Retired

So, now I'm retired. After all the anticipation, the free-at-last analogies, the gloating, I find myself a little confused.

No more big paycheck, and the pension is taking its sweet time. Bank balance shrinking, safety net not looking so big and safe as it did only a month ago. I still have a big useless house with big mortgage payment each month. It's a stinking albatross now.

My old dog has a "deep skin infection" on his nose and signs of other skin issues that may portend systemic problems I don't want to hear about. Today he got shots, capsules, and ointment. Peanut butter is distracting enough to get the capsule down. Happy day.

I'm a terrible planner. Multiple scenarios float around my head. I want them all at once. Hubby is now focused on a Lithuanian great-grandmother to win him Lithuanian citizenship. I read that Lithuanians have no sweet tooth -- bad omen. They eat a lot of pickled stuff and turnips and cabbage and such. Vilnius is more than 1700 miles east of Paris. I don't think I'll like it there much. That cramped attic over the barbershop in Kilcullen is looking better and better. So is Oregon. So is a little house trailer on the red mud farm in Oklahoma that we are about to sell. Ah! Money!!