If I could use a time machine

If I could use a time machine, I'd go twenty years ahead of now and avoid the boredom of lonely retirement and being socially useless. I'd jump straight to aged decrepitude and senility in the hopes of oblivion. Then the rest of society couldn't accuse me of being a drain on the younger generation that can't afford degrees or mortgages, and there's not enough of them to support baby boomers in retirement. In the eighties, baby boomers could get mortgages and pay the 16% interest, and Thatcher hadn't yet sold off all the council houses so that was an option too.  Baby boomers' parents could retire early cos there were so many younger people working who could therefore pay for their retirement pensions.
And if I wind my time machine forward, I could skip being taxed on the Open University degree I got part time without a government grant or support while I was paying that 16% on our mortgage.

Retirement day

Like the unwilling school boy, getting husband and me to work today was a slow trudge.

the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.

Husband took ages, faffed about with his new mobile phone, muttered about mastic to fix the leaky shower, read the paper and looked surprised at the thought of leaving the house at a quarter past eight.

Husband retires today. I've dropped him off at work instead of him dropping me off (first time I've driven his car in years) so he can have a drink at lunch time and I'll drive him home in time and sober enough to get to his model train club.

Retiring husband

Husband spent a retirement day at home today. First he met Milly for one thing, and then she passed him on to Louise for something else. Then he spent time helping a local charity with their computers. He tells me that first he had to get introduced to Wendy, and then had a cup of coffee with Pat who wants him to talk to Lindsey next week. But he did fit in the time to meet Cherry as usual.

He thinks he's going to have to get organised, but if he's going to be meeting that many women then he'll be organised. How funny! He's spent most of his working life in a really technical environment where few women go.

Retirement looms

Husband says that he has heard that he is definitely retiring at the end of March. So he'll go from working three days a week down to no paid days a week, and have to occupy himself in the house and home seven days a week. He's been building up to it by:

• attending a local archeology course
• getting involved with the old town residents association
• building and displaying model trains
• advising the local Florence Nightingale trust on their IT, broadband and PCs.