Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Another Countdown

 In all the excitement about my trip, it is easy to forget that Tim is retiring too. His last day of work will be March 18th. I was trying to arrange the trip after his retirement day, but he was hesitant about leaving. We are both about to turn 65, and this is retirement. We have planning to do. 

I tried to debate it. We've got a romantic Valentine's Day scheduled with our insurance agent. Everything would be set up before we left, but he had this niggling fear that if we headed out in this time period, we would miss some important deadline, messing up our golden years forever

He's a planner, that one. I finally gave up and planned my trip. I saw him delaying into summer and we have some engraved-in-granite plans then. 

However, let not the fact be lost: Tim is retiring. 

He called this morning, walking back from a meeting in the personnel office. The company is closing its doors. So many employees headed out, all at once for new jobs, that the company set some very attractive terms for those who were willing to stay on until the end. So attractive that Tim agreed to stay on. 

Now Tim is not an excitable character. He's calm and even, and every response you get from him is going to be considered and careful, but this morning he had numbers, for the first time. In his quiet way, he laid it all out. 

I said, a few times, "That's really great!" 

His response was typical Tim. "Yes, it is."

He was back at his plant, and so we said our goodbyes. I hung up feeling very happy for him. 

In pretty short order, the phone rang again. I saw that it was Tim. When I answered, he said, "I forgot to tell you..." and he threw out another nice number. I mean, really, these terms are unheard of for any company that I know of, but he has been working for a German company for 16 years now. 

"That's really great, Tim," I said, and he said, "Yes, it is!" I was not imagining the exclamation mark there. Tim was getting enthusiastic. 

It made me smile to hear him. Retirement is a great gig. I've been enjoying it myself. Once again, we hung up.

Probably 10 minutes later, the phone was ringing again, and again, it was Tim. I answered the phone. "We're celebrating tonight!!!" Definite exclamation marks. More than one, as a matter of fact. 

All these numbers, but for the first time, I see Tim getting very excited about one number in particular: He's got 37 days of work to go.

Late edit: There was a fourth call. It's a slow day. He's leaving early. Assume exclamation marks and lots of 'em.



13 comments:

  1. Sounds like cause for celebration, for sure! I'm glad Tim is excited about retiring.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So happy for you two as you go in to retirement. Make the most of every day. We had so many plans for our retirement and enjoyed every day we had together. Make some memories to add to the ones you have.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm really pleased for both of you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Retirement is wonderful in many ways and he will love the freedom to do his projects or whatever he wants on his own time. It's like owning your life again.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I really grinned at the thought of a romantic V Day scheduled with your insurance agent.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats to you both! What cute phone calls. Sounds like he's caught on that retirement could be jolly. Linda in Kansas

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's great and I'm thrilled for both of you. All that hard work was worth it, wasn't it? Just be sure with the time he has one his hands, Tim doesn't buy another house! :-) Now I'm a little slow on the uptake, so need some clarification: is March 18th longer than Tim thought he would be there? Or is that "the end" that he has agreed to?

    ReplyDelete
  8. My retirement was a bit like that - and I have never for one moment regretted it all. I have now been retired thirty five years

    ReplyDelete
  9. They had really not specified an end date. Working til 'the end' was just this vague time frame. Tim was trying to guess at how long the job would last. He felt that it could conceivably go until summer. However, an Italian company has come in and bought the plant which kicked things into high gear and put an end date on it all. They are laying people off in waves. The lay off would be permanent, of course. Tim has volunteered for layoff but he has never been accepted for it. This time, much to his delight, he was. His last day of work is March 18th, but he has fully paid insurance coverage for 16 weeks (one week for every year he worked there). This gets us nicely through our 65th birthdays when we are Medicare eligible. That's just one of the perks they offered to keep workers until the end. It honestly could not have worked out any more perfectly for us.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Definitely sounds like a great reason to celebrate. Wonderful to hear Tim gets some good numbers to help usher in his retirement. Congratulations.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Retirement is an exciting time but as Tim is doing there's much to take care of.

    ReplyDelete

I'm glad you're here!

Weary

I am sure that everyone has seen the video of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. I lived in Baltimore for a couple years while my...