Preview of retirement life.

This past week I took a vacation from my 9 to 5 job.  My plans were, to have no plans, go with the flow as they say.  As I approach my retirement years, I think a lot of what the next chapter would look like.  I have enjoyed my career in the airline industry, but as the magic number approaches is time to turn the page and start a new career (the job of retirement)

These last seven days were a preview of coming attractions. I tried to open a window to what my life would look like. First I didn’t miss the commuting and the Miami traffic, having no set schedule is liberating.  The concept of having extra time to do what I wanted was surreal.  I did not sleep-in, I like getting up early and retirement will not change that, I did take short naps in the afternoons (that was awesome)  It will take some time for me to break the work email addiction, I have to admit that I checked those emails on a daily basis.  I work with a great bunch of people and I will miss them, but I will not miss the stress.

So here is what I did this week.  First I took care of Uncle Sam (never pleasant), I fixed my garden’s sprinklers, I rode my bike, my wife and I took a day-vacation in the middle of the week and visited places in our town that we never go. I visited with my new grandson, I worked in the garden every day for short periods of times (no need to do it all on Saturdays), I started organizing the thousands of photos in my computer and I started reading a book.  I know this was only a week, but I am sure it will not be a problem for me to adjust to this new job.

 This week at the DragonFly garden.

It’s time to harvest the cherry tomatoes.

The orange Geiger tree lost all the leaves two weeks ago and one week later it has a new cover and flowers.

Time to refresh the bromeliads, every year I cut out the mother plants and replant the babies.  This job is big and it will take me weeks to finish.

I trimmed the Brazilian Red bush this week.  This plant is gorgeous in full bloom, but it is aggressive.

Now that I fixed the sprinklers, I started working on my front garden, trimming, weeding and planting.