Retirement Musings and Everyday Delights
I went to university wanting to become a special-needs teacher. My goal was to work with children in a one-on-one setting, but you had to teach in a classroom setting, which required speaking in front of people. I couldn't do that back then, so I changed the plan. Helping kids learn to read and write … Continue reading Volunteering in Retirement
We hosted five Warm Showers guests this week, two couples around our age, and a university student. All five had set off from the west coast and are cycling to the east coast. When one of the couples arrived, I told them Ray was out sailing. They saw a bike hanging in the garage and … Continue reading How important are shared interests in a relationship?
Getting older kind of sneaks up on you. It repeatedly catches you off guard. One day you look down and your hands look just like your mom's and you think "When did that happen?". You look in the mirror and notice your eyebrows have started to disappear (check under your chin - you might find … Continue reading Embracing Aging: A Shift in Perspective
Nick has dropped by the past couple of weekends and this topic came up in conversation. Nick and Ray both feel conflicted at times between wanting to excel at something, but having multiple interests and limited time. Nick was recently invited to a Jiu Jitsu event by a friend. He gave up Jiu Jitsu after … Continue reading Jack of All Trades, Master of None
Our Thanksgiving weekend started with some Wii bowling and a pizza lunch with Ray's mom - who is looking pretty sharp for 95, don't you think? - and Ray's nephew, Curtis. My sister hosts Thanksgiving dinner, but she's always so busy getting dinner ready that she doesn't have time to visit, so this year she … Continue reading Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!
Everyone has a few 'small world' stories. On our Jamaica trip last year, we met someone I'd gone to middle school with. When we moved to Brighton, we discovered that our next-door neighbour's best friend, who lives in Toronto, knew Ray when he was a child. On our first day in Newfoundland, I ran into … Continue reading What Are The Odds?
Seven years into retirement, my best advice for soon-to-be retirees would be 'know yourself'. People often say that once we hit a certain age, we stop caring what other people think. That's probably because, generally speaking, when we reach a certain age we know who we are, so what others think about us no longer … Continue reading Bagels, Boats and Butterflies
We were at a party the other evening and a guy walked up to Ray and said, "I've got you in my cell phone!" Ray had no idea what he was talking about. The summer before we moved to Brighton, we rented an AirBnB by the lake and Ray went for a cycle in Presqu'ile … Continue reading Small Town Life
I said to Ray the other day that we're kind of at the peak of our lives. We're healthy, our friends and family are healthy, and after decades of saving, we own our own time. When everything is going great in life, there's always that niggling awareness that it can't last forever; that we have … Continue reading Windows of Time
We competed in our first dragon boat festival of the season, a full-day event with 69 teams entered. Our club put in a women's team and a mixed team and we finished second in each of our divisions. We only had 33 paddlers and there are 20 per boat, so the women did double duty. … Continue reading Paddling Through My Insecurities
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