Here's what I'll do here.
I'll post at least every year. Most of my journaling/blogging can be found at my primary blog, but this one is specifically dedicated to revising the world's understanding of what it means to be (the clearly diminutive term) "retired." I prefer a term I am proud to have coined, "scheduliberated."
Okay, it's my 73rd today and I'm going fishing in a bit. Just got led back to this (now understood as an) "annublog" by a post about a teacher friend's retirement from her teaching career and I reread the single post here (cross-posted at scottmerrickdotnet); and I'm still feeling pretty good about it. I will have completed my first year of "retirement" in a couple days. In a couple days after that, I fly to Spain with my lovely lovely for over two weeks of luxury travel and culinary and culture exploration (shoutout to RH Travel).
NOTE: If you're a web trolling miner for thievery, we have good friends living in our home to take care of our mean old dog, who is trained to take a leg off if need be. My friends are both highly trained martial arts experts and pretty much always armed to the teeth. There. JK of course, but not.
I have to hit the lake but I do want to say here that I have had a wonderful year. I've completed a Peloton class on meditation, and one on yoga, both taken to refresh my dedication to both. The meditation one stuck as I am practicing daily. The yoga was surprisingly painful but I completed it, and I incorporate elements of it in everyday movements and in the care with which I approach them. I'm still cycling on the machine, but the discovery of Peloton classes I can take at computer was a good one. The meditation one may be life-changing for you.
I am painting like a madman (chronicled at scottmerrickdotnet), I've written songs, I've taken masterclass.com classes from John Legend, Futura, Santana, and Jake Shimabukuro; and mandolin classes from Sierra Hull at artistworks.com. I've blogged a bunch, and I've read/listened to a number of great podcasts and books, most notably many of Lex Fridman's long-form interview podcasts and my son-in-law's "You're Good Get Better" drumming jewel.
I've camped, I've attended a great concert at The Caverns (focused on my music crush Sierra Ferrell but with other great Americana folks) and several Finally Fridays from WMOT at 3rd and Lindsley. I road-tripped last fall to visit my dear brother Ed at his home in Montgomery, Texas, camping in Arkansas on the way and staying with a high school friend in Hot Springs on the way home. Just last week my dear son Colin came into town and we fished, saw Caroline Polachek with Edith Cain at the Ryman, and brewery crawled--just spent good time together. I'm going to head up to his territory, Missoula, Montana, in September, for the Montana version of the week.
In short, and I will be short, because the out of doors is calling and Lee Ann's alarm is going off, repeatedly as is her wont, in the next room--if you are interested in what scheduliberation looks like, keep up with my primary blog, easily found at scottmerrick.net. That blog has been up for a long time but this new leg of my life is grand, great, godly, and gee-wiz happy and I'm digging chronicling it.
You fashion your own life, whatever stage it be, and don't let anyone slip you negative vibes. I highly recommend it.
Here's a work in progress, from a photo taken a month ago at Cheatham Lake Campground:
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| wip, "from the campsite", acrylics on canvas, by Scott Merrick, 2023 |
See ya,
Scott
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