Not yet retired 100%

OK, so when opportunity presents itself,  you either take it or leave it – I’ve decided to take it.

Keeping active in the manufacturing industry is really fun.  So anyway, here I go again doing some conceptual engineering/process work. I’ll do front end process analysis – the first project I accepted is for a major wallboard manufacturer and so far so good (a plant field trip and pulling together process flow information for a newly formulated product). I find it interesting, and that’s the key word. Also, working with a highly ethical firm (this has been the case throughout my career) is great for the self-esteem (though maybe I have an excessive amount already).

Although this sounds like a detour from my retirement, I intend to tread carefully and keep it under control.

So what to do with your time in retirement?

The feeling of freedom is new. Being raised in a working class environment, where the time clock was the boss, is ingrained in my mind. Even though I worked in professional environments most of my career, that time clock was always in the back of my mind. The guilt never went away – at least finally one day I said to myself “I’m not YET late until I’m late” – this helped somewhat.

So now there is no need for a time clock. It’s hard to get used to.

I dreamed about work a lot before retirement, and continue to do so (but not as much). The dreams were sometimes composites which included a combination of employers and settings. A typical one was having to get up in 3 hours to catch the group bus to the exhibition hall after attending the company outing for customers the night before (your jaw got tired from smiling all evening, and your gut took a lot of abuse).

The dreaming about work is less frequent, and I’m starting to calm down a bit. The health club is a blessing, and I discovered the rowing machine during my last workout (they have two machines which use water as the resistance means and it sounds like you’re rowing in a boat – clever). Finally got around to doing weights regularly; soon I’ll try Pilates and Nia (the latter sounds interesting as you dance through life and be silly). What I’ve found most interesting is how stretching makes you feel – guess I never stretched before.

Not wanting to stretch this post out any longer, bye for now.