Hubby’s list of post-retirement projects long
At 40 my husband was one man who could see no sense in retiring before he was at least 70. At 60 he re-considered his brash youthful statements – retiring at 65 might not be such a bad idea – it would give him time to tackle the myriad of projects, trips and activities he never has time to do with a full time job.
Work does take a huge bite out of each day, but those pay checks sure do provide a lot of traveling money to visit the grandchildren.
As the grandkids grow taller and stronger, my husband says he is getting weaker. Could have fooled me, his energy still wears out everyone, including the grandkids, as much as ever. In fact, earlier this fall he began repainting our house in the day light left after a day of work. He had the house half painted the day he learned that his company’s corporate headquarters was instituting some drastic cut-backs at their subsidiary plants, including temporarily closing the carbon black production plant where he works and laying off half the workers at the Arizona copper mine where my sister’s family lives.
My sister’s oldest son is worried about his job – he was just hired a few weeks before the announcement. My sister has already felt the financial shift. Her husband hasbeen on short term disability since he fell and broke his back this past spring. With a lay-off pending and long-term disability looking inevitable, they are talking of moving away when her teaching contract ends.
Here in El Dorado we already know that my husband will be out of work for a while when his plant temporarily closes at the end of the year. The plant closing and subsequent loss of income were not included in my planned activities for the three years prior to my husband’s retirement at 65 and my daughter’s wedding next summer.
My husband’s first reaction to the news was to paint faster. “We might have to re-locate,” he said in between swishes of the brush as he weighed his options.
Initially he seriously considered retiring at 62 as his big brother did after teaching 40 years in the same school. His brother assured him that retiring early had made little financial difference for him and his wife.
Reviewing my husband’s retirement budget quickly showed us that early retirement would make a drastic dollar difference for us compared to waiting. With that information in mind, when it was too dark to be outside painting, he gathered up his diskettes, sat down at the computer and began updating his resume.
He finished painting the house last weekend – but we aren’t packing our bags yet. He still has another month of work, the holidays to celebrate and my daughter wants to marry in the church where she grew up. While he waits for the plant to re-open he is focusing on ways to establish himself now in work he can continue to do after retirement.
He never will want for things to do. Both my son and his wife on separate occasions asked if he would work on their house. Plus, he still has that long list of projects and activities to do and a myriad of places he wants to visit. We all keep him busy. After he finishes everything on those lists, perhaps even he will be more than ready to retire.