It has been – I feel sure – a widely held notion now for a considerable time that retirement means days spent lounging in an armchair or on a chaise watching daytime TV and scanning the popular press for things about which (righteously!) to complain.
If the boomers have managed to dent this injurious impression at all it is surely merely to replace it with an image of silver-haired gadabouts cruising their way around the exotic destinations of the globe burning their way through the planet’s fossil fuels and their progeny’s inheritances with equal abandon.
Now – I know that I am not currently one hundred percent retired – though in my heart I have certainly already taken up my commission in that distinguished regiment. Thinking back over the last three years – since my arrival in this congenial country – I find that my own particular focus has not been on day-time dallying, nor on intercontinental adventuring, but more on matters cerebral and intellectual.
In short, I have been learning… Loads!
Contrary to any notion that this be a pursuit only for the young and that as one ages one becomes more and more content with that which one has already assimilated, my recent experience is that there is nothing like both retiring and moving to a different continent to ensure that one must needs keep the brain constantly engaged just to keep up.
Herewith – in no particular order – just a few of the things I have learned since we moved to Canada:
- How to buy a boat
- How to pilot a boat
- How to navigate (including charting and conning)
- How to tow a trailer (including reversing into tight spaces)
- How to replace trailer brakes and wheelhubs
- How to launch and retrieve a boat single-handed
- How to replace a boat’s sonar depth finder
- How to operate a marine VHF radio
- How to replace the wet-end seals on a hot tub pump
- How to maintain the chemical balance in a hot tub
- How to barbecue (a huge topic: I am just a beginner!)
- How to maintain a supply of propane for a barbecue
- How to maintain a garden irrigation system
- How to replace heads on a garden irrigation system
- How to operate a gas (petrol) mower and string trimmer (along with other garden power tools that I have not previously owned)
- How to paint and decorate (to a much higher standard than I have done previously)
- How to build bass traps for a music studio
- How to record the human voice (at a far higher level than I have ever done before)
- How to be a board director for a non-profit organisation
- How to organise a 50/50 raffle
- How to fund-raise
- How to teach computer literacy to post-secondary students
- How to drive on snow and ice
- How to stream TV from other parts of the world
Plus – of course – how to navigate one’s way through all of the bureaucracy associated with everyday life in a another country!
“Travel broadens the mind” – as Mark Twain didn’t quite say. Well – so does starting afresh in foreign fields. I am grateful that (semi) retirement has given me the opportunity to exercise both the mind and the body in new and unexpected ways.
Tags: Health, learning, Retirement
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