The clock is ticking

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The beloved husband on retirement day 2006

The beloved husband on retirement day 2006

Time is an illusion.” — Albert Einstein

“The older you get, the faster time flies.” — My Mom

She also said “You’ll be sorry!” when I was wishing for a distant event to happen. (Like Christmas when I was six!)

“One day you’ll be old and you will have wished your life away waiting for things to happen. Many times those things weren’t worth the wait!” (That is the truth!)

This is another instance of “I wish my mom were still around so I could tell her she was right.” (I don’t think I ever told her she was right enough. She was a smart lady but of course at the time I thought I was smarter.)

This whole time thing flew up this past weekend when the beloved husband found pictures of his work retirement luncheon. That was 10 years ago. TEN YEARS! Cowabunga!

I remember when he retired. I was working. He retired in the middle of the summer. As I was trekking off to work he was drinking coffee and reading the paper in the screened porch. The birds were chirping and frogs croaking and I was going to work.

I have been retired five years. How did that happen?

My niece and nephew are both retiring towards the end of this year. (Don’t try to do the math. My siblings are considerably older than me so most of their kids are my contemporaries.)

It’s hard to think of myself as the “older” generation. In my head I’m still 20. My body occasionally says differently but not too often. Maybe I can’t wear high heels but I can pull off skinny pants.

I take off my glasses to peer in the mirror (you’d be surprised how well that works).

The “kids” in the family are middle-aged. Their kids are having kids.

Most of the time I don’t think about time. You can’t do anything about it. It happens. I live each day as it comes. Then something happens and bam! It smacks you in the face.

At the end of the day though, it’s better than the alternative (and I’m not looking forward to that).

“It’s being here now that’s important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one.”  George Harrison

The beloved husband on the porch this summer.

The beloved husband on the porch this summer. The mustache was shaved off the day he retired.

52 thoughts on “The clock is ticking”

  3. I also feel like I’m twenty … or ten … or thirty. I guess it’s because I feel like its essentially the same person inside this ever-changing body. Too bad I don’t have the waistline I did at twenty.

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  5. CH has had a mustache since I met him. When he retired in 2007 he grew a goatee, small and trimmed to his chin. No pointy hair hanging down… I like it 🙂 So, I don’t know what you would call it without the actual hair like on a goat’s chin????????

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  7. My husband shaved off his mustache (with my encouragement) a year or so after we were married. It took a while for me to get used to it, but I eventually decided that I much prefer him without it. Your husband looks great either way – a smile and friendly eyes are the best facial features of all.

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  8. Why did your handsome husband shave off his moustache when he retired? What was the significance? The kids and I made the gardener do it once, but he looked so bad without it we felt sorry for him.

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    • I am and always have been the great worrier too. In first grade we went on a field trip. I was so afraid that someone would steal my pencil sack that I took it along with my “purse.” This was before backpacks. All day I had both hands full and it was hard to eat my ice cream. Pencils! What 6 year old cares about pencils! My mother should have taken me for counseling then!

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  13. Kate I think about time, all the time, my kids feel like xmas comes around fast. As when I was young it use to take forever. I wonder is it because our lives are that much busier?. My husband believes he can feel it ticking away and is more driven than ever before to live it to the full and have a go at the things we dream about doing. One thing Im considering now is colouring my hair to grey as I seem to have more of the white than brown locks, so I may as well go silver. Just turned 52 and still chasing my dreams. When I was young I wanted to be the lady with that purple hair, now the option is here, Im thinking maybe magenta instead.

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  16. Your husband is very handsome and doesn’t look much older for the 10 additional years. My husband just was able to retire, although his was a disability retirement. Fortunately he is not that disabled, just enough so that he can’t do the kind of work he used to do and is to “old” to be retrained. I am still working (although I get to do it from home) and I can imagine what it was like for you to have to go to work for those 5 years while he got to stay home and play. I like the 80 will be the new 40 bit. Gives me hope (hubby is 65 and I am 61). Have a fantastic day.

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    • I hope your husband enjoys it as much as we do. When my husband first retired, it was like getting house help. He did the errands that I had to squash in after work. He was at the house for all repairman and installations. Aside from leaving while he was leisurely drinking coffee, I was grateful for his retirement.

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  18. That handsome beloved husband never ages!!! I had never seen or heard that quote from George Harrison, I loved it. Words to live by. (PS – I wish Bruce would shave his too!)

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  19. Mom was just talking to dad this morning about how time flies by. As children, we thought days would never get here and everything was slower than molasses dripping. These days, the months fly by like there is no tomorrow. Don’t sneeze or it will be 2 years from now. Snorts with piggy laughter. XOXO – Bacon

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  20. The Age thing is sneaky. Hubby and I were talking about an elderly couple we helped the other day. They were actually younger than us. Gulp! My nephew will be 50 next year, yet it doesn’t seem that long ago I was celebrating my half century.
    Never mind, I read today that this year will have an extra second in it. Hubby and I are wondering what to do with this ‘gift’ of extra time.

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    • Reminds me of a “put your foot in your mouth” story. My sis-in-law and husband rented an apt attached to their home to a 70 year old woman. (They are close to 80 but very healthy and don’t look it). The husband talked about the renter needing help all the time. I asked how old she was and he said 70. I said “She’s elderly.” They rolled their eyes at me. Both of them are older than the renter as is my husband and I’m not far off. Elderly isn’t an age but a “look.” As for that second, I’ll have to think about it…..

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    • We get along very well with both of us retired. Neither makes demands on the other. Somethings we do together but we both have our own things that we enjoy alone or with other friends. We never (or very rarely) get on each other’s nerves.

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