I've often been asked how’s retirement. I tell them, "I love it. My time is my time. I don’t have to live by watching the clock.” I‘ve adjusted to more of a normal people schedule after working the night or afternoon shift most of my entire career. I feel physically and mentally recharged. Do I miss the business; sure, after spending nearly 26 years, almost all of it on the street, it’s hard not to. But I don’t miss having to solve everyone else’s problems. However, as each day passes that’s my own time, I miss it less and less.
I keep in touch with a few of the people who are still working and hear some of the current issues going on. I read the news like everyone else and shake my head in frustration over what those on the job have to put up with. Everyday I'm thankful that I made it to retirement.
I write this on the heels of the death of a deputy in the line of duty in a nearby county. When you hear of an incident like this, it eats away a little bit of you. You’re that much more thankful that you survived a career, survived with minimal damage. How do you like retirement? I’m thankful. I miss a lot of the people I worked with. I miss many of the community members that I got to know at the community meetings, the businesses, and the neighborhoods over the last decade working the same district. At the same time, I can’t say I miss the work. Prayers to everyone still on the job.
Straight Pipe