How’s retirement? It has been great

“So,” someone asked, “how do you like retirement?”

It was a warm, sunny morning — maybe one of the last ones for a while — and folks had gathered for a groundbreaking ceremony at Arts Place.

It was a time of celebration: Completion of an ambitious capital campaign, launching work on a major upgrade to what was once the Jay County Center for the Arts and building a new visual arts building across the street.

It was also, apparently, a time for questions. Or one question: “How’s retirement?”

So, I figured, what’s the answer?

Overall, it’s great, though there are pluses and minuses.

On the plus side, I’d list:

•The end of waking up to an alarm clock. My sister Linda has suggested that all of us are sleep-deprived during our working lives. Only in retirement can we make up those lost hours of slumber. I have good friends — retired — who are up at the crack of dawn. That’s not the case at our house. Most mornings, we’re up about 8:30 a.m. or even 8:45 a.m. That’s a far cry from the 6 a.m. or earlier that ruled my working life. When I started working at the newspaper, I was expected to be in the office by 7 a.m., so I am truly appreciative of the difference.

•The muddled calendar. Some retirees grumble that they have trouble keeping track of what day it is. I understand that, but it doesn’t bother me. Instead, I find myself embracing the endless weekend that retirement affords. Want to take a framing project to Michael’s in Muncie? No need to wait until Saturday. Just go whenever you want. Need to mow the lawn? No need to wait until Saturday. Everyday is Saturday. Do things when you want to do them. How cool is that?

•The absence of deadlines. Maybe this is something that newspaper people have a special understanding of. Newspaper production, especially daily newspaper production, is built around deadlines. You either learn to live with them and meet them or you drown. As someone who tended to procrastinate now and then as a young person, I found the discipline imposed by deadlines to be a challenge. I met the challenge, but I’d be the first to admit that I’m glad to be out of that hamster wheel. I still have the occasional dream where page one hasn’t begun to come together and the clock is ticking ominously.

•The arrival of new routines. As I mentioned a few weeks back, I’m doing some part-time copy editing for a news website out of Myanmar/Burma. And it seems to be working. There’s just enough structure to make me feel useful. Typically, I’ll wake up (after a good night’s sleep) to find an article or maybe two in my email. After a light workout, a shower, breakfast, and scanning The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and a few other news sites, I’m ready to sit down to try to figure out how to make the articles from Burma better. Often that means re-reading a sentence multiple times, trying to make sure that I know what the writer is trying to say, then providing the words that make the writer’s point clearer. Sometimes, it’s simple. Sometimes, it’s a puzzle. But after an hour or so, there’s a sense that I’ve made a difference. And when you are retired, that’s especially important.

•Indulging in afternoon baseball. Sure, I could have slipped away for a game now and then when I was not yet retired. But that would have carried a measure of guilt. Now afternoon baseball is guilt-free.

And on the minus side, the list is short but profound:

•Seeing folks. Retirement takes away the routine contact that sometimes seems inconsequential but provides so much enjoyment day in and day out as we go about our lives. I’m talking about running into people at the post office, chatting with folks on the street, joking with the staff at the bank, stopping by a friend’s office for a bull session about local politics and, most importantly, seeing my colleagues and co-workers every day.

I’m trying to eliminate that minus a little at a time, making an occasional stop at the bank or the post office, popping into old friends’ offices now and then and making sure those connections with folks at the office never slip away.