The joys of retirement

Today, which would have been a workday before my retirement last Thursday, I went to the office where I used to work.

Nothing much had changed, except today I was there as a volunteer.

I wore shorts, a pullover shirt and sweat socks and jogging shoes. "So how is that different from what you usually wear?" one of my former coworkers asked when I pointed out my leisurely choice of clothing. One thing certainly hasn't changed -- I get no respect. Just call me the Rodney Dangerfield of grant writers.

Before my retirement, I would have been at work at about 8 a.m. Instead, this morning I took my dog, Molly for a nice walk instead. Molly was very happy about that. Because of the walk, I didn't get to the office until about 8:45 a.m. It felt great, being free from the shackles of a work schedule after all these years.

At the office, I got a cup of coffee, hooked myself up to my i-Pod and got to work on a particularly cumbersome grant proposal that's been bedeviling me for several days. I was disappointed to see that it hadn't been finished during the weekend after my retirement, but that would have been expecting too much. After all, who would have finished it?

I worked on the grant proposal, which closely resembles a federal tax return, until my usual quitting time at about 1 p.m. (I was on a 20-hour-week schedule before I retired). It still isn't finished, but it's as finished as I can make it. Someone else is going to have to fill in the rest of the blanks. So after turning it over to that unlucky person, I said so long to the office.

Someone asked me exactly what I had accomplished by retiring. Well, I don't have to show up at work in the morning unless I feel like it, I can wear shorts to work if I want, and when I'm ready to go home I can leave what I'm working on for somebody else to finish. I plan to be a good volunteer, but that doesn't mean I have to be there every day.

All in all, it seems like quite an improvement.