Retirement 101


It’s 2:16 PM on a Tuesday, September 6 after Labour Day Monday and I’m not teaching. Second time in 30 years. The first time was three Septembers ago when I was doing chemo.


I was told by someone that I should do something “special”, something out of the ordinary on the Tuesday after Labour Day. I had some thoughts: do a 9 AM driveby at the last school I taught and honk the horn... Do breakfast with some other retired teacher friends… Pull a lawn chair up in front of my former school and smoke a stogie…

I have a friend whose mother was a teacher. For years she and her friends took a boat out on the harbour -- their school was close to water -- and rang the bell at 9 AM.

I settled for going to café to read -- Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road -- and blog.

Nobody believes me, but I’ve been thinking about all my teacher friends leading up to today. I wish them well.

My daughter asked me if I was sad. A tiny bit, yes. But mostly I’m excited to do some things that, for years, I haven’t had the time to indulge in.  Example, the local bus driver (... let’s call it a shuttle) came in and we made small talk. What can i say? We live in a small town. He asked what I was doing here. I said I was retired. "Of course," he said. “Read it on Facebook…. Are you still playing guitar?”  No, but that’s part of the retirement plan.

Another thing I plan on doing in the next hour, since there’s no rush of getting back home, is sussing up the logistics of a trip out East with my wife (she’s never been).

Well, latté is getting cold and Boyden is waiting for me, so that’s all for now :)

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