My imminent retirement

[herbu]

Attaboy, Richard! Congrats!

I'm betting:
1) You will continue to get up in the morning near the same time. We were up at 5:00 for a generation. Now sleep "late" and get up ~5:30-6:00. Habit.

2) You will be amazed how busy you become. Our calendar seems much more full than it did when we were working. I couldn't understand when it happened to my parents, and still don't understand now that it's happened to us.

3) Saturdays and Sundays you will still find yourself mentally calculating your list of chores and how much time is left in the weekend to complete them. It took me a couple years to subconsciously realize the chores could be done any day, not just weekends.

4) You will be reminded that there is more than one way to skin a cat... and it is not helpful to explain to your wife why your way is better than her way. (Even if it is undeniably true.)

5) You'll begin to use your grill more often. (I still see a Big Green Egg in your future.)

6) You'll be a little surprised how quickly and easily many old work relationships disappear.

7) You'll immediately adopt the moniker of "retired", embrace its entitlements to curmudgeonry, and exploit the vulnerability others expose when they assume your dotage. (Ex. You can get away with saying things you couldn't get away with before. This is one of my favorites.)

These really are the Golden Years! Welcome!!!

 

[GO-NAD!]

Congratulations! I suppose you'll be more available for offering audio advice...?

 

[KEW]

Those are the ones who don't have a plan, other than just sitting around.

Well I didn't have a plan, but I did branch out in several directions and the one that took was playing music. I played in HS, dropped out in college to focus on engineering. After ~30 years of not touching my horn, I joined a band and now play in 2 concert bands and one jazz band (big band) and loving it!

I say this because I figure there are plenty of you who played a horn in school and this is an excellent program for mental and physical (breath control, attacks, etc) stimulation to keep you engaged while having fun and being part of a team. It also hits on the volunteerism as most of our gigs are free for public such as park events, holiday events, senior centers, etc.

I hope Richard doesn't mind if I hi-jack his thread to provide a PSA!

There is a program called "New Horizons Band" that has 170 bands in the US (actually more. I know of 2 more in the Atlanta area that are not on their map):
Interactive map:
http://newhorizonsmusic.org/new-horizons-groups/

Also google "community bands" for your area!

If you don't have a horn, or dig it out of the attic to find it is now green, you probably don't won't to buy one until you know you are enjoying it and also, you probably don't know what to buy. Most Band stores have ridiculously cheap rental programs designed to help parents of band students (they are hoping to sell a horn if your student wants to continue playing). This is a great way to go because they make sure the horn plays well (they won't end up with a horn sale if you quit because you get frustrated). It cost me $10/month to rent a tenor sax for the first 6 months and went up to $30/month after that!

One band I am in is subsidized by the municipal Government (and we play music at of their patriotic events). The other two cost $15/month (covers both concert and jazz band) to pay for rental of rehearsal/storage facility, music (including files and copy machine), Band owned gear (Kettle Drums, PA, Keyboard, etc), and the director is a part time paid position. So $180/year for fees.

One nice thing about the New Horizons Band program is the guy sitting next to you was most likely in your shoes a couple of years ago, so they are not going to get upset about a wrong note or two as you are getting your chops back. The important thing is to know what not to play in the concerts until you get on top of things. As TLSGuy likes to say "sins of commission are worse than sins of omission"!

When you start out you will see great progress as things start coming back to you. I had to ask the guy next to me some ridiculously embarrassing questions (like I had forgotten what the double sharp symbol was/meant). It took me about two years to fully get back the proficiency I had when I quit 30 years earlier. Now I am playing better than I ever had before I quit (in most ways - the years have given me a better sense of style/interpretation, but I now need to mark most of the sharps and flats on my music rather than attempting to remember what key signature I am in ).

Hope this helps anyone planning retirement. It has been great for me!

 

[Swerd]

Thanks herbu. A lot of your comments seem to be right on target for me.

