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Old 01-14-2022, 02:29 PM   #1
DutchmenSport
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Retirement ....

.... happened today at 10:00 a.m. Turned in my company laptop at 10:00 am today, all my company owned "stuff", and returned home! It's finally done! After years of planning and financial navigation, it's hard to believe "it" finally arrived.

No plans for the month of January and February for travel. We need to get past our income tax preparation for 2021. Gonna do one more thing after that, and that is to pre-pay and pre-arrange our funerals.

Everything else is paid for, the house is deeded over to our son, so it's our house (and his) forever. Someday, the nursing home can't take the house (like they did with my mother before she died), and all that's left is to travel, enjoy seeing parts of the U.S.A. we've never been to before, and finally having the time to spend in my wood work-shop without always feeling rushed or under the gun to get the latest project done, because of work demands at the office, or required overtime snatching time away.

Well, it finally happened today! After I turned in my laptop, I had about 3 hours of sadness, or emptiness, almost felt like when someone you know dies, or a pet dies. But I played with the dogs with their ball for a good hour today, worked on a wood working project I started several weeks ago, and now waiting on my son to get off work so we can have a small celebration.

It's been a long road. From 14 years old to 16 I worked bailing hay and in a gas station for my uncle. From 16-18 I worked in a small town, local Mom and Pop grocery store. From 18-23 I was in College. Also during that same time I worked part time at McDonalds, and 3 years in a Hospital kitchen. I also went to Israel for an entire year of study.

From 22 to 27 I was in the ministry as a pastor at 3 different churches. During that time, I also worked part time at .... good old McDonalds again.

From 27 to 32 I was in the US Army as a Chaplain Assistant. From 33 to about 43 I returned to the church as a pastor, and worked again part time at the same time at a public library.

The Army taught me computers and software, and during those same years I also started working in Information Technology, originally running printers for a software computer internet site. That led to another job running computers and installing hardware software for a mortgage banking company and by now, I was no longer in the Church as a pastor.

That led to a small family disruption that eventually returned my wife (which I married while I was in the Army) back to Indiana, and again did a few more years as a Pastor, and then made the switch to full time Information Technology as a software tester, where I've been for the last 20 years (same company, but many changes).

I now have 6 grandkids (4 girls, 2 boys). My daughter lives in Hawaii with her 5 kids and husband, and my son lives with us and his 8 year old son.

I've made some good friends over the years with all my jobs, don't care too much for Church any more, but I haven't given up on God! (But his people just stink sometimes!).

Covid dis some wonderful things for us over the last year and a half. It caused my office to shut the doors and we all worked from home. I took the work from home, on the road, and worked from camper almost all of 2021. Been to some great places. Had it not been for Covid, we could have not done near that much travel in 2021, if we (both my wife and me) had t work from the office.

So, I've had a year of transition being home, traveling extensively with the Montana, and adjusting financially to make everything work.

We are now looking forward to more travel. The wife is still working, so phone service is still essential for her hotspot connection and her company laptop (she is also Information Technology).

It had to believe it's over for me. But today was the day I planned for all my life!

I'm finally retired!
 
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Old 01-14-2022, 04:20 PM   #2
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Congratulations and best wishes!
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Old 01-14-2022, 04:32 PM   #3
jcurtis934
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Good things happen and you can now attempt to adjust to this big change. Enjoy the heck out of it and let life happen. You can now be considered as homeless...but in a good way. John
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Old 01-14-2022, 04:40 PM   #4
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Congratulations! Hope you enjoy retirement as much as we do.
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Old 01-14-2022, 04:42 PM   #5
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Congratulations! What a blessing. Retirement can be a mental adjustment as time goes on even if you don't realize it. It took me until I left the parking lot to adjust, well maybe a little longer but allow yourself some time. Freedom is the best part and trailering just adds to it.
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Old 01-14-2022, 05:18 PM   #6
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Congratulations. It’s nice hearing your life story. It’s always good to get to know people. Your story like mine started out in a hay field. After high school machine shop training I went to work in a machine shop and worked in two shop. I build our home when I was 30 and started my shop when I was 35 that was 40 years ago. Never made much money but I didn’t need much living in a $20,000 house I built myself. I never actually retired didn’t need to. I had turned a hobby into a business. It was and still is fun. My little shop in the woods behind my home still supports two families. It’s been a fun ride.
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Old 01-14-2022, 05:35 PM   #7
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Congratulations!!!
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Old 01-14-2022, 06:08 PM   #8
Mikendebbie
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Dutch- that’s a great story! Thanks for sharing and best of luck! Sounds like you are well prepared…I am taking notes!!
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Old 01-14-2022, 06:13 PM   #9
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Glad to see you made it to the finish line which actually is just the start of the next segment of the life long race. It looks like you are well prepared for your next segment. I congratulate you on completing the first and longest segment but I certainly hope you enjoy your next segment even more although it is usually a shorter segment. Welcome to the life of minimal schedules and maximum pleasure.
Happy and safe roads to you.


