Well after 25 years, 7 months and 3 days with the Sheriff's Dept. today is my last day. It has been a good run. Just waiting to see what happens next.

Welcome to the club,and congrats!

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Hold my beer and watch this!

Every time I bring up retirement, my wife asks what I intend to do after I retire. We seem to be having a communications problem.

May you have peace,tranquility, and lots of fun in your retirement.

My wife said it was "for better or for worse" but not for lunch.

Congrats on the retirement!

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Always bet on stupidity.

Congratulations, retirement is great.

Congratulations! Have you thought about moving from California before the economic sunami or the super quake happen? You could live very well on your pension in several other states, including Miss. I know two LAPD retirees who moved here and paid cash for houses in a gated community with a golf course and large lake. One of their pensions is exactly twice what I take home working and they live very comfortably here. We also have much better gun laws.

All those years of working shifts, afternoons, midnights, missed family functions, etc. Congradulations, you have earned it. Glad you made it safely.
I've been retired for over three years now and love it, although I may take a job this Christmas Season as a Department store Santa.................at Victoria Secrets.

I just got off the phone with my best friend back in california. About 2 or 3 years ago his brother retired from the L.A.P.D. He was #66 senority and I belive he had something like 41 years! My pal said between that and his calif state national guard retirement he was getting over $90,000s a year! The bad news is he only lived a couple months! Good luck!

Congrats on your retirement!

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Sheriff Russell Cottle. ret

Congrat's Chili Vega. I know you have heard this before but be prepared to ask yourself: How in the world did I get so much done when I was working! I find that there aren't enough hours in the day now to accomplish what I did when I was working.

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.:God Bless America:.

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy your retirement as much as I enjoy mine. Larry

Thanks for doing a job that needed done, and I hope retirement suits you.

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Eccentric old coot

Chili; This August I've been retired 24 years. I wish you the same & more.

I start the day doing something I want to do and I do that until I think of something that I had rather be doing and then I do that until I think of something else I had rather be doing. It has worked for 11 yrs. so I don't see any reason to change. My wife didn't understand at first but she has finally caught on. Now you can tell your wife how you want to spend your retirement. Larry

Congrats. Enjoy your time. I'm putting mine off until I can't walk anymore.

I am mostly retired. My wife thinks that I need to find something new to do. I reminded her of a joke that someone sent me.

Wife asks her husband "What are you doing today"
He replied "Nothing"
She said "You did that yesterday"
He said "I wasn't finished"

She can not stand it when I do nothing. I am not looking forward to her retirement.

If you enjoy doing nothing, keep on doing it.

Congrats!

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Corripe Cervisiam

Did you retire by choice? Or was a sweeter added?

Where I work, guy's ~ 55/65 are being in some ways forced to retire.
They move you to a job you hate, or a shift you hate. These are things you thought you had worked your way out of. They then tell you that you haved topped out the pay for your "rank" etc. No more pay increases, maybe a lump sum bump in the good years. Your health care costs go up every year,
and taxes too.

So you end up working a job you hate, hours you hate, taking home less money. Then they hang a carrot over your head and say whatever to bump you along. So you say screw it "I'm retiring".

See this more and more with my friends.
Any other old guys seeing this trend???

Hope this is not your case. Good luck!!!
Guy22

Congrats on your retirement! And welcome to club...

It's been 16 months since I put my papers in. And to be truthful, I do miss the job. I miss the people and the satisfaction I got from doing something that alot of people never get to expirence.

I stay busy and enjoy the time I have with my wife and wonderful family and
friends. And I get to shoot more.....

But last night, I heard my old department out on a robbery/high speed chase...and my first instinct was to head out the door..
Oh well....

Best of luck in the Retired Blue Line.

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Take your time..quickly.

Congratulations, you made it! I hope you enjoy it in good health.

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SWCA #1917

Being retired does have certain requirements, you are to schedule pressure washing, painting, and any other menial labor for the next day and when that day arrives it is to be re-scheduled. Don't forget it.

terry

Congrats, retirement is great. I retired after 20 years in the military twenty-six years ago. Three weeks later I went to work as a contractor supporting military research and development activities. I retired from that job twenty-four years later. Two weeks later I went back to work part-time with that same company. I also teach part-time at the local University. What is this retirement that you speak of? Or more precisely, what am I doing wrong???

Congratulations and good luck. Charlie Sherrill makes sense. If you're looking to turn a page come to one of the free states and play guns with all us rednecks. Along with Mississippi there are several good places. I love where I live, southern Indiana-Louisville north, but if I couldn't live here I'd be happy in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Bama, Texas. I think the first place I'd look if I had to move would be the Chattanooga or Georgia mountain region.

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God spelled backwards is dog.

