Day 1

Everybody looks forward to retiring. Life of leisure and all that stuff. I guess I'm weird-I would rather be working.

Maybe if I hadn't been retired by layoff I would like it better. But that's probably not it either. I was working towards the goal of retiring when I got laid off. I had been getting things in order for quite a while. I didn't like the company that had bought out my longterm employer so I was clearing the decks so I could stop working. I paid off everything that I could so that all I would have is the stuff nobody gets rid of-insurance, utilities-that kind of stuff. I even bought a house that had a patially finished apartment in the basement so that BEFORE I retired, i could finish it and find a tenant to help with expenses-those same can't get rid of them expenses. I thought I would have a year or so of salary plus social security to complete preparation. I closed on the second house in November 2009 and moved in in December.  The end of February 2010, my position, along with 18 other positions, was "eliminated". Curiously all but 5 of those positions belonged to longtime, over 50 year old employees. That was when I realized I was officially retired. I was out of the total chaos of a very large company that ran in spite of itself. Somewhere over 32,000 employees made up of other bought out companies and communication seemed to be against company policy. That was a major relief to be out of the stress and confusion. That part was OK. No more commute. That was OK.  No more feeling like i should decorate the walls of the office space with targets of varying heights so we would all know where to bang our heads on the wall to feel productive. I was retired!