Down with Weekends!

 Posted by at 17:55  Down with
May 042013
 

Retirement changes your perspective-like, for example, how you value your time.  My priorities shifted but it is a slow process after 60 years of routine.  Like Pavlov’s dog, I’d been conditioned but instead of food, I salivated for the weekends.  I’d learned that weekends were when I was in charge.  On weekend days I could sleep late, go where I wanted to go, spend time with the kids or just goof off.  Monday through Friday were defined by work- the activity that supported my lifestyle and provided my limited free time.  On a normal weekday, I would rise at 4:30 and get home about 12 hours later leaving me about four hours before bedtime.  My work wasn’t onerous- some of it I liked doing- but I wouldn’t have followed that schedule if I didn’t need the money.

fat retirementIt’s no wonder that weekends became so important.  I remember counting down the weekdays to Friday and dreading Sunday night, knowing that tomorrow morning at 4:30 my slavery would begin again. Weekends were a treasure.

Well in retirement, life isn’t like that at all.  You can do pretty much anything you want any time you want.  You can sleep all day and carouse all night if that makes you happy.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t.  What was wild and crazy at 25 no longer is appealing- or even possible- at 65.  By retirement, it seems you get drowsy at 8- or else you can’t sleep at all and find yourself listening to talk radio all night trying to stay sane.  You still aren’t in control.

Aging isn’t the only problem however.  Put aside the monkey wrenches that aging throws into the equation.  You can attempt to ignore them and pretend that they aren’t obvious to everyone else but whatever you do it won’t make you young.  The issue I’m talking about here is controlling your time.  It’s a problem whether you are young or old but old people have so much more of it.  While you were working, out of each week with 168 hours, 52 (31%) were under your control with a lot of pressure on that time.   After you retire you have the entire 168 (100%).  Imagine what that would have felt like 20 years ago.  What would you have done with that time?  If you are like me, the list would have been a mile long and you would have been as excited as a teenager getting a driver’s license.  So what happened when you retired?  Where is that list and why isn’t there any excitement?

What is sad about retirement is that life goes on pretty much like always and instead of treasuring those hours and filling them with living, they just dribble away, unloved and unappreciated.  Nobody takes retirement seriously.  It gets no respect.  It requires no commitment.  At a time in your life where the possibilities are limitless, why hide your head in the sand and let life flow around you?  Have you forgotten how to live?

Still life does go on and inevitably, without thinking you make adjustments.  You shift your shopping patterns.  You eat when you feel like it.  You take a nap.  Without actually thinking about it, your schedule adjusts and one of the big surprises is how you feel about weekends. You discover to your amazement that weekends suck.  Instead of looking forward to Friday, you now long for Monday because Monday gives you freedom.  Monday is when the wage slaves are back at their desks and out of the stores, shopping malls, freeways and parks.  Monday through Friday, the world is your oyster and you can search for your pearl without the madding crowds.  What a surprise!

Maybe it’s a small thing after all.  Maybe it can’t compare to the daily challenges and satisfactions of a job or raising a family.  And maybe that small satisfaction stands in the way of making a real lifestyle change- like becoming a beach bum in Fiji or joining the Peace Corps but it is important none the less because you turned your working lifestyle on its ear.  Mondays are when you savor that cup of coffee on the front porch watching your neighbors begin their commute to work, remembering the ‘good old days’ when you were with them.  You have a wonderful day ahead.

So I say up with Retirement Lifestyle and up with Mondays when the Retirement Lifestyle Week begins.

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Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Apr 052013
 

I was looking at a magazine the other day and there was an ad for the new Toyota mini-van.  A couple of things really bothered me about it.  First it was a Toyota.  I was always raised that the only cars you should buy should be American.

Right or wrong, those slant eyed Hirotito followers are not going to get any of my money.  Thank you Grandpa.  I guess if you fought the Japanese in WWII you are entitled to that opinion and can drill it into your kids.  I have never owned a Japanese car.

Anyhow, this minivan has a 180 degree camera in the back of it that is hooked to some little communist plot view screen up front so you can back out of the driveway without running over Juniors tricycle or even junior himself.  Bad enough in and of itself, but the tagline “Daddy Like” just made me want to find that copywriter and shove one of those cameras up an orifice.  Choose one, I don’t care.

I am very frustrated that people need to have things like cameras in their cars.  What happened to that simple convention of actually turning around and looking out the back window?  Are we that soft?  What happened to people being able to DRIVE their cars???

I used to work at U-Haul.  There were several employees there that could not park trucks to save their butts.  They couldn’t back up using only their mirrors.  If they lacked the training beforehand, they should have learned fairly quickly.  Some couldn’t even drive a stick, but that is another post.

I want to find an older car for my kids to learn how to drive.  Stick shift, AM radio, no airbags, no air conditioning, power steering if they are lucky.  I want them to be able to drive forward with confidence.  I want them to be able to look, actually look, behind them and drive backwards.  I want them to be able to use their mirrors to back up! I want them to be able to avoid an accident.  They don’t even get a cellphone.  Too distracting.