You left a forwarding address maybe??????

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Take your time..quickly.

Chili;
You forgot the hours/minutes/seconds !



T.L.R.

Thank you all for your comments. They brought a smile to my face.

I have a retired cop friend. He has a couple of acres down here. He built a small nursery for seasonal plants. Every year he sells out and only does it for a few months. The rest of the time he's partying.

He told me that people who buy plants from him aren't usually jerks.

Bless you the same,

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Dum vivo cano

C-

All of the guys at the Shop are VERY proud to have you as a friend and as a LEO.

Although I've known you for a short time, I'm glad I met a true meat eating, knuckle dragging, mouth breathing example of what a cop should be. A real cop who carries a wheelgun, but one who can out-do the Polymer Kids on any given Sunday.

See you Saturday!

-Greg

major congrats on your end of watch...mine was eight years ago this month...yup...miss a lot of it but 30 years was a long time...i like being a professional photographer now and all the unstructured days!

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

QUOTE]Christmas Season as a Department store Santa.................at Victoria Secrets.
Reply With Quote[/QUOTE]

Moosedog

Just be really careful about what you filling those stockings with......

Congratulations. I wish you all the best.

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Richard Gillespie
FBINA 102

I spent over 30 years on the Job. I retired in 2006.
I loved my Job, and had great fun most every day.

However, I LOVE Retirement. IF I knew Retirement was going to be so much fun, I would have got me a shopping cart and a good corner right out of highschool, Retired then, and never got a "real job"... [A little joke, as I did love my LEO Job].

But I am enjoying Retirement.

Remember that life is for living. You worked to make a living, now it's time to do it. Learn to slow down and enjoy the ride. Go places and do things that make you smile. Don't worry, be happy. These are your golden years and they won't last as long as you wish. Man, I'll be glad when my time gets here.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Congrats Chili for makin' it to the end, I hit 57 with 34 yrs. service this year, and I'm not going to turn 58 on this job. To much politics I don't like, and it's no fun anymore.

Buena suerte and vaya con Dios...

Take each day at a time. Don't push to do things. One of my favorites is irritating my wife who is still working. She asks what I'm going to do, and I tell her I don't know. Every day I do find something to do. Maybe my only problem is that I'm the designated baby sitter. Today I got to play with a 6 year old and a 3 year old for a couple of hours. Then Mommy came and bailed them out (really she bailed me out.) We have fun. I had a bunch of stuff planned, but with their mommy showing up way early, we didn't make it to the play ground or McDonalds. Its OK with me. I like them a bunch.

This week I missed the two flea markets. One on Tuesday and the other today. Its OK, I don't buy anything even when I go. I just enjoy looking. Especially the Wednesday one where maybe 30 or so guys have guns to sell. I even enjoy listening to their sales pitch/stories.

The key is to do as you want and not let others railroad you into what they want you to do. My wife says she's retiring in November, or maybe January. I dread that. She's treated me as the activities director for the last 42+ years. I think she needs to work longer. I knew I was going to take a nap every afternoon. She thinks that's a waste of time, I look at it as an investment. I think the key to it is not let anyone load you down with things you don't want to do.

Other fun things is to go out to lunch. I sometimes buy a chicken snack and drive down to the river to watch. I live right on the thing, but watching from a different vantage point is amusing. I've fallen to new lows regularly, some days I fish out an old loaf of bread and feed the ducks. I like the little ones the best. I enjoy it, and I don't care what anyone else says. Its coming up on noon here, and maybe that'll be the thing I do next.

I'm having the time of my life, and I guard it jealously.

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Dick Burg

When I retired in january 2,000 I was about 59 and single. The first couple months I would get in the truck every morning and take off without a destination or purpose. Must have been in shell shock! The plan was to take off untill fall, go to truck driveing school and see the country on someone else`s dime and get paid for it starting in 2,001.
I got T-boned and didnt go to the doctor to look at a harmless bump on my knee. It almost killed me with a pulmonary embalism. Blood thinner and the doctor said no truck driveing job. Dad got alzheimers on the other side of the country and that took more than a year of flying back and forth doing his affairs. Got involved with another lady that died on me and cost me big time. My 401 K lost huge 3 months after I retired.
I got married to theresa. Then I had to get my nose removed due to cancer. Things dont often go as planned!
The good news is God got me through it all. Yet I know more is to come. I still like retirement. We may drive 50 miles one way for lunch about 3 times a week. Usualy still get in the truck, get a couple miles down the road and ask theresa do you want to go to st george or beaver? St george is 50 miles south, beaver 50 miles north. I am hopeing she suggests mesquite 90 miles south. Once every 3 months she might. Thats where the casinos are. Our kids all moved different directions, 450 miles, 650 miles and 800 miles. They all work and its difficult to see em.
We do try to hit the trails on the quad but new trails are now about outside of a 80 mile radius. Seems I have hit all trails within 80 miles every direction. I`d like to see new country but am a cheapskate about motels. Unlike most of you guys that say your wife has you doing a lot of work, theresa is pretty much the opposite. She doesnt bug me to work. She is handier than I am, 17 years younger and I dont do much more than mow. I should be out shooting but seldom bother. No excuse`s either. I worked about 32 years out of the last 35 on graveyard on my job. Might be a world record? On top of that usualy I worked about 3 or 4 12 hour shifts a week, usualy averaged 3 to 6 weeks a time before I would take any nights off. Then I would go on a blowout gambling trip.
I would bet I didnt sleep a total of 30 nights in the last 20 years of my working life in my own house! I am makeing up for it now.

