A Day in the Life of Bob

The most common question we have gotten since Bob retired is “how do you spend your time?”  It’s a reasonable question.  I think we are both surprised at how busy we have been.  If you have been following the blog you know we have done a lot of travel since May, and that has consumed many weeks’ time.  But in between trips we aren’t sitting around twiddling our thumbs.

I’ve always suspected Bob would love retirement.  He has lots of interests and now he has time for them.  Bob is also a pretty disciplined guy so no real surprise here but he makes time for the activities he enjoys as well as the tasks or chores on his list.  Yes, sometimes it’s a “honey-do” list from me!

The one concession to not having a schedule is that Bob lets himself sleep until he awakens instead of jumping out of bed when the alarm goes off; it doesn’t go off anymore!  He spent the last many years getting up at 4:30am and being at his office by 6:00am but even at that early rising hour Bob found time to do some exercise before leaving the house.  He still does start every morning with stretching and tai chi exercises.  Then he heads out for a morning walk.  He’s dedicated!  We live in a good neighborhood for walking and he enjoys it.

Stretching

Tai Chi

 

Foggy morning walk

During breakfast Bob’s glued to the iPad reading the news, watching the stock market and getting caught up on email.  What did we ever do before we had email or social media? 

Breakfast & the stock market

Then time for some chores . . . he claims he actually enjoys them.  Generally he is out gardening or cleaning out the filter to the koi pond and changing the water. 

Gardening

Koi Pond

Like anyone, there’s always something that needs to be done around the house.  We have a pretty traditional split of chores, always have had, and it works for us.  However, I’m very pleased to disclose that Bob has taken over vacuuming inside the house.  I hated doing it; he does a much better job and I appreciate it.

Vacuuming

Generally, I’m more “the errand runner” so often I’m out and about while Bob putts around outside.  One lesson quickly learned after he retired is that we don’t have to spend all our time together.  At first, I felt I should invite him to go to Target or the grocery store and he felt he had to say “sure dear.”  That got old pretty fast and now “I’m going to Target” is sort of code for I need some time to myself.  His code is “I’m going to Home Depot.”  I’m sure many of you readers, retired or otherwise, can relate.

One of the things Bob loves to do but hasn’t had much time for in many years is painting.  He has dabbled in many mediums but seems to enjoy watercolors most.  Now he has the time and we just need to find a designated space for him to indulge.  Our house is fairly small so he seems to rotate between the dining room, the kitchen or the office.  I think Bob is quite talented and I’m happy to have several of his pieces decorating our home.  We often joke that we may hit the road displaying at regional “art in the park” events.  Who knows what the future will bring?

Acrylic

Watercolor Petroglyph

 

Almost a "Monet"

 

Lately we have been brushing up on our Spanish, spending a few minutes after lunch every day practicing.  Our next big trip is to Costa Rica (snowbirds for two months!) and we won’t be fluent but hopefully we can make an effort to speak the pleasantries and understand what’s being said to us. I studied Spanish for six years in school and am not fluent; it’s a skill I wish I had kept up with.  Language needs to be used, or you do lose it! 

Como se dece?

 

 Who knew Bob was harboring a desire to be a rock star?  I didn’t, and we’ve been married nearly 35 years!  One morning he came out of the office after spending time at the computer and announced he just bought a guitar.  I’m envisioning an acoustic guitar but a few days later a beautiful electric guitar arrives.  Then an amplifier arrives.  I ask if he is going to take lessons and I’m informed he is taking an online course.  I guess you can learn to do anything online these days . . . and actually, each day I can hear improvement and am beginning to recognize a tune.  Bob, the rock star!

Bob, the Rock Star

Practice, practice!

 

We recently ran into Bob’s boss who immediately asked if he was ready to come back to work.  Without hesitation Bob replied “no.” Then his boss asked if I was ready for Bob to go back to work.  Again, “no.”  We are enjoying this time and each other.  I guess the point about Bob’s retired life is that he is disciplined, dedicated, and never idle.  There’s always something that needs to be done or he wants to do.  He approaches every day as an opportunity and blessing.  I’m not worried about him filling his time; his dance card is full.

