TakeYourMedicine

I ran into a neighbor while walking the dog the other night. "So how do you like retirement?" she asked.

I told her about my two jobs--managing a medical practice and the recent addition, a foray into the world of retail, at the coolest of big box stores.

"I thought you said you were retired."

So did I. But life goes on, the pension is pathetic, and I still haven't sold my goddam house. So I muddle on, still not sure of what I want to be when I grow up.
The medical practice is the best, but I work for a man who takes lots of vacations, as well he should at 78. He's a regular at the local Club Chemo, as his wife has dubbed it, getting zapped for prostate cancer. He comes back, denies that the chemo bothers him, rubs his hands together and says, "Oboyoboyoboy... where are the patients?" And away he goes, healing the halt and the lame, till several days later, when he is suddenly wiped out. His wife takes him off on trips from time to time, and they take in as much of this wide world as they can while they are still able. They are two of the best people I know.

So I needed a little more coming in, the aforementioned coolest of b.b.s. (about which more later) was opening in our area, and I got some hours in the garden department. I love plants. Now I am ensconsed in retail, hard physical work to offset the more contemplative life of medical coding and submitting claims to an increasingly irascible Medicare.

I thought I was retired.

Still, I am grateful for the change. I don't miss dumb principals, scheming department heads, and piles of papers. I do miss kids, though the doc has grandkids who are around a lot and provide me with my minimum daily requirement.

Ironically, I can work six days a week in retirement, that is, if Doc isn't on one of his adventures.

Anyway, I'll have me a corporate experience, and this will no doubt feed my jaundiced vision del mundo.