It’s time. I’ve saved for years. I bought five extra years’ service with the state, bolstering my pension. I don’t have to work in the court system any more. The judicial process is painstaking, and as a citizen I appreciate the serious efforts of the courts to apply the law, to resolve conflicts, to get things right — at the same time, I don’t have to take those pains myself any more.
Am I prepared? I bought a college-ruled notebook. After retiring at the end of this year, it will become to-do list and journal. All the little projects I’ve put off for so long. The camera equipment and photos stuffed in boxes and pushed back in a closet. The closets, themselves. Somewhere in the back of the pantry is a stack of recipes (many clipped from the SF Chronicle) -– I look forward to experimenting in the kitchen. Turn on the tunes and triangle between fridge, stove, and countertop with a couple enrapt dogs awaiting their chances.
Three abodes ago my bookcases were organized; in the move from San Francisco to Alameda I gave up a couple built-in bookcases and acquired new shelving. Books were shelved chaotically until, one rainy weekend, I took a box from room to room and re-organized.
But when the missus and I moved in together that order was lost, and buying this house only made the chaos worse. For the last decade open shelves simply acquired my latest reads. I barely separated fiction from nonfiction. I could spend a week or more, months if I put my slothfulness to it, simply re-organizing books. And reading. Like re-visiting old friends, whom I get to shuffle about and mix into new company.
The missus has been through a lot with her mother this last year. One evening late last winter when she came home particularly gob-smacked I asked her to list the ten places in the world she most wanted to visit. I made my own list, too.
It was part therapy and part planning: We put our lists together and lined up some vacations: Belize and Costa Rica; Hawaii enroute to Bali and possibly Thailand; Venice, Budapest, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. Perhaps returning to Paris and London; I’d like to take her to Stockholm, too.
The garden. Books. Reading outside under our trees. Movies. Books about movies and evenings spent working our way down our Netflix list.
And who knows, perhaps reviving this dormant blog, too.
*smile*
OmbudsBen 
Oh, I would love for you to revive this blog. I feel joy for you. Retirement is wonderful when you have interests and an active mind, which you obviously do. Have a wonderful retirement–and take us along for the ride.
I wondered how you were doing and whether the day had come! Fantasic, I’m thrilled for you. Being your own boss is nothing but pleasure, I have found. And I’d love to see you blog more – if you feel like it!
Congratulations! You have a wonderful plan, and I suspect you’re going to love retirement. Not everyone does (maybe because they don’t have a plan?).
Very good to hear from each of you. I miss the way blogging used to be, visiting and actually commenting on each others’ sites, as opposed to “like” buttons. I’ve been remiss in not visiting more often, and hope, too, to remedy that in the new year.
Wow, retirement? How amazing is that. I do wish my company had a pension. At this rate I’ll never retire. Should have gotten a job with the government, I guess. Congratulations on your good planning and saving, and I hope you have a wonderful time of it!