Snow days in retirement

[lrb1200]

What a difference than living in the working world.

All day snow event today, and I reflect on what that was
in the past.
It was, get on the clock and do what you have to do to
get to work, irrelevant how bad it was, your going.
In your head at work, wondering how rough to get home
and how much time you need to deal with what's there.

Not anymore, stocked up, no need to go anywhere.
Let it come, whole house generator ready to auto kick in
if the power fails.

Just me and my boy (80lb. Rough Collie) kicked back
to just watch. Eventually go out for some fresh air,
fire up the 8hp electric start snowblower and run it a bit
while my boy plays in the snow.
I get a little chill, boy gets tired, it's back in the house
for coffee and relax, we'll go back out and play with it later.

 

[NYlakesider]

That still works out to the same amount of snow work you got to do. You can most definitely do it on a much more favorable time frame!

Retired over 20 years and live in snow country so the above fits me real well!

No snowblower, I need a tractor with bucket and a Fisher plow on my 4X4 pick up

 

[Roofuss]

Been retired since 2014, and every day is Sunday, lol !
Currently have around 14 inches of snow on the ground and -2 degrees. If I want to go out and shovel, or plow I do, and if not, I don't. Stock up on things ahead of time, and stay off the roads in bad weather. Hunker'd down, and watching winter out my window ...time for a nap, lol !

 

[MadRvr]

I'm ten weeks into retirement and know what you mean. I'm working on getting back to the carefree days of childhood play. Maybe someday. Now the only worry I have about snow days is that my wife is still working and has to drive in it.

 

[Mule Packer]

I agree. Now when we get a big snow day, I just throw another log on the fire, sit in my rocking chair with a good book, and watch the snow pile up outside the window.

If I feel so motivated, I'll bundle up and go fire up my side-by-side with the snow plow and plow the driveway, but other than that, I'm very content to stay inside.

 

[JET4]

I'm retired and love looking out the window in the snow. Don't even worry about cleaning it up because I don't have to go anywhere.When the roads are clear I'll go out again.

 

[Bald1]

I drove a tractor trailer for 34 yrs. Getting to work was the easy part. I’d wake up at 12:45 am. Out door at 1:15am. Clock in by 2am. I only had a 9 mile commute in a 4x4. Then the fun started. Clean snow off tractor. Make sure washer fluid was topped off. And hope I could bobtail through snow to my trailer. Then hopefully be able to back under trailer. Then it was out the gate and my 10 hr day is now 13 hrs because of snow. Good times.

 

[GypsmJim]

Just started my 10th year of retirement. Now, when I get up I check the weather report and view the radar and decide when I will get out the snowblower. Since I don't have to leave to go to work, I prefer to wait until it stops snowing.

When I worked I would shovel in the evening after I got home. At 7:00 AM I just hit the gas and plowed right thru it. I can honestly say that in my 45 year working career I only had to shovel 3 times in the morning because it was to deep to drive thru.

And that says a lot because I worked in Buffalo, NY. You can't always believe what you hear.

 

[JohnRippert]

Not just snow days. We got 1.25 inches of rain yesterday morning and I told myself it was a great time for a nap. So I took one. In fact, as I sit here typing I can hear more rain starting to fall on the sunroom roof. I already took my 2 mile morning walk and hit the weight machine for some core work, so I expect to eat lunch shortly and take a nap. When people ask me if I get bored I just laugh. If I want to do something I do it. If I don't want to do anything, I don't. I love retirement.

 

[zeke]

Retirement is grand! Even when working snow removal took precedent. If those plow piles freeze up, it takes heavy equipment to clear. Keeping access to house open for any emergency's is paramount.

 

[Beemerguy53]

I've had two public safety careers over the past 50 years, each of which required that I be there on time no matter the weather. I'll be 72 next month, and haven't retired yet; I enjoy public safety, and I like keeping busy.

However...I'm on leave this week, and last night as the snow fell, I sat back in my recliner and sipped a glass of anisette while I watched North by Northwest on Turner Classic Movies. I could get used to this...

 

[alwslate]

Been retired since 2006. Moved into a smaller home, bout four years ago, still in a rural area, but with a 70 ft concrete driveway instead of my 800 ft gravel driveway my old house had. Deal with snow days as the OP said. Go to the grocery before they arrive and stock up. I don't miss the battles of getting to work through deep snow drifts. Being old and retired has some advantages at least.

 

[Grayfox]

25 years as a mechanic for my city. I was the road man meaning that I took care of stuff that needed fixing outside of the shop. That meant that the worse the weather got, the more likely I'd have to go out in it. I remember many snowy or more likely icy days that I was in the road all day long plus overtime.
Been retired 10 years now. On bad days I just look out the window, feel sorry for those guys and get back in my recliner.

 

[Smoke]

I've mentioned this before the majority of the time that I was stationed at Fort Carson I was considered Mission essential Personnel because I worked at the hospital.

