Heroin for the common man

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Sad thing is, a lot of companies make you go cold turkey, instead of cutting your hours for a while to help wean off. One of my coworkers just retired after 41 years. They handed him his proverbial watch and waved good bye. I figured I would give him a few weeks to settle in before I give him a call for lunch, see how things are going, but I don't see him sitting still. But another good friend and coworker retired to sitting around the house, like my grandfather, and his life is slowly going to pot.

Personally, I think we (as americans) need to diversify our daily lives a bit. High schoolers need to spend less time with their butts in a seat and more time doing some real work, it would help them appreciate their education. Workers need to spend more time in the classroom, traveling, and with their families, becoming smarter, exposed, and more motivated workers and "retirees" need to keep working in the capacity that they are able but retain the flexibility to do what they want, when they want, which is why most of us want to retire anyway.

I was fortunate enough to be able to work and educate myself at the same time with a MWF/TT schedule. I loved it, I never had to do the same thing two days in a row!

[JeffinNZ]

Goodsteel made a good point about folk retiring and then turning up their toes. My dad retired at 60 in the good old days when that was the retiring age; now 65 here. He never had any hobbies and spent his spare time gardening and pottering around the house. His last job was a storeman and was active. Once he retired he slowed up and his decline began. The final straw was when he could no longer keep up the family home and had to move from the house he had lived in for 60 years. Broke his heart. He has been gone 7 years now.

[km101]

Work is not an addiction if you are doing something you enjoy. And retirement is not drudgery or dull if you have hobbies or interests that you enjoy. The trick is to find something that you like in either part of your life and get on with it. I retired and have really enjoyed it for the most part. No there's not always enough money at the end of the month, but when have you really had enough? The bills, the mortgage and the groceries are covered and often there is a little left over for hobbies, so life is good! And for the first time since I was about 12 or 13 years old, I get out of bed in the morning and do what I want to do!! (or what my wife tells me to do! ) So retirement is not "breaking the addiction", it is being set free to enjoy yourself in a different way.

[Bob Krack]

I was always extremely lucky to find work that I truly enjoyed.

I worked for about 50 years, usually would have shown up even if the pay were reduced. Sometimes, even for no pay. I dreamed about my job(s).

At 63 years old the boss told me that he did not need me any longer since I was not willing to work "full-time". Broke my heart because my body would no longer stand up to what he called "full-time". His idea of "full-time" was 60 to 84 hours each week.

I had worked many many 84 hour weeks and when I reached the point that I (physically) had to have a breather, it was time to be let out to pasture.

So in a slightly different manner than Jim but close to the same, I miss the job.

Yea, I am addicted, but not to the money...... just for the sense of accomplishment. Are we on the same page Jim?

Thanks for listening to me.

Bob

[shooter93]

I suppose I'm lucky...I have the only job I ever wanted and have always loved the work. I have a small construction company. It has broken my body up, I'm to old now to find an easy job, but I still manage to keep working. Countless times neighbors near the job we're doing stop over and comment.....it's so hard to believe you guys are working, we hear so much laughter and fun going on....i wish I had a job like that.
Anymore the money is getting pathetic. I would have like to known it was possible to retire if I need to but I lost all hopes of retirement with the first bailout collapse of 401's and I'm certain this next 4 years will complete the job.
I'm happy though and I can drive you around and show you what I've done with my life so no regrets at all.

[MT Gianni]

M y wife and I have both worked since we married. Very often I was the only one that got paid for it.

[41 mag fan]

You have no clue how much I wish I were in that situation. I so badly miss what I used to do and the guys I did it with.

But, alas, my body has revolted against me because I abused it for thirty years. I beat the stuffin's outa' myself with all that heavy work and it has come back to bite me in the transom. Now I live in a small town with high unemployment, no job and no hope of finding one.

I hear you there all to well Jim. Need my right knee replaced, now as of yesterday I am pretty sure I tore the cartilage in my left knee.

getting old sucks, and I have to realize i can't do what I used to do at the age of 30.
Yesterday i threw 3 bags of rock dust on my shoulder and started walking, that was 210lbs i carried about 150- 200'
Now I'm paying for it, i can't hardly walk without falling.

Wife tells me to get out of the coal mines before I can't walk. I'm starting to think she's right.

