We are experiencing a rough start to what was intended to be my ‘retirement’. 

There are of course the expected concerns about cash-flow,  and then the wondering what I’m supposed to do next now that I’ve replaced the structure of a job and the demands of a daily commute with the anarchy of retirement.  There have been some other rather unusual bits and pieces as well. 

My darling wife had a nasty experience with a form of heart failure called Takotsubo Syndrome or Broken Heart Syndrome.  It doesn’t matter what you call it, it still threw us off our attempt to establish a new rhythm.  Here’s a link to my post on the subject;  Broken Heart. 

Other events that have made it a bumpy transition include the unexpected arrival of my sister-in-law for an extended visit nominally to help with my wife’s heart challenge.  There was also a great offer to deliver some really interesting training.  That training opportunity, after a brief success, seems to have gone into the dust bin, which is very much in keeping with the violation of my personal space as my wife and sister-in-law teamed up to undertake de-cluttering. 

Arrrgggggh.  Marie Kondo has a lot to answer for. My ‘stuff’, how I store it, file it and even how I use it has come under scrutiny.  I’m finding that in general my realm is under attack.  Its very difficult to explain to non-technicals why I need to keep certain tools and that disorganized cache of spare parts.  <<Insert a heavy sigh here>>  I set up to do some spring maintenance on my motorcycle only to discover that half of the tools I would normally use got ‘donated’ just prior to Christmas. What should have been a one hour job turned into three hours of frustration as I improvised solutions from what tools are left to me in my re-organized garage.

And those parts are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg for the intrusions into my world as I try to establish a new balance and new rhythms.

I’m losing touch with friends.  I’m not getting to work with my hobbies as I had hoped.

The first steps along my retirement journey are not as easy or as smooth as I’d hoped.