Living: the ultimate team sport

Last things

Posted on April 1, 2016 Updated on April 1, 2016

My husband is retiring the end of April at the age of 59, the same age as did my father. I can’t recall the reason why Dad chose 59 as his retirement age. Maybe he felt the same way my husband does:

It was time.

Yes, it’s time, and my husband and I have been very diligent throughout our marriage – and before – making prudent financial decisions that will enable a somewhat early retirement compared to others. But did Jerry and I ever feel we robbed ourselves of enjoyment while being frugal? Not at all.

Between us, we financially assisted three daughters through college, still managing to travel to Hawaii every few years and other low-budget trips in-between. We’ve had our fair share of vehicles, not fancy ones, but safe metal encasements with four wheels each. 🙂

But this post isn’t about that, it’s about marking “lasts” while remembering the “firsts.” Here are some of the lasts that have already occurred and that are yet to occur:

• Voting one last time for – or against – the SPEEA engineering union contract that comes up for negotiation every few years. Done;
• Last at-work employee Holiday potluck. Done;
• Last Boeing Holiday break that gives employees a week or so off during Christmas/New Years (who needs it when every day during retirement is a break from work?) Done;
• Last employee performance review. Done;
• Jerry’s last Boeing paycheck will be received in May of this year. The first one was in June 1978;
• On Thursday, April 28th: he’ll shut off the last 3:45 am wake-up alarm, he’ll drive the last commute to/from Everett, when he walks through the door later that day, I’ll say my last, “Yay, you!” which I have said to him pretty much every day he comes home from work.

Wow. Looking forward to creating some new firsts once he’s retired, starting with: 

• Waking up on the first Monday after his last day of work the previous week, and realizing he’s not just taking a vacation day, he’s taking a permanent vacation;
• Going on hikes during the work week to avoid the weekend crowds;
• Doing all the busy stuff during the week instead of saving it for the weekend; which leads to
• Not having to cram all the summer yardwork into two days of the weekend.

There are many more firsts we’ll experience, but those are a few of the ones we’re extremely happy about.

On his last day of work, he’s going to bring a mug to work that says, “Goodbye tension, hello pension” and he’s going to bring a hip flask filled with water and pour a “drink” into his mug throughout the day.

Gotta love it.