We got an early snow around here, a pretty good one the week before Christmas. Maybe 14” in Bethesda, up to 27” a bit north. Let the car sit for a few days and actually enjoyed hiking through drifts and shoveling sidewalks. But the blizzard energized me to relocate to a sunnier clime before the next winter.1
My vague program centers around a continental drift toward family on the Left Coast, heading off to California in my trusty old Camry. Sure glad I was smart enough to buy a Toyota. Can’t go wrong with a Toyota.
Prior to hitting the road I need to get down to travelling weight. Fortunately, since retiring I’ve spent much of my time de-acquisitioning six decades’ accretion of stuff. At first I moved things from pile to pile, mostly adding to the huge “decide later” heap. Eventually a rule formulated itself:
To be retained an object is required to meet at least one of two criteria:
1) It is useful and is used regularly.
OR
2) It delights each and every time I look at it.
Otherwise, the thing goes--donated, gifted, dumped, whatever.2 Surprising how little stuff we actually need.
Now the principal remaining task is to sell the house.3 My optimistic assumption had been that between my pension and the proceeds of the house I would be not affluent but at least reasonably comfortable in retirement.
If only I had foreseen the Great Recession. According to my pre-retirement calculations, on December 31, 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 35,000.
But I didn’t and the Dow didn’t4. Bethesda is an expensive place to live--all the more reason to move. For the last couple of years I’ve have been surviving on my modest funds eked out by the occasional roadkill raccoon or even (with luck!) a deer.
Nonetheless the unretired--especially those whose retirements have been postponed due to said Great Recession--envy my presumably leisured lifestyle. They say things like “Doesn’t sitting around home all day watching Ellen and Oprah make you feel, well, parasitical?” and “Now that you don't need to go to work, with all that spare time you must be sooooo bored!”
I generally respond “Oh, we superannuateds find ways to fill the idle hours with trivial pastimes and meaningless pursuits. I myself have joined the Washington, DC, branch of the Drones Club5.”
Actually of late my main project has been creating Bill 2.1™ (or perhaps by now that should be Bill 7.3.4™). I go to yoga three times a week, hit the weight room and sauna about that often, and swim when it’s warm enough. Indoor pool but the water can be chilly in the mornings.6
Took a few courses to see if I might possess hitherto undiscovered talents. Musical ability? Tried guitar and voice, noodled on a keyboard, checked out Apple’s GarageBand application--no way. Acting classes went much better but found the memorization process more difficult than expected. Bought a digital camera and took photography lessons. Created my own websites. Read loads of self-help and personal improvement books.
The plan is to continue and even intensify this regimen following The Big Move, to the preparations for which I should now return.
Sorry this letter is long but it’s a catch-up. Plus I used a decent-size font in case some of you oldsters have trouble reading small print. Like me.
Best to all for what remains of 2010. And that’s most of it so let’s enjoy.
Ciao for now,
Bill, AKA William de Kypia
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NOTES
1 You’re right, I’ve gone soft since leaving Chicago.
2 My 21-speed bike met neither criterion. Didn’t use it much and whenever I saw it—guilt!
3 Lovely well-maintained 3 bdrm/3½ bath 1950s detached house
4 Actual 12/31/09 DJIA close: 10,428
5 Fictional London gentleman’s club in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse
6 You’re right, I’ve gone soft since leaving Chicago.
Kidding about the roadkill. I do eat a lot of pasta though.
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