Every day I get up and make a list of things I am not going to do, then I check them off as I don't do them.

I've been "retired" now since the beginning of the year. The hardest part is I feel like I should be doing something productive. But I kind of like not having to report to an a-hole boss!

I remember the late 1950s and early 1960s. The rich kids just played all summer. They slept in and enjoyed life. I couldn't pull that off, I had to work if I wanted any money. In my early teens I just cut grass or did odd jobs for neighbors. Then by my mid-teens I pumped gas or stocked shelves in a grocery. Steady money, no sleep.

Now I'm making up for it.

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Dick Burg

Where I lived in central wisconsin in my time frame (1953 to 1957) when I was 12 to 16, you had to be a bum if you didnt work in the fields. Any kid could get a job working on the truck farms or gardens as we called them. The brazero program was in full swing where many mexican nationals were brought in to work the crops. There were trucks and camps all over. Summers the movies were all in spanish, carnavals were full of them. I belive thats why us kids could get hired. Wouldnt look right to put a bunch of mexican nationals to work and not hire us kids. I dont need to say the work was hard , hot, dirty and miserable! A kid could make $30 to $60s a week or so. That wasnt bad in those days. I had money from 12 up and never hit my folks up for money. I hated the work but the one thing it did was make me appriciate a good job when I got one years later. Thats why I probley stayed a lowly lockheed night watchman forever. I am not sure a kid can legaly work like that now. We also had canning factorys that would hire everybody over 16 years old summers. I did it when I hit 16. The standard pay was $1 a hour. No ot pay, and most shifts were 10 to 12 hours. Probley a buck was like $8s now? I know I bought a whizzer motorbike for $45s, my first 3 cars ran about $45 to $65s. I remember starting off with $320s a month doing grunt work on the state conservation dept in 1962. Now that I think about it I worked every summer from 12 up. I dont think I was a kid! I am getting even!

Don't ride off into the sunset now, unless you go through Las Vegas first!

Have fun!

TAKJR

On behalf of those of us who will have to work until we die, congratulations.

Chili:
Good for you. I hope you find retirement to be enjoyable.
Me, I just got a new job. And I'm fixin' to retire from it.
And this time, I really mean it!
10-7 10-42

It is easy to retire. Enjoy your retirement.
Just remember to have a plan on how you intend to use your retirement time.

I've retired 3 times so far...........

rayb

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"cumplo pero no obedezco"

I retired after 20 years in the Air Force back in 2004 and went right back to work about 3 weeks later. Figured it was time as my wife kept highlighting ads for truck drivers in Iraq/Afghanistan...... aren't wife's great

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Tim, USAF Ret.

You know, early retirement sounds fine if you can do it, however is it really intended for people to retire at 40 years old after doing 20 in the military or at the cop shop? California and other places are haveing a wakeup call on that!

Congrats. You'll like retirement. I retired from APD in '94. When people ask me what I was going to do, I'd just tell them I was going to throw beer cans at the mail man when he was late with my check.

I have the best retirement winter job there is, following my granddaughters vollyball and basketball teams all over the state. The whole team, including the coaches call me grandpa.

In the summer I shoot competition and got involved with the Patriot Riders. Escorting our vets and standing the flagline gives me a warm fuzzy.

He always does. You can bank on his sayings.

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Dick Burg

Congrats - you will enjoy the change. I've been out ~4 years now, and recall it felt really weird NOT to be going to work (40 min. drive for me...). Found I missed alot of the guys I worked with, then they started retiring - now we all stay so busy it's hard to find time to get together.
After 3 decades of shift work, I always wondered whether I'd be a 'night person', or a 'morning person'. Found that I actually enjoy getting up early to greet the day.
I did a p/t gig at a LGS for awhile. Right now I mainly fish and take care of our place at the NC coast. Come Fall, I'll spend alot of days hunting and the Fall fishing season is great at the coast.
The days go by FAST.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275