On Feb. 22, I celebrated my 43rd year at the Enterprise-Journal. On Feb. 25, I semi-retired, slashing my workload to a day or so a week, mainly doing outdoors stories, features, and laying out religion and outdoors pages.
Technically I was already semi-retired since I had downsized to four days a week a decade ago due to health problems (I wound up getting stents in my heart).
This time I had turned 66 years old and was ready to cut way back, though not completely. I still like writing Leather Britches columns as well as general feature stories. I find myself coming to the office a couple times a week, and not even for a full day.
Unlike many people who can’t wait for retirement, I love my job, which is why I have stayed here so long. But I was ready to get unchained from the desk and the more demanding topics like politics, crime, court and board meetings.
Before I semi-retired, I heard many opinions on the subject of retirement. Examples:
• “Everybody I know who retired is dead.”
• “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”
• “My father-in-law retired and didn’t get off the sofa for 20 years except to go to the mailbox.”
• “I’ve got so many things to do now I don’t know how I ever worked.”
• “What will you do with your time?”
I admit I had trepidations. I knew I’d miss the buzz of the office, the interaction with the public, the challenge of tough news stories.
But I’ve been there, done that. And as I said, I’m not retiring completely.
My dad retired in his 50s, ran a real estate company, then served as a missionary in Papua New Guinea.
My stepfather retired in his 50s, and he and my mother bought a big RV, sold their home and hit the road for two years.
I’m way past my 50s and don’t have any grandiose plans. I’ve traveled the world since childhood and pretty much outgrew the travel bug.
Now what I love to do is hang out around the homeplace and the Outback, an adjacent tract of woods.
That means planting and tending plants, mowing, gardening, cutting and maintaining trails, and numerous other tasks.
When a neighbor calls me to see or do something, finding time isn’t nearly the problem it used to be.
When I do things like burning boxes or brush, changing oil in my mower or trimming briars in the Outback, I can take my time about it.
When I’m tired, I rest. When I rest, I read or watch something like “The Andy Griffith Show” or old westerns.
I tend to read multiple books at one time, switching from one to another when I get bored. Currently I’m reading a history of the Vikings. the experiences of a journalist couple who lived in Myanmar, a murder mystery set in Venice and a report on the merchant marine business. Plus my Sunday school lesson.
Before I semi-retired, I was worried I might not have enough to do. So far that hasn’t been the case. Not only do I have a seemingly endless list of chores, now I can do them at my own pace — quite a contrast from daily newspaper deadlines.
I also enjoy just being outside in the woods. I get a thrill from it that reminds me of when I was a boy.
People have been asking me how it feels to be semi-retired. After giving it some thought, I’ve come up with my answer: It’s like when I was a schoolboy finally let out for the summer.
Granted, I don’t have the energy I did back then. But I still have to resist the temptation to dig a foxhole, build a treehouse or swing from a vine.
