Piano Update

I am getting better.

But I have reached the point in the lesson books where I have to play with both hands at once, and as I often say to Dr Skull, "I can do ONE THING at a TIME."

Right now I'm slowing way down and learning the two-handed parts bit by bit. But it's difficult.

Also, one of the C keys on my piano does not work, so I kind of have to play around any music that requires that note. It's a bummer.

Considering Piano Lessons

Apparently I have decided not to study the classics after all. So now I am considering taking piano lessons.

When I was five, my neighbor advised my mother to get me piano lessons, since I had been messing about on her piano and I was picking up playing it quickly. "What would you rather do?" my mother asked. "Piano lessons or art lessons?"

I picked art lessons, but now that I have a lot of time and money, why not piano lessons, I'm thinking. There's a place in town that gives lessons to adults.

What do you think? Yeah or nay?

A Day in the Life: Being Retired in Arkansas

I've been retired exactly one year today. What's it like so far?

Spoilers: I love it to pieces. Was it worth working fifty years* for this retiree life in the Boston Mountains? 

I'd have to say yes, mostly because most of those years I was a professor, which was a job I liked a lot. (There were some bad years, and I never quite made enough money, which was pretty stressful.) If I had been working a job I hated for all that time, maybe not.

What do I do with my time all day?

Well, I get up at dawn and take the dog to the dog park. He runs with other dogs and brings me balls to throw him. Then we come home and he goes out into the yard to make sure nothing has been stolen, and I make tea. While I'm drinking tea, I do several puzzles and my Duolingo. This caffeinates me enough that I can start working. Right now I'm working on book reviews for Asimov, so I am either reading for those or writing those.

Around noon, I eat something. Usually a bagel, sometimes a cheese sandwich. I also make lunch for Dr Skull, whose hands still don't function well enough to make his own lunch. (The pain doctor has recommended a neck surgery which might help. We're thinking about it.)

Then I take the dog to the dog park again. He needs to run around with other dogs at least twice a day. If you're considering a border collie, keep that in mind.

In the afternoon, I do things. Like, some days I go to the library. Some days I buy groceries. Once in awhile, we go to the bookstore or Walmart. There's also this cool store in town that sells Japanese imports, or I can cruise the thrift shop. If I don't do any of those, I might make bagels or flatbread or lie on the couch and read. Maybe I do laundry concurrently, or set the Roomba to vacuuming.  (I have to make bread a lot because there is no eatable bread in Arkansas. It is all as sweet and soft as cake.)

Around four, I start supper. If there are leftovers, I can keep reading instead. Or maybe we order in. We have enough money to buy dinner from restaurants! It's great.

After dinner, I do the dishes and then I take the dog for a walk -- either the dog park again, or just around the block. More reading at night, or occasionally television, though right now I seem to have lost interest in watching TV shows.

Sometimes the kid comes over and cooks dinner for us, or we take him and his husband out to eat somewhere. Every Friday we have lunch together at a local Greek place. 

One day this summer we will go to Crystal Bridges and maybe another day to the Botanical Garden. And the kid wants to learn to drive, so we'll have to pencil that in. And there are always medical and vet appointments. Also, I'm growing a tiny garden of herbs, watermelon, and a fig tree.

It's a great life. If I could have one wish, I'd like the dog to get used to sleeping past dawn. Please.

Anyway, retirement for me is 10/10, highly recommend. It really helps that we have money now, though. I wouldn't have been able to retire anywhere this soon without it. People who say money doesn't buy happiness have never been poor, if you want my opinion.

*I got my first 'real' job at 15, working in a snack bar; before that, I had lots of little jobs, mainly babysitting but also delivering papers, my first 'job,' at age nine. Between then and when I started working as a baby professor, I worked in delis and at McDonalds, in a library, and managing that same snack bar, summers, from age 18 to 23. Doing that made me enough money to pay for my undergraduate education, by the way, though I also lived at home most of the time I was in college.

My Actual Birthday

It's today! I can't believe how old I am. Or rather, I can't believe how young being 66 seems. I remember at 16 thinking 33 was old. Ha!

Anyway, here is an update on what being old is like:

Every day, something new aches. Right now it's the tendon I bruised during the snow storm and also my spine. ("My spiiiine!" I cry often.) A week ago it was my hip, after I slept on it a little too long one night. Sleeping! Sleeping gives me injuries now.

I wake up early now. Not at five a.m. as I was when we first moved here, but I'm up and dressed by 7:30 most days. Partly this is the dog, who begins demanding his walk around 7:00. But also it's because I'm in bed by 9:30 or ten most nights. Me! Who seldom managed to sleep before 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.!

I'm eating a lot more cake than I used to. I'm sure this isn't good for me, but on the other hand, who's going to stop me?

I spend a lot of time in doctor's offices. Mostly this is for Dr Skull's appointments, but some are also for me.

I take exercises as seriously as I did when I was 30, when I ran a couple miles every day and also took my dog for a three mile walk most days. Some of my aches arise from this, but most are because I'm ooooold.

I love being retired. Day after day with nothing planned. I lie on the couch and read books. I take the dog for at least two walks a day. I go to the library. I write whenever and as much as I like. I never have to teach composition again. There's plenty of time to do laundry and the dishes. (It's amazing how much less annoying dishes and the laundry are when you aren't exhausted and also you have plenty of time.)

I am extremely glad I don't have to depend solely on my social security. Medicare, on the other hand, is wonderful. I got a lengthy statement in the mail yesterday for all of Dr Skull's home health care, and the big news was on page one: "Amount you may owe: $0.00."

Granted, this is only because we can afford to pay for Part B and Part G, but still.

I'm liking being 66 a lot, I guess is the conclusion here. May it long continue.

He just wants to sit in my lap all day long, is that so much to ask?

How Do I Like Being Retired?

So much.

Technically I've been retired just over two months, since May 13, and if I hadn't retired not much would have changed on the surface, since I'd be on summer break now. 

But in fact just knowing I'm done with teaching has changed so much. I had no idea how much of my mental space the university was taking up until it was gone. I do still find myself making notes about how to teach this or that, or what reading list I might use for a given class, and then saying, well, wait.

I'm doing what I always planned to do with my retirement -- writing a lot, reading a lot, taking lots of walks. I am much busier than I expected to be, what with medical appointments, taking the kid shopping, and dealing with the dog.

Do any of you remember how in adolescence, and even young adulthood, we were so bored for so much of the time? Just endless hours to fill, and nothing to fill them with? Remember television? I remember lying on the couch in the living room watching tennis matches. That's how bored I was.

I was expecting retirement to be a bit like that. Not so far.