We rather spontaneously headed out to the OR coast for a couple days “ocean fix.”  We love the community of Gearhart and always enjoy a walk on the beach.  The weather was quite stormy and the ocean angry but you just have to appreciate the dynamics of nature. 

Gearhart beach

Tillamook Head, south of Gearhart

After the storm passed we happened to come across an unlikely site . . . a large herd of elk grazing at the city park on the edge of Seaside, the neighboring community.  Who knew elk like to go to the beach also?  It was a very special treat!

Just a few of the cows

Who's looking at who?

Our insight into retirement for now is that it has been helpful to have a plan, have some interests you want to do, and let yourself enjoy!  Also, be open to trying something new . . . you just may become a rock star!

MA-NY Happy Returns

One of the big post-retirement challenges for Bob and I has been trying to be more spontaneous.  A couple weeks ago we learned through Facebook that Bob’s Aunt in Massachusetts was turning 90 and there was going to be an open house in her honor.  We decided to go, and immediately booked some tickets.  We were able to use airline miles so the trip would be inexpensive and we were glad we could put it together.   It was a spontaneous decision and a wonderful celebration!

Bob’s Aunt lives in Western MA; we flew to Albany NY from our local airport to Minneapolis, then to Detroit, and finally to ALB.  One of the drawbacks of living on the West Coast is losing three hours when you travel to the Eastern US.  It took us the entire day with layovers and travel time, leaving at 7:00am PST and arriving in ALB at 10:30pm EST.  The joys of traveling on free tickets.  I don’t normally comment on where we stay but let’s just say that we hadn’t seen this plaster before; it was very strange!

Unusual plaster on all the walls

The next day we drove into MA from NY and had fun visiting the small towns Bob remembered from childhood.  His Grandmother lived in Great Barrington and Housatonic.  Both are charming towns, dotted with art galleries and prominent churches. We particularly enjoyed lunch at the Pleasant and Main cafe in Housatonic, a former textile and paper mill town.

Housatonic River

Stockbridge is known as “home to Norman Rockwell” and is a picturesque little village popular with plenty of tourists (not bad this time of year).  The Red Lion Inn and the General Store are featured prominently in Rockwell’s paintings. 

Stockbridge General Store

Red Lion Inn

Yep, it's real!

Stockbridge Church

Stockbridge Church

Great Barrington is the final resting place of many of Bob’s relatives.  We found the Mahawei cemetery and paid our respects at the family plot.  I found it interesting that many families have large plots, with a central towering monument and all the other graves around it.  A bit of family history . . . William Stanley, Jr., inventor of the first alternating current device, which was the precursor to the electric transformer, was a relative of the Taylor family (Bob’s mother’s ancestry.)  William Stanley, Jr. founded the Stanley Manufacturing Company in Great Barrington. Stanley’s company was later acquired by General Electric. 

Taylor Family Memorial

Bob's Grandmother's Family

Bob's Grandmother, ETT

Our primary destination was the town of Pittsfield.  Once home to General Electric it has suffered a dramatic downturn in the economy and population since GE pulled out in the late 1980’s.  Bob’s Mother grew up in Pittsfield, which is also home to his Aunt whose birthday we were celebrating.   Pittsfield is in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains.  It’s a beautiful part of the country, especially in autumn.  We were too late for the peak of the fall colors but still very scenic.  One of our favorite sights was the town square, decorated with 500 US flags in honor of forthcoming Veteran’s Day.

Honoring Our Vets

Pittsfield Church

Pittsfield Church

Pittsfield City Hall

 We really surprised Bob’s Aunt.  Her family opened her home to all of her friends and neighbors; it was a busy afternoon and I’m sure she was pretty tuckered out at the end of the day.  She repeatedly told us she “couldn’t believe we would come all that way” just for her.  It was our distinct pleasure to visit and we are honored to have been able to be part of her 90^th birthday.  She’s a sweetheart of a lady, and a blessing.

Bob and his lovely Aunt

Happy 90th!

