A Few Quotes and Thoughts About Retirement

As the saying goes, when one chapter ends another begins.

"The trouble with retirement is that you never get a day off."
--Abe Lemons

"Sooner or later I'm going to die, but I'm not going to retire."
--Margaret Mead

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."
--John Barrymore

"Retirement is not in my vocabulary. They aren't going to get rid of me that way."
--Betty White

From my youth till a couple years ago I never gave much thought to retirement. Yes, I had been setting money aside, paying down our house and all that, but the notion of actually retiring was a concept not in my vocabulary. Hence, this cake was so apt. A new chapter is beginning. Today will be the end of something, and tomorrow... a new story will begin.

I don't know about you, but there is usually a soundtrack playing in my head. I wonder if that is a phenomenon of growing up watching movies. Did people in the Middle Ages have soundtracks playing in their heads? (If they did, they certainly had a different name for it.) This week's soundtrack is courtesy the Grateful Dead: "What a long strange trip it's been."

* * * *

So, what next? People keep asking, and as for now it's uncertain. I have a long list of things I want to write, articles on various themes, stories I want to tell. As of tomorrow my "day job" will no longer occupy the bulk of my waking hours. Before I write the next chapter I'll need to take a short break to work on the Preface and Intro.

Here's one more quote related to retirement that I excluded from the above: "Gods retirement plan is out of this world." Hopefully I won't be learning the details on that plan any time soon. I still have more to accomplish here first.

What will you accomplish in 2018? Have a very special Christmas, and a majorly meaningful new year!