Karen and I were surprised to realize we retired ten years ago on June 30 in Portland Oregon. We figured we had a good 30 years ahead of us. Now we figure we have a good 25 years.

             We’ve done some things well and learned from many others.

              We started well. The first day we drove away from our rented condo, stopped for massages friends had gifted us and meandered east. We had few commitments.

               We were due at a retirement/birthday celebration hosted by our son in Moscow, a class reunion in Michigan, and caring for our granddaughter in Moscow in early August. Without our granddaughter we might still be heading east.

In Denver a realtor called. He’d sold the Hood Canal waterfront where we considered retiring, leaving us free to locate wherever we wanted. When our granddaughter’s parents returned to relieve us, I told Karen the only reasonable choice for a home was the Spokane area. She said, “Keep looking.”

A half-hour later Greater Wenatchee’s Chamber of Commerce website enticed us. We had to visit a community that could build an Apple Capital Loop Trail and new Performing Arts Center. The next morning we rolled past the promise of fiberoptics from Rock Island Dam, acres of apple orchards, parks on the Columbia River, a sign to Mission Ridge and a view of the North Cascades. We bought our condo in East Wenatchee a week later.

We let our relaxed pace get hectic to the point where a friend insists we’re doing retirement with too much stress. Now I agree with him.

We felt welcomed immediately. Neighbors, church and Rotary linked us with friends well before Facebook.

Friends easily lured us on to community boards and into community theater, although we may have said no more times than yes. The service has been fulfilling. We think we’ve contributed to make the community a better place,

We’ve recreated well. We’ve played tennis, skied, hiked, biked, rafted, fished and camped. We’ve enjoyed orchestras, choral groups, bluegrass, performing artists, and live theater.

We’ve traveled the globe beyond our dreams. Intriguing lands land on our bucket list. Our trips are shorter. We feel an urgency to travel because our health and wealth are diminishing.

Changes are coming. I invested in real estate that appealed to me rather than be content, but economic downturns replaced fun with stress. Shedding the load takes precious time.

Community service in shorter, significant and fulfilling projects appeal to us. Otherwise we sit in uncomfortable chairs while the minutiae of meetings require skills we’ve used innumerable times. The discomfort spawns an intuition to let younger bodies lead and learn.

We’ll be weaker. We slip out of performances at intermission. We hire furniture movers. We insert jars in automatic lid removers and cut open e-z-open Swiss cheese packages.

We’ll recover more. Surgeries already corrected congenital defects in feet and an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Procedures regularly track the erosion of every body system. Medical staff are caring but we’d rather be skiing.

We treasure our local medical teams, Medicare and supplemental care. We’d support a reasonable increase to preserve them for us and our children. That excludes your plan, Rep. Ryan.

We’ll be alone more. We can’t hear as well and can’t always mute the media’s shrill noises, so Karen weaves while I write. We read. We enjoy being with friends and family, but feel the energy to entertain them draining away. I worry about loneliness, sometimes.

We’ll lose family and friends. They leave for warmer climates because they fear parking lot ice. We lose them forever. And they cut back. As my older sister quipped, “We’re slowly preparing to die.” That sounds morbid, but we don’t feel that way. We appreciate our ends are inevitable and as systems fall apart, who knows, we may choose to slip out before a final act.

For now, we love life and figure on a good 25 years more. Ten years from now we may figure on another good 20.