10 Great Years

Donna and I retired from our jobs on January 31, 2011. We've really had a great 10 years since then. 

I was never one who loved work. I really only worked to make a living. I probably should have married a rich heiress, but Donna came along instead and led me astray. I would not wake in the morning raring to get to my job. Oh, there were things about my work I'd get excited about, sure, but I always had my eye on retirement. I worked hard, put in long hours, and was very dedicated, but I was never as passionate as some people are. I always had outside interests, like camping and hiking, that I would rather be doing.

A beautiful San Angelo sunrise. I never tire of them.

As a teacher, I knew I'd never make much money. But I believed that education makes a difference, and I wanted to do something useful in my life. I watched my father, who was a career educator, and decided to follow his lead. And education was a good career for me -- it felt right, it felt natural. And although I never made much money, it did give me lots of benefits.

I've been able to live all over Texas as a result of my career. We've met lots of great folks and experienced life in small towns all over the state. We even were able to work overseas for a few years. Living in a foreign environment helped shape our attitudes and made us more open-minded and more accepting of those who are not like us -- something we could all use a little more of today.

But in the 10 years since we've retired, we've had a ball. We've taken lots of trips in the 2 travel trailers we owned. One trip lasted 8 months, while another lasted 6 months. There have been many shorter trips as well, lasting anywhere from a few days to a month or two. We've seen a lot of the USA, especially the southwest corner of our country, an area that we love so much. 

We no longer have an RV, and the pandemic has really put an end to our travel for now, but we think we still have many years of roaming the country. Once we can put this pandemic behind us, we will be ready to get back out on the road.

But the last 10 years have really been fun. I wish I could go back and do it all over again.

This is our latest puzzle. Normally, we do 1000 piece puzzles, but we have pretty much gone through all of those at the club house. This one was 1500 pieces. It challenged us because we had to pile pieces up when we started because the table is not large enough to accommodate all of the pieces spread out. Gradually, we whittled the piles down, though, and I enjoyed the challenge.