Trying to figure out this retirement thing
Do I need to have a purpose with part-time jobs, or should I just say the hell with it and do nothing at all?
BEND, Ore. - I think most of us work for 40 or 50 years and retire, assuming it will be a life of leisure from that point on.
And don’t get me wrong, for the most part it has been for me - I haven’t had a full-time job since I was fired by KJR 15 months ago.
But I also haven’t quit working altogether. Why? I don’t know, I guess it’s because as I tell people, I love golf, but I don’t want to golf every day. And it’s not like my wife and I are set financially - a little extra income to go with the monthly Social Security checks and paltry Seattle Post-Intelligencer pension helps to pay some of the bills or buy a few beers at least.
I’ve dabbled around, taking different jobs, and I reached the point of what the hell am I doing when I thought about it the other day.
My main “job” these days is working with Jason Puckett on his podcast at PuckSports.com, joining him on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I enjoy doing it, and my wife thinks it helps me remain relevant and might benefit my Substack by “keeping my name out there.”
But I’m about to turn 68 and I don’t think I mind the thought of being completely irrelevant. I never aspired to be so-called relevant anyway. And what I don’t want to do is hang on longer than I should. I’ve never wanted to be a guy who overstayed his welcome and lost his fastball - if I ever had one - saying stuff into a microphone long after my expiration date. I don’t want to be pathetic when it comes to that.
I also get frustrated when Puck gets frustrated with my lack of cyber skills and sometimes wonder why I’m stressing myself out with that shit when I’m supposed to be retired. Some days I seriously want to take a sledgehammer to my laptop, headphones and microphone and say good riddance to those objects that I’ve just smashed to smithereens.
For the second summer, I work at the Hayden Homes Amphitheater as one of those guys at the entrance gate for concerts on the river. I stand there and motion people through or have them go through a metal detector for a second time. Or I check their bags. Or I’m the last line of defense who uses a wand on people who trigger the metal detector.
I really goofed with that job one night last year, allowing who I thought was a Deschutes County sheriff into the venue with a gun. He showed me three pieces of ID, and I wrongly assumed that we had undercover cops who routinely roamed the premises. Fortunately that guy didn’t shoot the place up.
I like that job too, but it’s not quite as fun without my wife working there like she did last summer. She’s not working for a really stupid reason that I will explain in a post next week.
Last week I thought what the hell, why don’t I try to be a golf course marshal or starter and surprisingly enough, after I wrote an email to the head pro at Quail Run Golf Course south of Bend, I got a favorable response when Mikey and I showed up there to play.
It looks like I’ll be hired as a fill-in marshal, which is yet another job that pays you minimum wage but gives you free golf at a course that can typically cost $75 to $90 to play this time of year.
Then again, once I start, it’s likely to conflict with Puck’s podcast and gets in the way of summertime road trips to Seattle, Lake Tahoe, Montana and Oxford, Miss., in October when the Cougs play Ole Miss.
Last thing, and without a doubt the most rewarding thing, I worked as an educational assistant at Silver Rail Elementary School earlier this week. In the spring I went through training to become a substitute teacher here. They did background checks on me, I got fingerprinted, went through the whole nine yards to get certified.
I can’t be a sub right away because I don’t have an education degree - mine is in communications - so I need to get experience before they’ll let me get in front of a classroom.
I went through this process because I like kids and I thought it might be a good first step toward coaching baseball at one of the schools. Plus you can make $200 if you work a full day.
My first day at Silver Rail was interesting. It lasted all of two hours. I was an assistant in the special ed room and hung out with some really cool kids and teachers.
The first hour was simple. I sat there with the kids and watched “The Little Mermaid.” It brought back memories of watching that movie nearly 30 years ago with my daughter and, yeah, I teared up again at the end this time too.
I was assigned to one little girl who stuck her tongue out at me, and I thought about sticking mine out at her but wasn’t sure if she was just goofing around or hated me already so I didn’t.
I watched her on the swings at recess and saw her off as the school day ended. I also played Uno with another little girl and hung out in a room with a boy who was more interested in seeing what other kids were doing at recess than what I was drawing for him on a piece of paper.
In so many ways, it was a worthwhile two hours of my time. The teachers who are with these kids every day are tremendous people, so giving and kind. And I know if I spent more time with the kids, we’d build a close relationship that would hopefully be meaningful to them.
I also thought about their parents and what they go through every day with various challenges that are different and more difficult than what other parents face.
When I walked to my car after the final bell rang, I was glad to have spent time with those kids and will plan to take more of those shifts this fall. The school year here ends tomorrow.
I have no idea if you’ve read this far or not, and if you have, thanks, I’m just sort of rambling here but I’m finally bringing it in for a bumpy landing, not sure what the point was of this post, I guess I just wonder if this is normal for someone who is recently retired or if I should just kick back and stop working once and for all. How’s that for a run-on sentence to wrap up a super long post?
Hope you all have a great day and thank you for subscribing.
Jim,Quit those jobs in reverse order. Tattling on beer drinking golfers is a drag. Concert work should be fun with your wife.. Substitute teaching will be rewarding in small doses..The Posse and Puck loves you and all your "every guy" adventures ..it great Radio/Pod material..Give yourself some Grace, go for hikes, golf, enjoy life..we are all striving for that!!
Jim. I'm right there with you bro, however I know I have another book to finish writing and I've got a lot of memories to create for my granddaughters. I initially thought of online photo books that I can get printed but in this electronic day and age I'm thinking of buying each child and external hard drive and downloading all their pictures and videos to that so when they're older they can plug it into their television set and watch them. Boy times have changed haven't they, Jeh? I miss the days of playing in the pasture and running down to the big rocks and the maple tree yelling, "Here we come to save the day Deb and Jim are on their way..." to the tune of I believe Mighty Mouse hoping that Terry and Chris Jeppesen would hear us and come out and play! When dad retired he fished for steelhead, and he met his old cronies at Bud's Drive-In for coffee in the morning. Ironically my husband has a group that he'll occasionally join for coffee. Think about what lights you up inside and be grateful that we have something because I know a lot of people that retire, get bored and go back to punching a time clock! Now that is what I find sad. And by the way I love reading your articles here! When we were kids our house was all about sports so it was something I shied away from because I was sick of it. Here you are your authentic self and I really enjoy it!! Love ya Jeh! ❤️😘