The rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated

[GENESIS]

There might be.....oh......1 1/2 people here that have said, "Hmmmm.....ain't heard from that Tom Adams idiot in a while". So to put those folks at ease, here's what happened.

After being fully retired last year and having completed all kinds of projects, I basically had nothing to do by October 2016. Having worked non-stop for 40 years and then suddenly having essentially no human interaction was a shock to my system. So much so that it began to wear on me brain and a bit of depression set in cause there wasn't anything I could point to that would reassure me of my self worth. My Doc said something to the effect, "You need to get off your arse and go do something. Join the Peace Corps or volunteer picking up road side trash - hell, just do something!! But stop sitting on your arse and feeling sorry for yourself and get out there and do something." That's why I've gone to Doc Geffen for over 30 years - he's just so compassionate and really cares about my feelings. LOL.... And the ever supportive, caring, thoughtful wife was singing from the same page saying, "Tom....you're driving yourself crazy. You're driving the dogs crazy. And you're driving ME crazy!!" In that order.

Honestly.....finding something was a chore. I knew there were some jobs that just wouldn't satisfy me. I wanted to do something different (i.e. no more engineering and management) and whatever it was, I needed to feel that, at the end of the day, I was a contributor. It wasn't about money or title - but just having a sense of accomplishment. The other hurdle was that, despite the Age Discrimination Act of 1965, NOBODY is interested in hiring a male that's 62 years old.

So I'm in my local Ace Hardware store buying something and the guy waiting on me just happened to be the store manager. After he cut some tubing, he asked if there was anything else I needed. So I blurted out, "You wouldn't happened to have anything an old washed up Engineer fart could do part time do you?" He told me that he was, in fact, looking for someone that was leaving. Fast forward to an interview with him and the store owner asking me if I would consider running their Outdoor Power Equipment (OPE) side of things as they had no experience in managing a "shop" and that the guy leaving wasn't too organized and, based upon my background, they felt I could create some "structure" that was lacking. So I said yes.

Out of the pan into the fire.

What started out as a part time gig has turned into selling, stocking, and doing repairs on STIHL products. That includes ordering parts and filing warranty claims. Then, outta the blue, they decide to carry a line of commercial mowers called Dixie Choppers. And guess who will be doing servicing, selling, order parts, etc. Yep - ME!! Good grief....I retired to get away from a JOB and now this gig is turning into a JOB!! I honestly like turning wrenches and making folks happy, but something's gotta give. Thank God they're pretty generous in allowing me time off so we can go RV'ing.

So that's my life now - a STIHL and Dixie Chopper Tech. Whoop - dee - do.

Tom

[Sandi]

Tom! Your story is so much like my husbands that I could have just inserted his name for yours! The only different thing was he was a RR engineer for 31 years when he retired! And he also went to work at Ace Hardware! One that he had shopped at for years and years. Retirement is definitely a horse of a different color when you have been used to getting up and going someplace you were needed. I have been retired for 3 years now and floundered for the first year. Who am I? Where am I supposed to be today? What am I supposed to be doing? I get it. Now, 3 years later, I don't know how I found the time to work! So glad to see you back on the forum. Sounds like you have found your way! We have missed your stories!! Just don't forget that this is the best, most freeing time of your life. You are supposed to be having fun and camping and traveling and getting to know your spouse again!

[Devinh2]

Welcome back Tom!! I'm retiring the end of this year. I have been working 2 jobs, and sometimes 3, for over 20 years now. My plan is to sleep for the first 6 months to catch up. Lol. But then I get a lil nervous wondering if I'm gonna drive myself nuts with nothing to do after my 6 month nap. Keep us posted!!

[el Rojo]

So Tom, does that mean if I bring my Stihl products to the rally they might get a tune up?

[carnolddsm]

Sounds familiar, worked in information technology and management for too long. Retired, can't tell you how much I hate that word. Retired is old people sitting around, that's NOT me.

[Canyonlight]

Tom - glad to see you back in the forum creative writing and always interesting story telling saddle again !.......was wondering what happened. Didn't envision you coming back live and in person wearing the red shirt and being one of the helpful hardware man/woman folks........cool !!! I do recall over the years a number of professional folks and business owners taking gigs at our local ACE stores. Always refreshing to have someone who is helpful and knows how to carry on a conversation and know what the he!! they are talking about or will get the answer and get back in touch.