I think the world would be safer if we didn’t spend so much time trying to make cars safer, and make the drivers better.  I don’t know the stats and I am not going to look them up but I would be willing to bet that there are more accidents now than there were 40 years ago when people didn’t have all of the crap to distract them.  Airbags are great, but so is a 4000 pound car.  Hang up.  Drive.  Learn what your vehicle can do.  Pay attention.  None of this should be hard.

I don’t want any of this sissy crap foreign cars with “Daddy Like” as the tagline.  I would seriously doubt that a man wrote that ad.  At least not a real man who has ever field dressed something.  Or changed an alternator out.

“Daddy Like” in my book should be changed to “Whoever like this ad can cram it and get some real driving skills.”

But I’m just saying.

Tomorrow a digest post!

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Down with Google +1

 Posted by at 09:38  Down with
Mar 192013
 
COOL

Image by marc falardeau via Flickr

 

I’m no whiner like Bob.

Sometimes, though, you just have to tell it like it is. The world is just not fair. Some people are ‘Cool’ and some people are not. I thought that those days were long over for me, I mean worrying about being ‘Cool’. I know it might be hard to believe but back in high school, I wasn’t cool. In those days, there were two kinds of kids.- the ‘Cool’ ones and the rest. I was one of the rest. I never knew what it was like to be ‘Cool’. I had to guess but it sure looked good to me. The ‘Cool’ kids all hung our together doing ‘Cool’ things and the rest of us watched. Most of my high school fantasies involved somehow being mistaken for one of the ‘Cool’ kids. Well it never happened.

Going through life, being ‘Cool’ faded in importance the farther I got from high school. At work, it wasn’t so important being cool. In fact, sometimes to my delight being ‘Cool’ was a disadvantage for my competition. Over time, I forgot about my painful high school years. I still wasn’t ‘Cool’ but it didn’t keep me from being moderately successful in life. My kids knew but it really didn’t matter because even ‘Cool’ parents aren’t ‘Cool’ to their kids. I coped. The scars healed and I was able to pretend that it was never really very important. Then I started blogging.

UnCool Redux. 

Before long, I was in the same sorry state as when I started high school. I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t know where anything was. And once again, the world was divided into two groups- the ‘Cool’ kids like Darren and Leo and the rest. It’s pretty much the same hopeless state of mind because what separates the ‘Cool’ from the unCool is stuff you can’t learn – at least I can’t figure it out. In high school, the ‘Cool’ guys were the jocks, the cheerleaders and the student government smooth talkers. Band geeks like me just didn’t qualify.

 So what makes ‘Cool’ guys ‘Cool’?

It is stlll a mystery to me what makes a ‘Cool” blogger ‘Cool. The ‘Cool’ bloggers aren’t necessarily great looking. They have other qualities that set them apart. The trouble is that those qualities are hard to identify and harder to learn. It isn’t the number of words that they write. It is that in those words they manage to touch their readers. You can’t bottle that skill and sell it (although number of the ‘Cool’ bloggers try and us unCool bloggers are willing to buy). It’s like that Supreme Court Justice said about pornography. He can’t define it but he know it when he sees it. Because it is so hard to identify the difference, the Blogging Gods invented Google and on the web, you know that guys are ‘Cool’ when Google tells you the are Cool’.

Well, I’m still not ‘Cool’.

These days with all the social media like Facebook and Twitter it’s easy to build up a following. They may all be band geeks just like me but it takes a little effort find that out.  After getting my feet wet I began to feel comfortable with social media. Facebook and Twitter were great. Why add any more? But then I started hearing about Google +1. It sounded ‘Cool’. I wanted to find out.

But it is by invitation only.

That’s why I’m so upset withGoogle and their new Googlie +1. At first I just dismissed it as another Social Media site. I told myself why bother. I’ve already got friends. But the buzz got stronger. People talked about how it was different from Facebook, how it gave your community different dimensions. I was intrigued. Then the enchanting Guy Kawasaki posted about it. I read the post and decided to investigate. Maybe I could still be ‘Cool’. Maybe I could even be part of Guy;s community, The old high school freshman in me was still working. I wanted to belong with the cool kids.

So the problem is that Google +1is by invitation only and I’m not invited. Sure, Guy is “Cool’ and he says jump right on board. But he didn’t mention, that you have to be ‘Cool’ to do it. Google rubbed my nose right in it when I requested to join, “Maybe later.” they told me. “We are still working out the kinks.” Well, I know what that means. It mean that I’m not ‘Cool’ and everybody knows it. Google didn’t even have to check. They knew that if I was cool enough for Google+1, I’d already have been invited.

 

 

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Mar 072013
 
The Morgan silver dollar

Image via Wikipedia

I never thought I would see the day when there were places right here in these United States where they didn’t like cash.  Cash is no longer king, and sometimes the green is not good.

