Upon Reflection

 Discussion of retirement has become something of an obligation lately. Friends and family want to know when I am going to "hang it up." 

Having just enjoyed my week and a day long Spring Break, I have some thoughts on this matter. 

First of all, I am not good at "doing nothing." Not at all. Invariably I find projects or commitments that don't allow me to hold still for very long. A fine example of this was the day I spent temporarily eradicating my yard of acacia. The potential that my house and yard present as opportunities to expend a day's energy is certainly worth noting. When I think about the projects my wife and I took on in our "spare time" back in the day, it makes me wonder how I have lasted as long as I have. There is always something that needs to be trimmed, propped, tightened, loosened, drilled or removed. 

But is that really how I see my golden years occupied? 

The alternative, it seems, is to plan all manner of travel and visits to those in far flung places. And after all that gadding about, return to the place we call home and set to work on all the deferred maintenance that was missed due to the previously mentioned gadding about. 

So it seems that retirement requires that I spend more time working on my house and the grounds that surround it. Or I could spend a chunk of the money that I have been putting aside for lo these many moons to buy my way into a retirement community where all that deferred maintenance is taken care of by the people who are employed by the facility to do just that. 

Which begs the question, where do those people go when they have worked long and hard enough? 

Perhaps this is where I would spend those golden years: Thinking about how employees of retirement communities will spend their golden years. This and other universally confounding problems will finally meet their match once I have more time to devote to their dissection. 

Again, it might just be easier to keep on going to work.