In retirement, we like to joke that each week is like “six Saturdays and a Sunday” (and perhaps seven Saturdays for those who don’t have to set the alarm to get up for church).
Today I’m thinking about how different things were back when my husband and I use to eagerly await holiday weekends. Sometimes we even went camping.
As a teacher I had summers off (not really, as the teachers out there well understand, but I digress). When I retired, the summer off just went on and on and on…
But the BIG difference was going shopping, running errands, and there are NO kids and much less traffic between morning rush hour and about 3PM. I definitely notice the difference when it is either school break or during the summer.
Ah yes. We call it “endless summer”. There is a hydrangea variety called “endless summer” and it’s my standard gift to retiree friends.
I may have mentioned this upstream or somewhere. And it is for all retirees. Errands take a fraction of the time. The first month I was retired, I had one Monday where I needed to go to the bank, post office, and get my tires rotated. All of that took less than an hour.
And for those of us who were on a school year schedule, isn’t it nice to be able to fly places when the airfares are not at peak…and any day of the week!
Because we were forced to travel in the heat of summer, since retirement, we only travel now in the spring or fall, which was impossible while working.
Exactly. We go on our annual Jersey Shore vacation the full week after Labor Day. It’s off peak, and a fraction of the cost, and way less crowded.
Yep, the minute my daughter was out of school, we loved traveling as a family “off-season” in the fall or spring.
No trips or visitors, but it’s been busy. Memorial Day found me mulching under H’s watchful eye after weeding and trimming. We’ve done much better with planning meals and not purchasing to excess. I’d rather shop like a European - there’s really no need to stock up on such huge quantities. A friend invited us to their church after experiencing some dissatisfaction with the one we were attending. This past weekend a member of my Pilates group hosted us all at his home - he and his wife live in the country with a beautiful garden. It was nice to socialize with some new folks! H still has PT a few times a week and we’ll be back to oncology in a few weeks. What’s everyone else been up to?
The retirees from my school meet monthly for lunch and today was the last one until fall. The next event is “The Not Back To School Breakfast” which I have planned for about a dozen years.
The weekend was great. Neighborhood brunch at our lakefront…and it was a beautiful day!
We also went to a new restaurant that just opened on our town…has a pub menu, and it was very good. We will got back and try some new things. Nice to be able to go at 4:30 and beat the dinner crowd.
DH is getting ready to do a 115 mile bike ride the Saturday before Fathers Day. He is so happy to be able to ride during the week, and not just on weekends. Says he is in better shape for this long ride.
We’re enjoying the cool weather in Maine. Had lunch with our BFs at a favorite place on the water. Enjoyed a glass of champagne with our lobster fried rice. DS/DIL are coming up to the cabin for the week of the 4th, so something to look forward to.
I had lunch with my favorite former coworker Monday. It was wonderful to spend the majority of our time talking about our families rather than work. We did touch on work a little, which only made me feel even better about retirement. After lunch, I stopped by her office because she had forgotten to bring something she wanted to give me. I said hi to a couple people, but it was nice to not really worry about making chitchat with those I didn’t want to make chitchat with. One person I did want to chitchat with gave me three books to read, so I felt like I hit the jackpot!
We had dinner with friends. He has been a partner in a VC firm. I always found talking with him very stimulating. I would ask him about the new interesting companies and technologies he was seeing. He was very animated and the window into that world is always interesting (I live partly adjacent but always learned a lot looking through that window). His firm is not raising another fund and he is semi-retired. He is tending the flock of portfolio companies he invested in and was strikingly less animated in our general conversation. We were hearing from him and his wife about their trip to Japan in order to plan ours. I wonder if his lack of animation (ShawWife and I both noticed it) was due to the transition to retirement or something else.
Hopefully he’s just adjusting to retirement. Having all the stimulation of exciting new companies and ventures removed from daily life would definitely give one less to be excited about. At one point in my career, I worked with a law firm that was going through a huge transition when numerous partners left to start a rival firm. I loved my job when i was helping hire new employees and work on client retention. When that ended and I was faced with the reality of what my job would be - well, blech. I quickly decided I wanted to go back to being a worker bee. Your friend might be happier just retiring 100% and looking for new “fun” things to do!
I just came back from a 6-day trip to Pittsburgh with a scheduled group. Some drove and I flew (from N AL). It was everything I hoped for and was better than expected. Trip was great. My flight to and from was two-legs, and on return I had to be rerouted because one of my flights was canceled, but it worked out fine - I got home a few hours later and DH picked me up as planned. He received the email about my new flight itinerary, and we were fine with the coordination.
DH and I spent time in the yard yesterday and today. Cleaning up some flower beds, putting down some topsoil and bark mulch. Extended into tomorrow because we ran out of gas today.
We have a lot of work to do in anticipation of selling our house in 2026 and moving to where DD1/SIL/Gkids are.
DH and I both have a short summer trip - he is going canoeing/camping/fishing with two of his three brothers. I will meet up with a friend who is visiting IL from Switzerland (she worked and lives in Switzerland, grew up in IL and attended college in US before living in Switzerland). I will see about a trip to visit a couple other friends in NC/SC - it depends on the one who is working and has messaged about some troubles but IDK what her troubles are.
DD1/SIL/Gkids have two trips going on, and once they return from those we will see what is settling out about the older two kids’ schooling - their current school is closing its doors after 30 years. They have a meeting coming up - a charter classical education school will be leasing the school facilities for 3 years, and we will see if the kids go there, another classical program in their area, or something else. Last Saturday’s news of their school closing was understandably upsetting. The academics were fabulous, and we had hoped all the kids could go K4 - 12 there (GD1 started K there last year and completed first while GS1 went K4 and K at the school). TX school vouchers would have been in effect for Fall 2026.
I might drive to TX and be there some of September and fly back - or a block of time best suited for their needs.
We’re out in our 5th wheel at the moment, visiting some of Washington’s wine country + a few in Oregon. This was prompted by the need to do a pick up from one of our wine clubs & we decided to extend it. Approx 2 weeks, staying in 2 different places.
It is hot, hot, hot ATM, but the AC makes it nice. Visiting different wineries and tasting rooms, eating in or out depending on how we feel.
We don’t use the 5th wheel as often as we maybe should, but when we do we enjoy it. I think 2 weeks is the limit if we do wine tourism - we’re running out of storage space. Haha.
This fall we’re going to Austria, Germany, and France for 7 weeks. I am so looking forward to it.
My retirement started in 2018 because I wouldn’t have been able to take an important trip because of work stuff. Funny - now I can go wherever, whenever.
Hahaha - I had to look up what a 5th wheel was! You’d think I’d know being from Texas and living in Atlanta but nope, never of that before.
They’re very popular in the Midwest!
They are popular here as well but I just never heard the term before.
I had to look up what a 5th wheel was as well! One of my distant cousins and her husband have a RV and they drove it from South Dakota to Virginia for a visit. They travel in it very frequently. Going to pick up wine from your wine club sounds like a lot more fun!
In today’s retiree development, I met with a trainer at the gym. I need to get out of my rut. I was just making up a plan as I went along, which meant I was only doing things that were either just easy or I liked doing them and meant I wasn’t doing anything that would actually help. So I will continue with my Pilates and add in some strength training and HIIT workouts. If those don’t help, I’m going to start eating donuts and drinking wine again. 
In September, I’m starting a new volunteer thing. Two mornings a month, I will be the person at our local artisan art gallery. People come there all the time. Someone needs to open and close the place. And stay there for a few hours. I think I’m going to really like this!
That’s awesome!