1) You will continue to get up in the morning near the same time. We were up at 5:00 for a generation. Now sleep "late" and get up ~5:30-6:00. Habit.

Between my wife & myself, she is the heavy sleeper and I'm the light sleeper. She retired in August, and already sleeps through my getting up each day at 6 am. I'd be happy to sleep until it gets light outside.

I've been taking a potent immune suppression drug, prednisone, at various doses since June (why is complex and boring). It keeps me wide awake unless I also take sleeping pills. My last visit to high-dose prednisone was just this past month, and I'm in the slow process of weaning off it and onto another drug that should allow me to sleep better. At least I hope so.

2) You will be amazed how busy you become. Our calendar seems much more full than it did when we were working. I couldn't understand when it happened to my parents, and still don't understand now that it's happened to us.

I like hearing that and look forward to it .

3) Saturdays and Sundays you will still find yourself mentally calculating your list of chores and how much time is left in the weekend to complete them. It took me a couple years to subconsciously realize the chores could be done any day, not just weekends.

My wife already can't remember what day of the week it is, and she retired 3½ months ago.

4) You will be reminded that there is more than one way to skin a cat... and it is not helpful to explain to your wife why your way is better than her way. (Even if it is undeniably true.)

I've been married 38 years, and have been aware of that for about 37½ years .

5) You'll begin to use your grill more often. (I still see a Big Green Egg in your future.)

We'll see. Obviously I have you out-classed in the cheap-skate category. I may have to replace an aging Weber grill as well as the smoker, but I think I'm a confirmed Weber guy. Until I change my mind.

6) You'll be a little surprised how quickly and easily many old work relationships disappear.

I won't be surprised at all about that. It was roughly 5 years ago when I noticed I hadn't bothered to learn names of new people at work unless they stayed for more than a year.

7) You'll immediately adopt the moniker of "retired", embrace its entitlements to curmudgeonry, and exploit the vulnerability others expose when they assume your dotage. (Ex. You can get away with saying things you couldn't get away with before. This is one of my favorites.)

LOL

 

[Swerd]

Kurt

I knew you had played sax when you were younger, but I didn't know you've gotten back into it. I enjoyed reading that.

I did play a musical instrument up until early high school, but unlike you, I didn't enjoy it. I hated practicing and celebrated quitting it. I think I would still feel the same. However, I do really enjoy hearing others playing well. I regularly go hear the BSO at a nearby concert hall.

The idea of finding some volunteer work or project does appeal to me. When I was in my mid 40s I got involved in a summer swimming league my kids were in. First I learned how to hold a stop watch, followed by learning how to officiate (Stroke & Turn Judge, Starter, Referee), and when I moved to a new neighborhood in 1993, I started a new swim team and ran it for 10 years. I was quite busy every year from May through July, but I loved it all. I did everything from recruiting local kids (and their parents), raising money, hiring & firing coaches, to running the swim meets. When my youngest graduated high school, I stepped down to let other parents take over, and I never looked back. Knowing myself, I doubt if I could do it at a less involved level.

So your story of getting back into music, or something, has my interest.

 

[KEW]

The idea of finding some volunteer work or project does appeal to me.

I got a short-term one for you!
Help Dennis find a viable speaker to bridge the gap between his $210 AA's and $1150 Philharmonitors!

 

[Irvrobinson]

If this is what you want, Richard, congratulations.

My wife wants me to retire, and at the moment I can't imagine it. I tried getting out of the corporate R&D world four years ago, since it is easy to get fed up with the BS. I had a list of everything I wanted to try, but I found after some months that I missed working with people smarter than I am on difficult projects, so I was fortunate enough to be able to go back to work. Not everyone gets another chance in my field. (The high-tech industry has a lot of age discrimination in it.)

Kurt, I totally agree about community bands. My wife just joined one a short time ago (in addition to the small private bands she plays in), and she loves it. And, IMO, they're very good. For the first concert I wasn't expecting much, perhaps on the level of a high school orchestra, but they were a lot better than that. Quite surprising.