[Aces an Eights]

I don't know if the Germans were right about "Work shall set you free" but it sure makes cold beer taste better at the end of the day.

[.22-10-45]

Few years ago, I purchased a German sporting rifle made by H. Scherping. Called The late Gary Staup on info. The proof date was March 1915 Gary said gunmakers frequently waited until they had several guns made up before sending out for proofing. Scherping died in 1915 so probably one of his last.
Gary had book on German gunmakers..Scherping was listed from 1835 to 1915..80years..he had a pretty long life I noted....No Gary said..those were the years he was a gunmaker!
There was no social security those days..no retirement..you usually died in the traces..but I suppose if you were doing something you loved..it sure beat the modern retirement home!

[starmac]

In 1915, I doubt there was any form of retirement anywhere in the world. What year did the very first person draw any social security here.
I am sure lots of smaller countries still has nothing of the sort.

[CLAYPOOL]

This is the "FIRST" time in my life that I don't have some one telling me what to do..No mom, dad, wife, boss kids,,teachers, etc..Loving what time I have left..

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

I took early retirement in October of 2008. Bought a used Jaguar XK-8 convertible four weeks later, went Cape Buffalo and Elephant hunting four weeks after that.

I hunt Africa every even-numbered year.

I still do a little writing, but that is like an open-ended boolit casting, reloading and testing program that I get paid to do on my schedule.

God has blessed me richly. Life, Salvation, a good Christian Wife, and the income to do what I want within reason.

[facetious]

Well this turned out different then I thought it would. It started out with some of us joking around at work and lasted all night so I thought I would try posting it just for fun. I have seven years to go to retire at 62 and can't hardly wight. I started in this newspaper thing when I was 22 if I make it to 62 I will have been doing the same thing for 40 years. It isn't a bad job but things sure have changed over the years. Who would have thought it would it would have gone down hill as fast as it has. Even so I still think I have been lucky. I got in to it when things were good, time to build up my pension and 401-k , buy a house and a good chance of being able to move to some place we want to be to retire. As to the keep moving thing, when I was a kid my dad had all kinds of rules ( I think he was making them up as he went just to mess with me) one of them was you had to do something every day. He didn't care what it was but you will do something. Ride your bike, play games out side, go fishing, sit in the woods and shoot at trees with your BB gun, didn't mater but you will not do nothing. Even to day it drives my wife nuts, telling me to just sit and relax, telling me that you don't have to do something all the time.
The sad thing is how many guys don't have any hope of ever retiring. There plan is to work till thy drop, for some it's been bad luck for some it's from not planing . One of the things my dad was all ways telling me was that if you are not thinking ten years a head , then you are all ready ten years behind ! I guess I was lucky to have had some one pushing me to think a head.

[41 mag fan]

Well this turned out different then I thought it would. It started out with some of us joking around at work and lasted all night so I thought I would try posting it just for fun. I have seven years to go to retire at 62 and can't hardly wight. I started in this newspaper thing when I was 22 if I make it to 62 I will have been doing the same thing for 40 years. It isn't a bad job but things sure have changed over the years. Who would have thought it would it would have gone down hill as fast as it has. Even so I still think I have been lucky. I got in to it when things were good, time to build up my pension and 401-k , buy a house and a good chance of being able to move to some place we want to be to retire. As to the keep moving thing, when I was a kid my dad had all kinds of rules ( I think he was making them up as he went just to mess with me) one of them was you had to do something every day. He didn't care what it was but you will do something. Ride your bike, play games out side, go fishing, sit in the woods and shoot at trees with your BB gun, didn't mater but you will not do nothing. Even to day it drives my wife nuts, telling me to just sit and relax, telling me that you don't have to do something all the time.
The sad thing is how many guys don't have any hope of ever retiring. There plan is to work till thy drop, for some it's been bad luck for some it's from not planing . One of the things my dad was all ways telling me was that if you are not thinking ten years a head , then you are all ready ten years behind ! I guess I was lucky to have had some one pushing me to think a head.

There's some very good words and meaning in that paragraph there facetious. I agree with your father on the thinking ahead. One thing me and my wife but heads on, I'm always two steps ahead in thinking about the what if, we argue, it happens, she hears my I told you so, I'm in the doghouse for a week after that.