First some small history.  If you have read my blogs over this summer you will have some small inkling of the size of the pile of crap that has fallen on us.  Long story short, (side note at this thought, zemanta just brought up some pics to put on the page, I am hoping a manure pile is one of them) anyway, long story short, we have decided to nearly forego the banking industry and go back to a mostly cash system for our budget.

Seems like a good idea right?  Get the direct deposit, go withdraw it, be hyper accurate with records and it should work out fine.  Biggest problem, some places give you dirty looks when you pull out cash.  Some look on in puzzlement as former presidents look out from their assigned currencies.

Some say “Oh, we don’t get much cash.”  or some don’t even take it.  I tried to pay my rent with cash and they said no.  I had to go get a cashiers check or pay over the net with a credit card.  Hmmm.  Imagine that, here is perfectly good money, issued by the Government for the people by the people and protected under miles of codes and laws, and they don’t want it.  All they want is the numbers in the bank account.

It is not like I am paying in chickens or anything.  Back in my grandparents day, they had cash.  You got paid in cash or a check that you cashed at the bank.  You paid cash for groceries.  You paid cash for gas.  If you didn’t have cash, you didn’t buy that extra candy bar.  Debit cards are way too easy to use and they get you in trouble.

I could have called this article “Down with Debit Cards.”  We got nailed with the timing of debit cards to the tune of about $1400 in the past 6 months.  May not be catastrophic but that is rent and groceries for a month.  The issue is timing.  and the fact that the banks need to make up some revenue that they are not getting from loans and other government restrictions.

So I am working hard to keep my bank accounts at a minimum and use that debit card as little as possible.  I have had to plan on getting gas during the times when a person is actually in the place to take my cash.  I have had to really keep track because I know that when the cash is gone, there is no more.  It brings a whole new level of frugality that debit cards and easy credit have taken away.

Plus you can have fun with it.  I sold some fitness equipment earlier this week and took the check to the bank to cash.  They asked how I wanted it back and I told him a sack of dollar coins.  He looked nervous before I chuckled and told him what bills I wanted.  I would still like to have $1000 in dollar coins.  Walmart would have an apoplexy when we got groceries.

Anyway, have a great weekend, Remember Talk Like A pirate Day is on Monday, I hope you have all decorated and have been watching your pirate movies and singing your sea chanteys around the grog pot.  There will be a special edition of the podcast on Monday, the reason there was not one yesterday.   It is taking a lot to put together, but it should be entertaining.  I have had not interest in joining in on the podcast, so **like deleted to preserve family content**

I will be having some special guests that will remain unnamed until the naming during the podcast.  I would say you don’t want to miss it, but then again you might.  In that case I will email it to everyone who visits this site and  clog their servers and email systems so that I can take over.  Cyber hijacking.  Anyway, have a fun weekend.

ONE MORE THING!  Happy Birthday to Ralph earlier this week, he got older and probably more cantankerous.  Wish him a happy belated birthday.

Later – Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Down With Idiots

 Posted by at 15:42  Down with, rants
Feb 252013
 

I hate stupid people. I really really do. I don’t mean those with mental disablities either. They are the way they are for a reason, and choice is NOT that reason! They need to be treated with caring and respect, just like any other person.

However, those who use excuses for why they can’t learn something piss me off! Especially when women use their gender for an excuse. WTF?!?!?! We can do almost anything a man can, and learning is an area where we can kick butt. Math is hard, but it doesn’t mean a woman can’t learn it.. I am so sick of that excuse it makes me want to barf when I hear it.

Then you have those that use the excuse they didn’t graduate high school or go to college. BFD! There are books and online information. READ THESE! Learn something and make yourself better. If you can’t read, I do have sympathy for you…but all you have to do is sign up for a course. If you can’t swallow your pride enough to learn a basic skill that is needed in everything from driving to ordering in a restaurant…Nope, no sympathy for you!

What about people who say they can’t learn because they don’t have time? HELLO?!?!? You have time to watch TV, rent movies, play video and computer games, sign on to Facebook and Twitter…but no time to better yourself by learning a little something. F’in Idiots!

Stupid really IS as stupid does, and I am sick of it. I wish we could give everyone a test to see if they are too stupid to realize that learning is something you need to do from birth to death. If they don’t realize that, deport them somewhere else. Preferably the moon.

I am sick of people not using their gift of free information. Use the internet and find stuff you are interested in and LEARN about it. Check out a book that’s  not all sex and romance. LEARN something useable….like how to cook. Ladies, cooking is hot, and I don’t mean the temperature.

You all with me? What examples of idiots are at the top of your “wish we could send ’em to the moon” list?

Gurl

Hi! I am a thirty-something college student in Virginia, USA. I started blogging as a personal outlet in August of 2009. I am now turning Gurls Asylum into a semi-niche blog and working on ways to improve my search ranking AND monetize it. I am also an avid Facebook gamer and Tweeter . I love to read, watch movies, listen to music, and blog!

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