a customer was upset about a price. I had already talked to the manager, but the customer wanted to see the manager to tell him what he thought of our store. My reply: “Well, since we are all going to be out of jobs in two weeks, none of us give a shit what you think of our store!” It was my favorite retail moment. I can still see the security guard escorting the man out.
Anyway, best wishes to all of my former co-workers as they collect unemployment and good luck to them in finding new jobs. I don’t think any of them will have problems, especially the appliance and mattress people, who are undoubtedly the best trained in the business. I know, because I trained most of them!
I woke up the other morning with a severe case of RGS – Retiree Guilt Syndrome. I suspect that all retirees suffer from this at one time or another: the feeling that you ought to be doing something, especially something productive.
RGS is irrational, of course. The whole reason one retires is to do what they want to do when they want to do it. And if you want to get up late, have a big breakfast and watch TV – or play with your computer – well, that is why you retired! But in the back of my mind there is that nagging thought that I should be doing something else. The shed needs cleaning, The guest bedroom where I store stuff needs to be organized and the things in it put away.
And the biggest evidence of my RGS is that I waited until February 11th to post this. My 1 year retirement anniversary comes in 13 days! Stand by………