I turned 64 today. May 2-4, always a long weekend, and usually great weather, and a great time. But today I feel… not melancholy, not sad, but…reflective is the probably the best word. Suddenly, without my noticing, I’m in my mid-60s. Not elderly, but, let’s say, if I wasn’t already retired, I would be soon … More Another Turn Around the Sun
This coming June, I will have been retired for 5 years. How time flies! My grandmother warned me that the older you get, the faster the years go by, and although I couldn’t imagine that in my youth, impatient for those life goals: the new baby’s arrival, the mortgage paid off, the kids finally moving … More Retirement. Another Pandemic Issue.
No matter how locked up we are, no matter how screen-confined we’ve become, no matter that we have nowhere to dress for, a motto for my consumer generation could be: “Have internet, and credit card, will shop.” I’m not a big clothes horse or shopper anymore. I was young enough once, and poor enough once, … More Pandemic Clothes Shopping
If you’re like me, a healthy 60-something in retirement, then you understand when I say, this pandemic has sure put a stop to the plans I had. To be fair, I’m sure it’s changed the plans of well, everybody in the whole wide world, but I can only speak for myself here. And plans for … More Spend More in Retirement (Part 2. Pandemic)
I usually hate November, the dreariest month of the year: the declining weather; the increasing darkness, exacerbated by the time change, which I used to love getting the extra hour sleep of when I was working. But now, on my own natural schedule, like a family dog curious why its dinner is delayed, I find … More November 2020. Ugh.
September always feels like the start of a new year to me. As does my birthday, in May: It’s the feel of a new season, new activities, fresh beginnings. It has never felt more like a new life than this closing of September of 2020 – the year we shall always reference by “before Covid, … More September 2020. Reset.
August 2020 is over, already. Finally. What a month of highs and lows. The weather was fantastic, full on summer, heat and rain, gardens and fields heavy with harvest here in “la belle province”. The leaves still only tinged with a shy blush of promise for brilliant autumn raiment to come. And now fall is … More August 2020. Light and Dark.
July went by fast. Sometimes I hope the whole year, this year of the pandemic, would just be over with already. Then I remember, and tell myself, “You’re not getting any younger! Don’t wish your life away. Live and Adapt.” So I try, as well as possible, what with all the “new normal” ways to … More July 2020. Normal, Outside.
Where are you from? Where is “home”? Is home where you grew up as a child? Is it where you graduated high school? Where you got married? Is home where you live now? Well, for me and many military brats, yes, to all of the above. We’ve had many homes and even a few hometowns. … More Home. Again and Again.
I’m lucky to still have my Dad around. His health isn’t the best anymore, and I live far enough away that I only get one, maybe two visits a year. But yes, lucky, and even luckier that he’s started to share more of his military stories with me now, more than I ever knew growing … More Father’s Day 2020. My Military Dad
Stevie Szabad, Author 