Spending Retirement

Two possible visions of the future......

On our recent trip to Sioux City we stopped to see my Dad in Centerville. He's been retired for a few years, and has spent roughly three of those years building a workshop attached to his garage. He has finally finished it, and the results are pretty impressive. It has a lot of space for work and storage, and a door that looks just like the garage doors. He'll be doing a lot of puttering out there.

At the casino in Sioux City we saw a large number of elderly people playing the slot machines. Many of them used the plastic casino cards instead of cash (indicating they were frequent customers) and spent hours playing the same machines.

I didn't inherit my Dad's woodworking skills, so I don't see myself spending retirement that way. I do like going to a casino occasionally, but I can't imagine spending time and money like those folks. If I had to guess, I'd say that, if the eyes hold up and the wife doesn't have better ideas, I'll likely be doing more of what I do now when I'm not working, which is watching TV and wandering the web. I know many people would find that unspeakably dull, but it suits me.