Bob's Aunt and four of her children

Over the weekend Bob was able to re-connect with his Taylor cousins.  He has seven cousins “on his Mother’s side” and six of them were present.  We hadn’t seen them in several years but are hoping to close that gap.  In a nod to social media, Facebook has helped them reconnect with one another.

Our hotel's coffee  was terrible so off we went both mornings in search of some (seriously, we needed it!).  When in the Eastern US you have to go to Dunkin Donuts, because you just have to!  So we hit that one morning but the next day we spotted a local shop.  We figured it would be good . . . let the photos say it all. 

We only had one!

If the Police like the donuts . . .

The Berkshires are Shaker country!  Just outside of Pittsfield is the Hancock Shaker Village, worthy of a visit . . . however, it was closed for the season.  We did get a couple photos; note the round barn which allows the farmer to stand in the middle on the upper level and feed up to 52 cattle at once by throwing the hay.  We'll hope to catch a visit on another trip earlier in the year.

Shaker Barn

Shaker Village

On Sunday we left Pittsfield and drove north toward Mt. Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts.  The road to the 3491’ summit winds through hardwood forests laced with hiking trails, including the Appalachian Trail.  The views from the summit are stunning and encompass five states, MA, NY, CT, NH, and VT.  At the summit is a Veterans War Memorial in the form of a 93’ high tower with a lighted beacon at the top.  After visiting the summit we took an alternate route, Notch Road, down the mountain into the town of North Adams.  Approaching the town reminded us of driving off Whinlatter Pass in the Lake District of England; a winding narrow road with blind curves into the village.  We continued west to Williamstown, the crossroads of the Taconic and Mohican Trails.

Mt. Greylock War Memorial

Views from Mt. Greylock

Williamstown is home to Williams College, a top-ranked small private liberal arts college.  The campus is beautiful and the town is full of beautiful old buildings.  The Sterling and Francine Clark Institute of Art, simply known as “The Clark” is an outstanding art museum and art history research institution in the community. www.clarkart.edu/
We were astounded to see the large number of Renoir, Gaugin, and Monet pieces along with an impressive collection of other American and European artists’ works.

The Clark

Leaving the beautiful northern Berkshires of MA we crossed the Taconic range back into NY.  Albany is the capital city of NY, and part of the greater metropolitan area including Schenectady and Troy.  It lies along the Hudson River and is one of the oldest surviving European settlements from the original thirteen colonies.  The State Capitol building is impressive, and combines different styles of architecture as the building was expanded over many years; it is designated as a US National Historic Landmark.

NY State Capitol Building

When we arrived in Albany we saw highway marker signs for the suburb of Loudonville and remembered we had friends living there.  We took a chance (again, practicing our spontaneity!) and called them, and luckily they were in town.  Bob and Stan were good friends in college, but had not seen each other except at a reunion last year.  It was great fun to get together with them for an afternoon visit and early dinner. 

With this trip to MA and NY, Bob and I have visited 25 states since mid-May (WA, OR, CA, NV, ID, UT, CO, KS, MO, IL, KY, TN, OH, IN, MI, WI, MN, IA, NE, WY, SD, MT, AK, MA & NY).  It’s been a fun year and we are grateful.  Our insight into retirement this week is we hope we can be as blessed and delightful at 90 as Bob’s Aunt, and MA-NY Happy Returns to her!

Coming Out

It wasn’t easy but Bob and I have finally come out.  We are bloggers.  Our first post was March 6, 2015, which also happened to be our 34^th wedding anniversary. This post is our 44^th post in eight months.  How did we get here? 

Well, we are blaming it on our daughter.  Yes, it’s all Amy’s fault.  She sent us a link to a blog she thought we’d enjoy.  Amy’s words (I’ve kept the text) were that she could "see us doing this."  The blog she directed us to is wonderful.  Check it out!  Senior Nomads In Europe can be found at seniornomads.blogspot.com .  Michael and Debbie Campbell are from Seattle.  They sold everything and began traveling all over Europe and blogging about it.  They primarily stay at Airbnb accommodations (airbnb.com/) and those experiences provided a theme for their blog; they are well into their second year of full time travel and blogging.  The Seattle Times newspaper featured an article on the Senior Nomads, which is what Amy read and suggested we could also do.  We thought she meant blogging . . . she was actually suggesting we sell everything and travel the world.  Amy may have had some hidden motives!

