By now you know that I love being retired. I do miss aspects of my work life, but I’m never bored and generally pretty happy. On some retirement days I’m busy doing a serious project or hanging out with friends and family. Other days are low key. My wife will ask me, “What did you do today?” I’ll typically reply, “Oh, not too much.” Yet, my days fly by and although I can succumb to a nap now and again, I’m certainly not sleeping my life away.

The weekend was very busy for me. On Saturday, I drove several hours to spend time with my oldest daughter and her family. On Sunday, I attended a bash for my sister-in-law’s milestone birthday. I have taken it upon myself to become the family photographer, and I try to record family events in photos.

Monday rolled around and I needed some alone time. Then the day was over. What did I do? Not too much? I thought I would document a quiet day in the life of a retired guy. Some may find my routine boring. However, I love the freedom to explore the day as I see fit. Let’s start.

This Monday began like most days, by making a pot of coffee. Then it was time for breakfast. I usually have a simple breakfast, and this morning I made some oatmeal with craisins in the microwave. I then stirred in a spoonful of peanut butter.

I have been on a mission to help people reduce economic stress by writing blogs on how to save money. One of the things that I do is make my own bread. Yes, I can afford bread, but I like the smell and taste of the stuff that I bake at home. I asked myself, “Can I make a really inexpensive loaf that tastes good?” I did some research and found a recipe that uses cheap All Purpose flour (instead of Bread flour) and ran the experiment. Success! This loaf costs only 57 cents and it was bakery quality. I then started a blog post with photos to encourage others to do the same. You will probably see that post here in a week or two.

I’m also in the process of writing a post on ways to buy an Instant Pot cheaply. If I can convince someone that cooking for scratch is easy and fun it is more likely that they will try it. Using an Instant Pot makes meal preparation extremely simple.

Now a trip to the pharmacy. I had to pick up a couple of prescriptions. Sandy, the tech is extremely nice, and knows me. Although I have Medicare Part D my policy is bare bones. She spent some time checking for discount coupons and saved me some money. Luckily, I’m only on a couple of meds, and they are all generic.

A few years ago a major online retailer contacted me and asked me to become one of their professional reviewers/influencers. It has been a fun ride, and I have reviewed everything from clothing to power tools. Today, I reviewed a kitchen product by Dash. It is a stackable pot and pan set that includes its own electric burner. I did a couple of test, including frying an egg. I wrote a review on this product and included some photos. What did I think of it? I thought it was pretty good.

Time for lunch! I’ll eat the egg from my review on some buttered toast from the 57 cent bread that I made earlier in the morning. Delicious!

In between my activities I do a little cleaning. I prefer to use cleaning as a break, so I may clean the sink one time, and wipe down the counters on another. This keeps the general areas of the house tidy, and by breaking up the task I don’t even realize that its work. During the pandemic I couldn’t get cleaning chemicals, so I simplified my routine, and never went back. I make a basic cleaning solution by adding a scant teaspoon of liquid dish detergent to water in a spray bottle. This is great for all surfaces. I use powdered cleanser for sinks. It is less expensive than the stuff in the squeeze bottle and does a better job. I also try to minimize paper towel use by using dish towels as much as reasonably possible.

Now it is time for a walk. I have beautiful paths very close to my home, so it is always a treat to get out and smell the flowers.

There is a list of people that I talk to every day. This day I also had some additional calls from friends and family, so I was pretty chatty.

Remember that I told you that I took a lot of photos of my sister-in-law’s birthday bash? Well, now I have to edit them. I’ll often take multiple photos of the same scene to get the best one. I ranked the photos and then spent some time tweaking them further using photo editing software. It takes a lot longer than you may think. I caught my wife in this contemplative pose at the party. The patio of the restaurant had very peaceful scenery.

Time to make a run to Aldi. I love Aldi. The prices are good and the choices are simple. I can be in and out in no time.

I make dinner a few nights a week. Tonight I decided to make mac and cheese with cornbread and broccoli. I started a blog post on this too that I’ll publish next week. Writing and teaching gives me pleasure. Plus, I feel like I’m doing a good deed by encouraging others to cook at home.

I photographed each step of the process, as some people are more visual learners. I’ll usually do some deliberate substitutions in a recipe to make it OK for others to do the same. Lastly, I’ll admit it when a dish is good, and also when I screwed up. I guess that is what happens when you combine a teacher with a psychiatrist and a home cook! I’m making the mac and cheese in an Instant Pot. To do so is simple and fast. You will have to check out that post when I finish it and publish it to this blog.

My Instant Pot mac and cheese plated up. The mac and cheese was delicious, but the cornbread was another story. I used a different size pan and tried to make it in our tiny toaster oven. Oh well, I ate the cornbread anyway. Dinner time is always nice as it gives me a chance to catch up with Julie. When I make dinner I also do the clean up. Julie often will assist with the dishes, as I will when it is her turn to cook.

Now it is time to learn. I always spend some time every day learning. I’ll read or watch videos on topics ranging from science, to senior living. I try to keep up-to-date with the news, but I also limit it. All the recent political, war, and inflation stuff can be pretty depressing. I’ll listen to a 5 minute NPR news summary, and I may watch a YouTube video or two, but then I stop. I know what is going on, but I don’t dwell in the recent chaos as there is nothing that I can do about it. Learning anything from a new recipe to how to do an advanced photography technique is a better use of my time.

Where did the day go? Time for bed. Over the last few months I have tried to avoid screen time before bedtime as it was impacting my sleep. I started reading novels again. I love doing this on a Kindle. Kindles use e-paper which is different from a computer screen and more like reading a regular book. Right now I’m reading The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. It was first published in 1929 as a serial, and then as a book in 1930. It is a fun read, but feminists may find some of the content offensive. By the way, ignore the fact that I have 55 hours more reading time (bottom of the Kindle page). That is for the entire Dashiell Hammett collection. I bought the whole set for a couple of bucks on Amazon. You can buy entire collections of famous authors who are out of copyright for very little.

After a few chapters, it is time to fall asleep. Another quiet day in the life of a retired guy. Not exciting, but perfect for me. In retrospect, I do a lot of stuff on days when I normally think I didn’t do much. I wonder if that is the reason why I enjoy those days as much as I do?

Peace

Mike