Work Until You Drop? Not Me, I'm Retired!

My friend Homer loves to work even though he reached retirement age almost 15 years ago. He worked for a global aeronautics company until they dismissed him almost a decade ago when he reached 70 years of age. This prompted him to sue, claiming the company had dismissed him because he had reached his golden years. He won the right to keep his job in court and has been hard at work since then. He really doesn't need the money, he just enjoys working. I've never been afflicted with that weird disease!

Fortunately he's the only friend I have that didn't welcome retirement. If there had been another one, some of their desire to keep working until they dropped, might have rubbed off on me. Fortunately, except for Homer, my circle of friends doesn't include anyone with an overwhelming yearning to work when it's not necessary.

Thankfully I discovered fishing at an early age and its helped shape my attitude toward working. The old concept that if you don't work, you don't eat, pay the rent or pay the electric bill has also made me aware of my fiscal responsibilities, which has prohibited me from fishing as much as I liked. I've worked when I've had to, but by nature I'm a lazy man.

Fortunately retirement effects some different than others. Homer would like to work at his present job until he falls over dead in his office chair. I, on the other hand, would like to fish until I collapse and fall out of the boat.

There's a bumper sticker hanging in my study that reads, "A Bad Day Fishing Is Better Than A Good Day At The Office!" which perfectly sums up my idea of work versus relaxation. I've often wondered though, what commercial fishermen do when they retire? Do they head for the golf course or do they whip out that special fishing lure and head for a spot on the lake that they've staked out for future fishing?

Not everyone has the inclination or ability to let life pass them by as they sit staring at a fishing pole. My wife has told me that I should do something more rewarding with my free time than catching the same old fish over and over again. They're not the same fish of course, but for her, if you've seen one crappie, you've seen them all.

To please her, I visited our local senior center. At first it scared me because there were so many old people there, but after I calmed down I found that I could volunteer to help with charitable events, the annual marathon race, local fishing tournaments for kids and a host of other programs that would keep me active. While some of these programs are well worth any donations of time and money, they really weren't for me.

Not finding anything that I wanted to volunteer for, I decided to find a hobby other than fishing to keep me busy and to appease my wife. I've always appreciative of nature, so I decided to make bluebird houses.

It was fun for a while until I started adding up the time it took me to make one bluebird house. I could go down to the bird supply store and buy one for less than I could build one with my own two hands. That's when I decided to cut the walls and roofs and drill out the round hole of three bird houses at the same time. It worked. After I had the components laid out on the work table in my garage, it took only a few minutes to nail them together and "Presto!", I had three beautiful bluebird houses built in just a little more time than it took me to make one!

It didn't take me long to get bored with this project. After all, if you have more than ten birdhouses in your front yard, people think you're strange and walk past your front yard in a hurry when they're going for a stroll. I never saw any bluebirds, but there were plenty of sparrows nesting where the bluebirds should be.

I thought briefly about making a garden but then that would get in the way of spring fishing, which everyone knows is the best time of year to catch the big ones. Someone suggested golf, but there's just too much walking in that sport and riding a cart feels like you're cheating.

I even had the insane thought of finding a job somewhere, but then I decided I was getting senile, so I lost that idea in a hurry!

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