Our lovely daughter, Amy

In early March we were less than two months away from retirement, or to be specific, Bob was retiring.  We knew it was going to be a major transition, and maybe others would appreciate our challenges.  We had four major trips planned and wanted some way to combine our photos with our experiences.  Blogging seemed to be a good fit.  Until this week we hadn’t shared it with anyone other than our four adult “kids”, Amy & Mike, Shane & Alex.  They seemed to enjoy it and encouraged us to continue writing and taking photos.

But now we are out.  Coming out is an interesting term, isn’t it?  In higher social circles “coming out” usually refers to parties where young women are considered of age to be a part of society, or in the Victorian era, eligible to marry.  The girls, considered debutantes, are literally making their entrance into society.  In modern times (1960’s) I guess the equivalent is going to prom . . . something I did and most of my friends did . . . and fifty years later we are retiring.

   

Today, the phrase “coming out” is generally used as a self-disclosure of sexual orientation, primarily within the LGBT community. As parents we’ve been on the other side of that conversation and know that love for a child means unconditional love. 

Shane & Alex

For Bob and I, coming out as bloggers means we have publicly shared with family and friends an activity that has consumed many, many hours over the last seven months.  I really don’t know why we have been hesitant about sharing the blog.  The whole idea was to share it.  But for some reason, coming out and saying “we have a blog” was intimidating.  Maybe we don’t really like to call attention to ourselves.  Maybe we felt we didn’t have anything unique to share.  Maybe we felt that everybody and their mother have a blog . . . and now Amy & Shane’s mother and father do have a blog!  Regardless, it was a big step for us.

But I think we know we have something to offer, if only because we know most of our friends are experiencing many of the same things but we just aren’t talking about it.  We all talk about the fun things we do, the trips we are planning, and the visits with family and grandkids.  By the way, Shane just told us that all of our grandkids “are furry.”  We don’t have grandkids but have three fun grand dogs and a grand kitty.

Aiden & Ellie, double trouble

Phoebe, ever watchful kitty

Miss Daisy making herself comfy!

Regardless, we feel as if our retired friends aren’t talking much about the challenges of transitioning into retirement.  Fortunately I have a couple friends who did tell me it was going to be challenging to have Bob home all the time . . . we might not want to share the sandbox.  We decided to put it all out there . . . our “new normal” as Bob calls it.  Many of this summer’s posts have been about our travels but the blog’s intent is to be more than a travelogue.  There are all kinds of issues and concerns newly retired folks share and we want to touch on those as well, or at least share our experiences with daily retired life.  Several of the earlier posts do just that.

There are lots of “how to blog” books and articles and websites out there to use as tools.  

Resources

We just sort of jumped in.  I’d heard of blogger.com and went to that site.  The platform was relatively easy to figure out but there are all sorts of “add-on” features we haven’t tackled.  I’ve learned quite a bit from reading the FAQ and “help” sections of the website.  Somewhere along the line we realized blogger.com is owned by Google, so we could do more developing searches and interest.  Our tech savvy son, Shane, came over for Bob’s birthday and gave us a lesson on connecting to Instagram to post photos and develop a following. instagram.com/ourretirementinsight/ Instagram is owned by Facebook so it was only natural to create a FB page for the website blog. facebook.com/Our-Retirement-InSight The readership has jumped tremendously since doing those two simple things.  There’s a lot more to learn though, and we aren’t sure where we want to take the blog.  We’ll just take it slow for now.

But in the meantime, we appreciate all who have read the blog and given the FB page a “thumbs up” and the following on Instagram.  This particular blog post isn’t the most photo worthy but it’s a huge step for us to have acknowledged our “coming out.”  It’s one thing to have been doing it for eight months and only have a handful of people know; it’s another to let our extended family and friends know.  Thanks for your support, and welcome to our journey!