Retirement: Resist or Succumb?

 It isn't that I want to work forever, we all know I am lazy at heart and would love to live out my last decade or two doing nothing but reading, eating, cooking and traveling. The dilemma comes when I realize that those four things will not sustain a meaningful life for 15-20 years. Maybe I need a hobby?  Something to occupy my mind and body other than being slothful?

Three of my siblings have retired as have many of my friends. Ours is the Baby Boom generation and we are all in our 60's and 70's, the correct age bracket to retire.  But so many people have things that they love to do and retirement gives them the time to do those things: play golf, paint, build a boat, write a book, buy an RV and drive thousands of miles a year. Others have fun for a year or two and then get bored and depressed because they feel their lives are pointless. I don't want to fall into that category but I worry that I might.

In March 2020 a lot of us were forced to "retire" because of the Covid pandemic. California shut down for three months and most jobs disappeared for that time. People worked from home when they could but when you work in hospitality, like myself, that's not possible. When things began to reopen, I decided to wait to go back to work until it seemed safe. That wait was 15 months. Then I took myself out of that imposed retirement and now I am wondering how to approach my real retirement at the end of this year.

It seems like I need to have a plan. I have no idea what that plan entails but at this moment I have five and a half months to figure it out. 

Part of me wants to be accountable for that plan in a way that will guarantee I actually will make some kind of a plan. In other words, if I start writing about it now, maybe I will be prepared for retirement starting January 1, 2022. Let's see how that unfolds. If you are one of the two people who read this, keep checking in and we'll see how well I do.  Thanks for coming along on this ride.

Two excellent documentaries on Netflix

Sometimes you watch something and it makes you want to call your friends and tell them to watch it, too. These two documentaries are like that. Both important, very well made, honest and more than a little thought-provoking.

"Disclosure" is not just a look at the world of transgender people but a look at how they have been portrayed in the media. In the last couple of years we have read and seen so much about the trans world but not many of us really understand it or what transgender people must face. This documentary gives us a good look at that process; the interviews are straightforward and emotional and sometimes funny.  It's meaningful and powerful and at the same time, very enjoyable to watch.

However, "Breaking Boundaries" is more intense and a bit frightening in its honest assessment of the planet Earth and the fight to mitigate climate change. Hosted by David Attenborough and scientist Johan Rockstrom, this presents what might be the last chance we have to save the vast destruction of so much of life on Earth. It is beautifully filmed and incredibly important in its clarity about what is happening now and the short span of time humans have to reverse the horrific effects of climate change.

Watch them both.  You won't regret either one.

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Working? Working!

 This working thing is exhausting. Seriously, what was I thinking saying "Yes" to the request to go back to the rat race? Well, the money, yes, that's a good thing and I am certainly motivated by cash and am not complaining about it, even though I would have made more money in the next couple of months by staying on the dole, but whatever.....  slothfulness was an encroaching fungus and working is a way to keep that fungus at bay, I suppose. 

But there must be a better way to cure slothfulness than going to an actual job. (Yes, I could have taken up yoga or invented a new  hobby but that didn't seem likely because I am too slothful.) It isn't the actual going to the job that's the problem, it's being at the job for eight hours. That's the difficult thing. Walking into the hotel lobby at 7:30 a.m. is fine, it's nice and quiet, no one is about, the place is mine for about 45 minutes and my early morning tasks are simple. But by 8:15 a.m. that new-day peace has been shattered and it's a downhill slog for the next seven hours. By quitting time at 4:00 p.m. I am wiped out, trying to hide my crankiness and done with the entire concept of work. 

Now please don't think I hate my job because I don't. It's easy, I get to bake muffins and breads and scones for the breakfast service, I meet nice people, my fellow inmates workers are lovely and fun. But most of my shift is spent on my feet and these feet are old and getting older and crustier by the day. Plus, no matter how much you like your job it is still work. There is a vast difference between "not hating" the job and "loving" the job.  Miles of distance. And it is still work. 

The more than 12 months of pandemic isolation was, for the most part, quiet and serene.  Boring at times, yes. A waste of a year in many ways, yes. But was it work?  No.  A resounding "No."  Now the serenity is gone, the boredom has shifted and it all makes me tired.  When my boss asked me to come and work with her I said I would do it for six months. That means my sentence is up on December 1st. There are reasons to work a few weeks beyond that and I probably will but I am not planning on carrying on much past the end of 2021.  But we all know how mercurial the world is, how things change, how our strident opinions soften with time.  We'll see.  Right now it's difficult getting back in the work groove.

Here's what I made one day last week, and I am proud of the output.  My goal is to make at least 50 muffins and two loaves of bread a day so that there is an ample supply of tasty treats for the four days I am not there baking.

That's all for now, folks.  Thanks for reading along.

A few more flowers

 Yes, a blog about flowers is sort of boring, but it's also rather pretty.  These are some I have posted on Instagram in the past month.  Enjoy.