 

[highfigh]

Well I didn't have a plan, but I did branch out in several directions and the one that took was playing music. I played in HS, dropped out in college to focus on engineering. After ~30 years of not touching my horn, I joined a band and now play in 2 concert bands and one jazz band (big band) and loving it!

I say this because I figure there are plenty of you who played a horn in school and this is an excellent program for mental and physical (breath control, attacks, etc) stimulation to keep you engaged while having fun and being part of a team. It also hits on the volunteerism as most of our gigs are free for public such as park events, holiday events, senior centers, etc.

I hope Richard doesn't mind if I hi-jack his thread to provide a PSA!

There is a program called "New Horizons Band" that has 170 bands in the US (actually more. I know of 2 more in the Atlanta area that are not on their map):
Interactive map:
http://newhorizonsmusic.org/new-horizons-groups/

Also google "community bands" for your area!

If you don't have a horn, or dig it out of the attic to find it is now green, you probably don't won't to buy one until you know you are enjoying it and also, you probably don't know what to buy. Most Band stores have ridiculously cheap rental programs designed to help parents of band students (they are hoping to sell a horn if your student wants to continue playing). This is a great way to go because they make sure the horn plays well (they won't end up with a horn sale if you quit because you get frustrated). It cost me $10/month to rent a tenor sax for the first 6 months and went up to $30/month after that!

One band I am in is subsidized by the municipal Government (and we play music at of their patriotic events). The other two cost $15/month (covers both concert and jazz band) to pay for rental of rehearsal/storage facility, music (including files and copy machine), Band owned gear (Kettle Drums, PA, Keyboard, etc), and the director is a part time paid position. So $180/year for fees.

One nice thing about the New Horizons Band program is the guy sitting next to you was most likely in your shoes a couple of years ago, so they are not going to get upset about a wrong note or two as you are getting your chops back. The important thing is to know what not to play in the concerts until you get on top of things. As TLSGuy likes to say "sins of commission are worse than sins of omission"!

When you start out you will see great progress as things start coming back to you. I had to ask the guy next to me some ridiculously embarrassing questions (like I had forgotten what the double sharp symbol was/meant). It took me about two years to fully get back the proficiency I had when I quit 30 years earlier. Now I am playing better than I ever had before I quit (in most ways - the years have given me a better sense of style/interpretation, but I now need to mark most of the sharps and flats on my music rather than attempting to remember what key signature I am in ).

Hope this helps anyone planning retirement. It has been great for me!

I played trombone in 5th & 6th grades, but most of my friends either didn't play or had stopped and we were interested in doing other things, mostly sports. I did keep playing guitar and bass, but stopped for a couple of years and in that time, I lost most of my sight-reading ability and that sucks because I was a good reader. If I had kept playing, I may have ended up continuing- partly because I really like the sound of trombone and also because our high school had some great musicians, one of whom is in the running for his second Grammy. Another played bass in Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers after the original bassist left and a girl from my class records and tours around the world as a pianist.

Last time I played a trombone was in the '70s and after a minute, I felt like I had a mouthful of bees- my lips buzzed for quite a while after that. When I played, I had to come up with a method of hitting the right notes, since the way I was(n't) taught bass clef only had the clef, but not the whole staff- it was easier to learn the notes by their slide position than their names but I still made 1st chair in about 2 months, with the old 1st chair player having played the year before. I had a good ear then, but it's far better now.

Maybe we could use musical notation when we argue online- it's less harsh than many of the words written.

Like this, to nobody in particular-

 

[highfigh]

If this is what you want, Richard, congratulations.

My wife wants me to retire, and at the moment I can't imagine it. I tried getting out of the corporate R&D world four years ago, since it is easy to get fed up with the BS. I had a list of everything I wanted to try, but I found after some months that I missed working with people smarter than I am on difficult projects, so I was fortunate enough to be able to go back to work. Not everyone gets another chance in my field. (The high-tech industry has a lot of age discrimination in it.)

