The older I get the harder I have to work just to stand still. Not the most positive start to a retirement blog but there it is. I still feel that my original retirement goals are right for me but they’re difficult to maintain. So I’ve had to cheat / adapt a bit whichever word is most appropriate and you would need to be the judge of that, not me.
So, here goes with the evidence. First there’s this blog. I’ve been reliably turning out one every two weeks. A timetable I set myself after my operations, down from the 2 or 3 blogs a week I produced in my prime (you might say). I think even with this reduced output I am doing a good job in maintaining this retirement goal in its adapted format
I can’t say the same with retirement goal number two, setting up and running a vineyard in the Yorkshire Dales (at the old barn we bought many years ago, the renovation of which was an early retirement project). This has been incredibly challenging this last few months. And it is not getting any easier and the weather hasn’t helped, witness the last of these blogs. However with help (paid and unpaid) and some struggles from Mrs Summerhouse and myself, we’re just about hanging in there. Effort is being expended and some progress is being made.
Which brings me to my music-making. I’ve now given up all forms of public music-making. No keyboard jazz or guitar-playing folk fiddle. So, and this is where the cheating comes in. The ‘cheating’ is in the form of spending money on what I will call ‘aids to playing’. A careful analysis of my playing or rather lack of it led me to the conclusion that I was not helping myself by having all my stuff up in the attic / loft.
So that’s where the photo above comes in. It’s a picture of a very small (but still quite powerful) guitar amplifier. It is, if necessary, battery-operated and small enough to be moved from room to room and where after purchase it resides in the living room. Which means that when the whim takes me I can no longer offer the excuse of I can’t be bothered climbing all the way up to the attic. Yes, I know I’m making it sound like climbing Everest but the fact is, since my operations, I find any kind of climbing a tremendous effort. As anybody with physical restrictions will know, accessibility is everything. So in order to maintain this retirement goal I am spending money on facilitating this access.
Which brings me to my health itself and here the story of ‘finding a way’ dribbles to a wobbly halt. Short of looking at videos on Facebook or YouTube I have neither ‘farmed out’ these exercises (i.e. paid somebody else to do them for me) nor bought any gizmo to make them either more likely to happen because they’re easier to do or just to happen at all. So adaptation here just means not doing very much.
Finally a word about that other originally planned retirement activity of ours – travel. The best I can say about this is that last weekend we went down to the ‘Derbyshire cottage’. It’s been expensive to maintain and stressful at times when, for example, the roof and fence needed repairing, battered by recent storms but overall it’s been worth it because it means we do manage to get away. Trips up and down the M1 being our only form of travel (apart from driving up to the vineyard, as mentioned). Again, as with the health area, I haven’t found any cheap and cheerful way of keeping this retirement goal going but we have adapted and that I think has turned out to be the theme of this retirement blog.
By all means set yourself goals (even ambitious ones) at the beginning of your retirement but be prepared to adapt them as time goes on. Wise words, Grasshopper.