aging
It is obvious to me, Retired and missing your job?
Just heard on the news that most people don’t like their work. OK, perhaps that is no news flash for most, but as a retired person, I find that a bit sad. I immediately flash on a sign my Dad always had up in his office:
“I like my work, but it breaks up the day!”
I was raised by a man who LOVED his work. Silly me, as a kid I thought everybody did. Obviously work gave my Dad meaning and purpose. He was a botany professor who got to interact with college kids all day long. He loved teaching and counseling them. He was one of the few who reached his goal in life, and found it completely satisfying.
Our view of the Sangre de Cristo range every morning!
As an academic librarian I always liked my work, but no, there was no love involved. I did it for 25 years. I was a dedicated employee who got there in spite of winter storms, etc. My main problem in my career was the stupid bosses, and in libraries they were often men. One especially hate-filled one finally got me in the end. He fired me at age 49, and I haven’t worked as a librarian since.
These days, when Mike and I discuss work, he always says he misses his job. He worked with some high-level engineers in areas like developments in solar inverter technology. He had to give up his career for health reasons. He says he misses working with cutting-edge technology. I wish he still could enjoy those daily challenges, but I do not miss my work as a librarian. I find that I was smarter than most of my bosses, and that didn’t work out well.
I LOVE doing research and writing. I LOVE being my own boss, although there have been times when I could be quite demanding. The Internet has given us many new freedoms and I love it all! Now I do what I want with my time and generally enjoy the process. I wish you all this future!
Save your dollars and perhaps someday you will be able to live where you want and spend your days doing whatever you choose!
I’m a newcomer to rural southern Colorado. After two years I decided to compile a short journal about the ups and downs of moving from a good-sized city to rural America to build a passive solar home in the foothills:
A Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar in Southern Colorado
Please share this information with your friends if they are considering similar life changes. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss any of these challenges, and to order your own signed copies of any of my books! Cheers, Laura Lee (email me: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com)
Blogging Boomers Mid-Winter Edition
We’re stuck in a beautiful snow storm in the foothills just east of the magnificent Sangre de Cristo mountain range in southern Colorado today. If you can think of a nicer place to be stuck, please share.
I am here today to share with you the works of a few of my favorite boomer blogger friends, and ask you a question at the end of this post.
Number one is from Linda Myers. She has a timeshare dilemma — too many to use. Go see her dilemma over at her Bag Lady in Waiting Blog.
Over at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Blog, things are hot and cold. Rita R. Robison, consumer journalist, almost had a kitchen fire, so she writes about tips for preventing kitchen fires. On the cold front, she writes about how older adults can prevent hypothermia during the winter by wearing a hat inside and keeping the temperature at at least 68 degrees.
Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting, is traveling once again this week, and discusses the difficulties of finding great eateries on a cross country road trip. Go read about some of her disappointments in Dining Along the Road, especially when traveling off the beaten path.
I have been noticing an interest among my readers in the process we went through in moving from suburbia to rural Colorado, so I wrote about the wins and losses we have experienced in the past two years.
Near the end of this piece I ask my readers whether age 60 is too old to make new friends. Please send me a comment with your own opinion on this issue. I am really curious what others have to say about this!
Location, Location, Location – Where do you belong in this wild & crazy world?
Picture this: We now live a southern Colorado county with only two traffic lights. Yep, in the whole county!
So, our recent experience getting stuck in our worst traffic jam ever in Denver, convinced us that country living may be a better choice. After a quick trip up there this week, I am even more certain that we have found the best place in the world for us.
What happens when I drive up to Denver? The first thing I notice is the foul air, and then everything starts crowding in on me. When you’re used to a one stoplight town, traffic in the city can get very intense, very quickly. Try sitting in that traffic for 30 or 40 minutes after living in the southern Colorado outback for a couple of years. UNBELIEVABLE!
Did you know my original goal in leaving northern Colorado was to never waste another minute of my limited lifespan sitting in a traffic jam?
Don’t get me wrong. I do see the appeal of the city, just not for me anymore. I now totally appreciate what a fine line it can be finding the right size city for each of us. Too small and it can get boring, too large and it’s ugly in so many ways.
From my experience, it is important when you start searching for your forever home, to spend some serious time there first. Spend at least six months to a year there before choosing anything permanent. Try to make a few friends and learn as much as you can about the area.
As we age we find out how important the simple pleasures are in our lives. When you have more past than future, you learn.
Want to learn more about the experience of moving from the city to the country to live a quiet, relaxed life? Check it out here!
Millennials and Me (at 60!)
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage” –Anais Nin
I have been struck by an apparent trait of millennials lately. On the news they keep saying that millennials often choose experiences over buying products. They would rather take a trip than buy a new set of clothes. Now that is something I can relate to…
I have always chosen an experience over buying something. Whether it be interesting friendships or trips to spectacular or exotic places, I was always up for an adventure. That’s why I traveled quite a bit in my 20s, 30s, and 40s. And now that I’m 60, I’m so glad I did!
I went on a number of week-long river trips in Utah and Colorado in my twenties while living in Salt Lake City. These were marvelous, relaxing and unique journeys into the rural American West.
And how can I forget that backpacking trip to Canyonlands in southern Utah at age 18, when a couple of my friends got lost, and the ranger took us on a helicopter ride over the area in search of them? How can my parents forget getting that call that I was lost, even though I hasn’t.
And then there was that crazy trip to Mayaguez, Puerto Rico to pick up a sailboat and sail it to the British Virgin Islands. Come to find out the boat was a piece of crap, and there was no way it was going to sail that far. So instead we spent a few days in Mayaguez living on the boat, sailed to San Juan, and then a friend and I flew over to Tortola for one of the best weeks of my life, enjoying pina coladas and sunsets on Cane Garden Bay!
I discovered Venice on a rather ill-fated trip in the mid-1980s. I first landed in Paris to visit a friend. We traveled to Florence together, where I became quite ill with hepatitis and never left the hotel room! But then it was on to Venice. I was alone for most of my stay there, it was January, I was still sick, and yet I LOVED VENICE! I will never forget my long walks around Venice in the thick London fog, or the man next door at my cheap pension, practicing his opera piece over and over again. It was as authentic as it gets!
I have also spent over a year of my life in various countries in east Asia. Bangkok, Taipei, Hong Kong and China are familiar to me, with a million tales to tell about that fascinating part of our world.
Travel today is just not as stress-free as 30 or 40 years ago. Yes, there was the occasional hijacking back then, but in general it was cheaper, a lot easier, and much safer.
Building in December 2015 in southern Colorado
Mike (who spent most of his 20s traveling the Pacific in the Navy) and I, don’t have any major urges to travel at present. A trip right now just sounds exhausting after our recent two year struggle to move south and build this amazing solar home in one beautiful part of the country. In fact, our new home still feels like a fantastic vacation home to us!
We’re both glad we took those spontaneous trips back when it was fun and adventurous, and we look forward to exploring rural regions of the American southwest in the future.
Don’t judge my story by the chapter you walked in on…
My Next Project: A Journal of Retirement
I’m just beginning to get excited about writing my next book! This week I started collecting all that I have written in the past few years, and enjoying (in retrospect!) the process of how our retirement came about. Retirement for us was a bit of an ungraceful process, sort of like that joke about making sausage, but it happened all the same and most importantly, we survived!
It’s surprisingly fun and funny reading my old entries about trips to Ecuador, renovating our old house for sale, falling down the stairs, etc. I would guess this could make for some interesting reading for those who are just beginning to consider their retirement options.
Mike fooling around down below!
Adventures of the NEW??? Old Farts 