Kurt, I totally agree about community bands. My wife just joined one a short time ago (in addition to the small private bands she plays in), and she loves it. And, IMO, they're very good. For the first concert I wasn't expecting much, perhaps on the level of a high school orchestra, but they were a lot better than that. Quite surprising.

Mechanical, electrical, chemical R&D? What about looking into designing items that could help in what may be a niche market, but in some kind of large industries?

 

[Irvrobinson]

Mechanical, electrical, chemical R&D? What about looking into designing items that could help in what may be a niche market, but in some kind of large industries?

Enterprise networking, computing, and storage system product development. I'm hooked on big projects. Some might call it being institutionalized. ;-)

 

[highfigh]

Enterprise networking, computing, and storage system product development. I'm hooked on big projects. Some might call it being institutionalized. ;-)

I did a small theater for someone in storage- apparently, he sold his company to IBM and he still runs it. Let me know if you want me to contact him about some kind of participation.

One thing you could do is write a book on setup and maintaining stability/throughput of WiFi networks, for the Custom Integration chain. I took a networking course at the local tech college in '06, but we didn't touch WiFi. CEDIA is one group I would contact about this.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I did a small theater for someone in storage- apparently, he sold his company to IBM and he still runs it. Let me know if you want me to contact him about some kind of participation.

One thing you could do is write a book on setup and maintaining stability/throughput of WiFi networks, for the Custom Integration chain. I took a networking course at the local tech college in '06, but we didn't touch WiFi. CEDIA is one group I would contact about this.

Thanks, but I like my job.

 

[sholling]

Years ago, a friend and I were complaining about our jobs and at one point, he asked "What are we gonna do when we grow up?" and I said I'd like to have a couple of good-paying hobbies. That's my plan- one hobby making things to sell would become like a job and it could become a chore but having more than one would be much better.

It sounds like you have a good plan. Being in information tech retirement came 10 years too early for me (in IT age discrimination is the rule and not an exception). I can afford it as long as I don't go nuts on any hobby but it bores me enough that I had to get a job doing something fun.

 

[herbu]

Some might call it being institutionalized. ;-)

Wow. I always suspected that might be your situation.

(Just kidding )

 

[highfigh]

Thanks, but I like my job.

I mean after you retire. OTOH, it's nice to have a change in direction after a while, too.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Congrats, that's just awesome.

 

[lsiberian]

Congrats! Does this mean we start seeing some build threads?

 

[Diesel57]

Well, I can no longer avoid talking about it, I'm gonna retire soon. They've scheduled a retirement lunch for me at work on Dec. 9th. I guess I have to show up at work that day.

I've been at my present job for the last 19 years, and I've worked 40 years as a scientist. That includes graduate school starting in 1976, the bottom rung of that career path. I hadn't realized it was that long . Most of my career I've worked in various aspects of cancer – trust me, you don't want to know more .

Before grad school, I spent 4 brief, or all too long, years (1971-75, my perspective varies) in the Navy, back in the days of mandatory military service. So counting a few other brief jobs, I've worked 45 years. It's time to hang it up, sleep late (if I remember how), smell the roses, get Medicare, yadda, yadda.

Now I'll have lots more time to join the ranks of those other grouchy curmudgeons who (claim to) know far more than the rest of you about audio .

I'm late but with sincerity...CONGRATULATIONS...now the real work begins, everyone knows you're going to be home...Swerd, enjoy!!!

 

[haraldo]

CONGRATS

My brother retired from a manager job in Statoil, as they were doing some really good "packages". Now he made his own personal Ltd company and will try to get back in as a well paid consultant.

I think the prospect for retiring for you mate is a genuine opportunity to do what you want further on.

Do what you love, love what you do

Good luck !

 

[haraldo]

...... Being home 24/7 with your spouse seems like a more profound change in lifestyle.....

Lucky you, I envy you

We do this but only for limited amounts of time, life doesn't get better than that