Actually, I was considered Mission essential personnel because I was the lowest ranking guy in my section so they always designated me to be the guy that went in on snow days.

The last 15 years of my work life I worked as a security guard, half of that for the Colorado Springs Utilities contract.

I very distinctly remember being at work one day when CSU sent out a flash email to all employees that the roads were so bad that they were shutting down and everybody was going home.

Not 5 minutes later I got an email from G4S informing me that regardless of how bad the roads got all G4S employees would remain at their post.

It is currently 7° in Colorado Springs with a wind chill of -4°. A bunch of schools are closed and Fort Carson is on a 2-hour delay for all non-mission essential personnel.

I get happy when I hear that because I'm finally non-mission essential personnel.

I am sitting at home today with my cat and my wife, wearing my pajamas and drinking hot chocolate.

One of the things that I like most about Colorado Springs is as I mentioned it's 7° out today there's probably four inches of snow on the ground and the main roads aren't bad. But give it 3 days tops and all of this will be gone and it'll be 50° out

 

[dben002]

Friend of mine retired a year ago....He owned and operated one of nicest gun stores anywhere in this area....ran into him at Food Lion last week and we chatted a while...he stated retirement was for the birds....In the past year he has done all the things he did not have time for while working and now there is nothing to do and he is board out of his mine....He said it's time to go back to work......and I had to agree with him...neither of us is the sit a round do nothing kind of personality ... I told him I was so board in retirement that I starting driving for DoorDash just to get out of the house and have something to do plus the extra money pays for my Golf, gas, cigarettes and Crown Royal....He said he was going to find something to do and if not he would open another gun stores to stay busy........I hope he does not find anything ..I want the gun store back......

 

[dave1918a2]

Retired in 2013. Remember driving to work in My 4X4 in a blizzard in just over a hour. I left long before rush hour. Unfortunately I could not miss the mess going home. Sometimes it took 5 hours to go 22 miles. Now I don't care. I stay home or go.

 

[GypsmJim]

Friend of mine retired a year ago....He owned and operated one of nicest gun stores anywhere in this area....ran into him at Food Lion last week and we chatted a while...he stated retirement was for the birds....In the past year he has done all the things he did not have time for while working and now there is nothing to do and he is board out of his mine....He said it's time to go back to work......and I had to agree with him...neither of us is the sit a round do nothing kind of personality ... I told him I was so board in retirement that I starting driving for DoorDash just to get out of the house and have something to do plus the extra money pays for my Golf, gas, cigarettes and Crown Royal....He said he was going to find something to do and if not he would open another gun stores to stay busy........I hope he does not find anything ..I want the gun store back......

I worked with an old codger that refused to retire. Others that met his wife said she was nuts, so that may be a partial reaso, but that's another story.

Company policy was out at 65. The year he was 65 a law was passed prohibiting that requirement, so he made out just in time.

I must say that he was a brilliant Engineer and could hold his own, even going up and down ladders in our plants. He survived many layoffs, because he truly WAS an asset to the company. When he was 85 we knew another layoff was coming and he went to the VP and volunteered. We were in the middle of a recession and he just wanted to spare a younger person that had a family to support.

Boy, what a retirement party that was. Unfortunately, he died less than a year later.

 

[Walkin Horse]

25 years as a mechanic for my city. I was the road man meaning that I took care of stuff that needed fixing outside of the shop. That meant that the worse the weather got, the more likely I'd have to go out in it. I remember many snowy or more likely icy days that I was in the road all day long plus overtime.
Been retired 10 years now. On bad days I just look out the window, feel sorry for those guys and get back in my recliner.

So you’re still doing mechanic work. Putting a rear end in a recliner.

 

[Beemerguy53]

...now there is nothing to do and he is board out of his mine....He said it's time to go back to work......and I had to agree with him...neither of us is the sit a round do nothing kind of personality...

This ^^^ is exactly why I haven't retired yet. But I'm trying to be positive and think about life after I pull the plug on my second career.

Although my home is in northeastern Maryland, my girlfriend lives in Northern Virginia, and I spend most of my time at her house. She's five minutes from the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport, and about 15 minutes from NRA Headquarters. The museum is always looking for volunteer docents and tour guides, and the NRA Range has a "help-wanted" sign out for range officers.

I think (hope?) that when I retire I'll be able to find something to do that I like...but I know I won't be able to sit on my duff and do nothing.

 

[dben002]

This ^^^ is exactly why I haven't retired yet. But I'm trying to be positive and think about life after I pull the plug on my second career.

I think (hope?) that when I retire I'll be able to find something to do that I like...but I know I won't be able to sit on my duff and do nothing.

I can't express strongly enough how important it is to remain active in retirement and having a purpose to get up and get out every day. To many times you hear of those who retired and sat around with nothing to do and nothing to keep them active who just sort of wasted away earlier than they should have.