1 Year Retireversary

Yep, it has been a whole year since The Office pushed me out the door and said don’t come back.. I remember because 12/21 is the winter solstice, and there is more daylight each day from now on.

2020 sure didn’t work out the way I was imagining.

I figured by now I would be living in my castle, with multiple 21 y/o females running around to keep me active. And my flying electric F150 truck would be on the helipad on the roof.

Oh, wait, that wouldn’t even had been true in my deepest fantasy dreams..

But I did figure I would have spent a good part of the year visiting places and gathering nice experiences. 2020 sure did throw me, and the rest of the world, a curve ball. Swing, and a miss….

What has happened?

I did sell the home in Florida, and buy a decent house up here in Ohio. The needed fixes were a bit more than I expected here though. Totally new appliances in the kitchen(even the garbage disposal) and laundry, plus total replacement of the HVAC, weren’t in the plan. Becoming a landscaper and yard worker, wasn’t either. Tough to find quality yard workers so far, and I had to re-accumulate all of the equipment I’ve sold or given away down in Florida, so I could do it myself. Had to fix up the outbuilding, and the deck too. Not expected for certain.

The good news is that those things gave me something to do in the summer (was there a summer??). Now that we are back in our 8 months of winter, working outside is not that possible. But things are needed — I’ll mention those in a bit.

What I have done, is create myself a craft/hobby/work room. I turned the computer room about and added a 30x18 CNC router/laser burner, and have added all kinds of “dremel” tools like a router, a drill press, a scroll saw, and more. Also mini-sanders, grinders and other tools to work with thin wood and acrylic. I will use these to keep my sanity in the deep of winter.

I also decorated for Christmas for the first time in years. Even if the only people to see it were the housekeeper ladies, and the Orkin bug guy. Quick note on bugs. Other than darn house flies coming from outside most of the year, all the critters inside are long gone. 95% went away when I had the vents cleaned (another expense), and Orkin has chased the rest outside. Shoot, he even went above and beyond and sprayed a yellow jacket ground nest in my neighbor’s yard after I got stung a few times. Said his job was to protect me and my home from critters.

My photography room is a wreck with all of the empty boxes strewn about. Also discovered I had so much holiday prop stuff, I only put out about half of it, and the place looks cluttered. Don’t need any more.

I didn’t do a Christmas photo card this year, but did get out card packs to my list. That was a pain with the Cleveland Post Office crew not being at full staff and not getting me most of my supplies. Shoot, I see they may be delivering today, some of the prepaid boxes I ordered in mid-November. They are really behind.

But the best thing I did all year was adopt Kitty from the rescue. She is still quite shy around others, but has warmed up to me. She is usually sitting at arms length from me wanting head scratches and attention. Even comes into my bedroom a few times each night to make sure I am still there and will jump up and meow in my ear to make sure I respond. Good thing I don’t sleep much.

Now there is something that hasn’t changed with retirement. I really hoped that I’d start sleeping well without the work stress. Hasn’t happened. Most nights I may get the same 2-3 hours of sleep out of the 8 in bed, that I always did. Some nights, like last night, it is closer to zero hours. I guess that’s just the way I am meant to be.

Back to needing to be done. See, I didn’t forget. Brain still works just like always. Chasing butterflies, but always finding its way back.

This house is in need of a whole house generator solution. The electricity has gone out a few times for as long as a day. High winds and lots of trees in an area where they still run the juice above ground on poles. I will likely look into some solution in the next month or two. I was originally thinking it wouldn’t be a problem since I had gas heat, gas stove/oven, gas water heater, etc. Duh, nowadays, they all electricity to run the computers to start. And the gas heat is blown air. Need juice to make those fans spin. So I need a generator or battery backup hooked into the panel.

Also, the winds make one tree slap against the side of the house. That tree has got to go.. And the 3 huge trees in the back yard are messy and not in that great of shape. Would like to see them leave too. Just more expenses.

Oh, missed another thing I’ve been doing. I did erect a couple of small green house covers over some raised garden beds outside. The test growing went okay this fall. Thus, I hope to grow some peppers, tomatoes, etc., come spring. And to keep it going, I’ve put together a set of “Click and Grow” planters inside that I’ve been using for Basil, snow peas, mini tomatoes, and soon, peppers. I’m surprised how well they’ve done. I figure I’ll use the grow lights to get my outside garden a pre-start.

Well, there’s my 1 year update. I do hope to get back to more frequent blogs. I just need something to write. Sitting around listening to bad weather outside, and watching YouTube videos on CNC routers, just doesn’t add up to an interesting day.

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday season, and that 2021 brings us all the best of a new year.

Enjoy Life,

Jody