Dan

[Chiefblueman]

Timely post, Tom. I've been retired now for exactly one week. Haven't had a summer off for 45 or so years. Took off on a little RV vacation with friends so it hasn't really sunk in yet. I have lots of projects to catch up on and some long time hobbies. The social aspect of my job and being part of a team that affected public safety is something I'm already missing. The alarm clock at 5 AM, not so much. Like Sandi said, my new job is to discover who the newly freed me is, get reacquainted with my lovely wife who retires in a month or so and realize that "the man" I'm working for now is me.

On the surface retirement sounds easy but I think I'm going to enjoy working at it!

BTW Tom, can you get me a good deal on a Stihl hedge trimmer?

[Cate&Rob]

Hi Tom,

Welcome back! . . . I was wondering where you got off to .

Retirement is a huge adjustment, as all the posts on this thread have described. It took me a good year to stop waking up before the alarm (which wasn't set anymore) thinking about a job that was not my responsibility anymore.

What I then learned is "don't try to make your hobby, your new job" . . . it won't go well. I retired from an engineering and engineering management career and was looking forward to spending time (and maybe making a little money), on my life long hobby fixing boats. (This was before RV's even crossed my mind ). I quickly realized that the people beating a path to my door to get me to fix their boats . . . had the kind of boats that I didn't want to go anywhere near. I began to think I needed a set of blinders. I would be tasked to fix some one thing on a boat and on the way to that thing, I would see many other things. That's not right . . . that's not right . . . that's not right . . . and so on.

So, then Cate retired and we discovered "land yachts" (aka RV's). So, I have our really old boat, our kind of old house and our really new 5th wheel. And, now the kids are buying houses that need fixing!! Like others have said, I don't know how I ever had time to go to work .

Rob

[GENESIS]

Tom! Your story is so much like my husbands that I could have just inserted his name for yours! The only different thing was he was a RR engineer for 31 years when he retired! And he also went to work at Ace Hardware! One that he had shopped at for years and years. Retirement is definitely a horse of a different color when you have been used to getting up and going someplace you were needed. I have been retired for 3 years now and floundered for the first year. Who am I? Where am I supposed to be today? What am I supposed to be doing? I get it. Now, 3 years later, I don't know how I found the time to work! So glad to see you back on the forum. Sounds like you have found your way! We have missed your stories!! Just don't forget that this is the best, most freeing time of your life. You are supposed to be having fun and camping and traveling and getting to know your spouse again!

Thanks Sandi. Yeah......I went through a serious bit of soul searching. I even asked Doc Geffen one day, "Listen Doc....since I'm not working and don't have to worry about peeing in a cup (drug test), can't you just prescribe me some medical mary-ja-wanna? That might make me feel better." I won't repeat what he said.

And it was kind of you to say you've missed my stories. If you wanna hear some really good ones, drop by camp site 209 in Indiana. Ho boy.......that Ace Hardware store I'm working at should have its own reality show. Between the (ahem) ladies that work there and the character customers, it's un - flippin - believable.

Tom

[GENESIS]

Welcome back Tom!! I'm retiring the end of this year. I have been working 2 jobs, and sometimes 3, for over 20 years now. My plan is to sleep for the first 6 months to catch up. Lol. But then I get a lil nervous wondering if I'm gonna drive myself nuts with nothing to do after my 6 month nap. Keep us posted!!

One thing I did was to make sure I got up at a decent time every day - like around 8:00 and do a set routine like breakfast, read, go through emails, etc. and have a plan for the day. I did some extensive house renovations and restored a pontoon boat. But once that was over, it became harder & harder to find projects. That's when the sitting around started and the subsequent questioning my self worth. Chronologically, I'm 62. But mentally, I'm probably 45 in that I still have a thirst for knowledge and my brain is constantly running in "that can be improved" mode. Honestly - that one of the hardest things I have to deal with in my new job. The management/owner of this Ace Hardware has no clue about things such as non-value added time or wasted motion or other modern softwares for inventory management/control. Hell - I routinely joke about a 17" Dell CRT that they have by saying, "Does the Smithsonian know that that CRT is missing?". I can sum up the stores' management philosophy with this phrase: Ready, Fire, Aim. LOL.......

Tom