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Old 01-14-2022, 07:31 PM   #10
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Congratulations on a successful retirement. Keep your head and heart in Jesus, and you will never have a reason to look backwards. Safe travels !
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Old 01-14-2022, 08:31 PM   #11
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Congratulations on retirement. It is a real adjustment going from vacation to retirement. It won’t happen overnight. But it will happen. Enjoy your well earned retirement years.
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Old 01-14-2022, 10:18 PM   #12
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Good deal ... you'll wonder how you worked and still got things done once all the daily little things start popping up to do in retirement. Just a thought although ... keep your life stories to around the campfire as you surely served up a plate full of info for the beginnings of identity theft in this thread. Yes the possibility is real now days ...
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Old 01-15-2022, 03:16 AM   #13
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Congratulations and happy retirement Dutch! Sincerely happy for you.
I hope to post the same notice in 2, maybe 3 more years as of this month. Enjoy your time sir! Well deserved.
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Old 01-15-2022, 05:52 AM   #14
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Congratulations and best wishes.
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Old 01-15-2022, 06:53 AM   #15
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Soon it will be like my family and friends - how did we ever manage a job while doing what we have to do now! We can spend hours a day on 'stuff' to keep things going. When would we have time to do that before retirement!

I kept busy with card games and volleyball at the senior center 3 times a week. But had to give up VB 3 years ago because I kept tearing calf muscles and doc said something serious will happen - like surgery and 6 months recovery! Now it is harder to keep busy.... but we have put on 120,000 miles on 2 trailers and another 80,000 on the truck while on the road. Have seen every National Park that is in North America on our travels. It took 13 years to get that done. You can see the great country and beautiful scenery we have here. Enjoy!
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Old 01-15-2022, 09:41 AM   #16
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congratulations, i have got 10 years into my retirement also. thought i would miss it but never have, miss my friends but then again i still talk to the ones that were important to me. time has flown so far especially these last couple years. enjoy your retirement! another note my sister sent me years ago "yesterday is history , tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift" enjoy your family and friends and your retirement.
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Old 01-15-2022, 10:44 AM   #17
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congratulations, I sold my business and retired in 2019, I do not miss it at all, we love being retired. You will love it.
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Old 01-15-2022, 10:55 AM   #18
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Well done! Hopefully between doing all the things you’ve always wanted to plus maybe some travel, more camping, (especially during the week when most campers are out paying our social security) and your wood shop, you’ll soon be wondering how you ever had time to work! Congratulations!
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Old 01-15-2022, 10:56 AM   #19
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I was fortunate to retire a couple of years prior to Covid restrictions. It took one of those vacation trips to Europe to break away from my all-encompassing aspects of the political world of terrorism, international news and hard-core law enforcement of 45 years. With several weeks away from the news world and events, I no longer needed to stay abreast of the world events, my part was done! From then on, it felt good to simply start the day with a cup of coffee, 10 minutes of local news and then switch to a music channel. I can even appreciate country music in my new mellow state. The hard part was adjusting to not interrogating new acquaintances, in asking questions about themselves. My normal conversation at work began several 100 times a day with "What is the purpose of your Visit!", " What type of work do you do!", " What assets do you have to support yourself while here". It's still a bit hard to get into normal conversations, when your day or week is just being home now and talking about "You Tube" or other media things. Enjoy Dutch and thanks for your story.
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Old 01-16-2022, 05:59 AM   #20
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Congratulations
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