Kids need to be made to do something everyday, not sit in front of a screen playing video games.

[MBTcustom]

I guess I'm just weird.
When I was a kid, my dad gave me as much rope as he thought I could handle. He encouraged me to make, think, write, and do. We were allowed only 1 hour of television on Saturday mornings. He gave me knives, and taught me how to whittle, later I graduated to the shopsmith. I became interested in metal, and when I was 14 years old I made a cap and ball pistol out of a gocart axle. I will never forget that project! I barely slept for 2 weeks. I had never thought about mechanisms before and It was like my mind had found a lolly-pop that was too big to eat all at once. I still have that pistol and it still blows my mind that I managed to make something that good at 14 years old.
That project was too slow. The fundamental problem was that my mind worked faster than my hands, therefore learning was hindered. I was just a kid and broke as a duck, so I built a coal forge with the help of a local welder. I think he saw that my mind was active, and he gave me lots of time and materials. I would sneak into the local landfill to get metal for supplies. I made lots of knives and just about anything I wanted, but a coal forge is slow going and a very hard way to make things move.
I became convinced that making things should be my vocation. I was scared to tell my father though, because he is a scientist (no BS, the sign over the door at his work says "chief scientist") and all of my siblings are engineers, lawyers, nurses, and chemists (I am one of seven).
Anyway I finally plucked up the courage at 16 to tell my dad that I want to be a machinist. I think he could tell that I was nervous to tell him that, but he was all for it and told me that he would help me, but that I must get a college education. He also told me that if I made sure I was the best, that I would stand before kings (still working on that one).
I got an education and got back to work.
I have continued to gather machine tools and now I have a machineshop of my own. I wake up, go to the day job and make aerospace test fixtures and bearing assemblies, then I come home and work on guns and the occasional machining job.
The point is, I started working when I was 12 and I haven't let up an inch since. Every ounce of my energy is directed at doing what I love, and I can't get enough of it. Even when I am dog sick, and I can think of nothing else, I can still think about firearms and mechanisms.
I fully expect to die with a pair of calipers in my pocket and oil on my hands, cause I'm never going to quit!
Retire? I am about as retired as I ever expect to be.

[GT27]

IMHO,God,then your health,close behind that would definitely be family,all the material things are just "icing on the cake!" My priorities are correct according to the bible,and what I was taught growing up,having parents that were devout christian's! I can also boldly say if this is un-agreeable,you need to take a long look in the mirror and re-prioritize your life, and be honest with yourself...

[starmac]

My dad always insisted I do something everyday too. Till the garden, gather eggs, feed the cattle, hogs and chickens, even rabbits for a year or so. help butcher the livestock. (all the above) dig postholes. lol I can't complain as by the time I was 12 I could spend every weekend in the woods, at the lake or camped on the bay by myself, just a huntin and fishin, if I wasn't working.

[acemedic13]

I was recently forced to retire from my previous job. I took my skills and experienc e and hit the road with them. I still work. Not really because I have too, but I couldnt imagaine not running the streets with lights and sirens blazing and helping the sick,injured and infirm in mycommunity. I learned real quick that i had to split the my time. It is tough though. When you love your job as much as you do fishing,shooting and hunting. My biggest problem with retirement was juggling my new work schedule with my new play schedule. I never had the latter before. It's real nice living life in moderation between work and play...... If you wanna see what happens when a man quits working... Watch a good draft horse when he gets retired....

[Thumbcocker]

FWIW most successful drug addiction treatment programs require recovering addicts to get and keep a job.

[lcclower]

I quit work about 5 years ago to take care of in-laws, we'd moved them here from the home town, they needed to go to the nursing home but did not have the assets. I'd been in the same position before so I had the skills and until it was time for hospice care it all worked out just fine.
I had some pretty good royalty checks from some natural gas (I was in the drilling business until it broke off in the '80's) so it was no biggie to quit the orange box store.
I figured I could go back to work after the folks passed away.
Except, of course, for the meltdown/recession/stimulus/depression, whatever you want to call it.
I'm currently old and unemployed, natural gas is dirt cheap, and bored to tears except for when I can pick up a fence or deck to build or a door to hang.