This was actually the week that I retired three years ago, I gave my notice on March 16, 2020 and my last day was April 15, 2020. I figured I’d write an update to talk about how things are going.

The process of writing this blog has been helpful because it provides me with a diary of sorts to go back and review and read what I was thinking about and doing in the past. I’m happy that I’ve spent time in the last three years doing all of the things that I visualized myself doing when I retired. My focus has just naturally shifted from one thing to another as my motivation and inspiration dictated. I’ve tried not to force one thing or another to happen. Some projects have come to a natural resting place and I may or may not revisit them. Some trends have developed that I can see continuing for a while.

Building projects have come to dominate my activity and they’ve grown in size and sophistication over the last three years. I feel like I’ve learned a lot and improved my skills a lot over that time. It’s really satisfying to read older posts and to see the progression to more recent ones. Even better is knowing that there is a lot more I need and want to learn.

Writing about my career in the software industry has slowed down, I have covered most of the topics that I had brainstormed on my list three years ago. I’m working slowly on an additional post in this area, but I think it’ll take a while.

I still sit down at the piano and play for myself and noodle on ideas there with some regularity. I think I’m figuring out another project there but again it might be some time before I get focused enough about it to bear down and make it real.

I still enjoy computer gaming with my Occulus Quest 2 ( now Meta ) but it sorta ebbs and flows because so many games that are interesting to me also end up being multi-player only and I’m not interested in interacting with random adult children (and children children) online. But, every so often something comes out with a deep single player campaign and I play it to the best of my old guy slow twitch ability.

Traveling is looking up and we’re hoping to do a major trip to Greece this year and we were able to take a traditional fall vacation in Aruba last year. I was able to get to New York Winter Jazz Fest this year and that was absolutely fantastic.

I’ve been reading more regularly than when I was employed and I’ve returned to subscribing to comic books and reading them for the first time in thirty years or so. I pass the read comic books to my neighbor’s kids since I don’t really collect stuff, they seem to really enjoy them.

I try to keep in touch with colleagues that I’ve worked with and when I talk with them I remember working and I recognize all of the stuff they’re dealing with. It all just feels distant now and I only think of it spontaneously when an item in the news or a moment in a TV show triggers a memory. I’m always happy to chat… I’ve got a very flexible schedule.

A frequent question I get from folks when I tell them I’ve been retired for a while is: “Are you bored? Are you going back to work?” My answer so far has been “…laughs out loud… Oh fuck no!” I am not lacking for projects I’m interested in, and though I miss some of the social aspects of working, the whole blog post I wrote about things I won’t miss is still very true.

In a natural sort of way I feel my old career is getting further and further away behind me. I know less and less about my old companies, when former colleagues mention the names of upper management I often have no idea who they are. Many folks have moved on in their careers sometimes to a couple of companies since then or started their own. I don’t know what a lot of them do anymore. That’s good too, the tendrils of stress related to old plans that I was so focused on delivering have gone from being a once in a while tweet where I would think “Whew, they finally did that…” to not following at all because I don’t recognize any of it anymore.

My plan is to not go back to doing stuff for money (if I can avoid it,) and so far so good. I know that all the important things I learned in my career are timeless and have more to do with dealing with groups of humans than any fleeting technology. If I ever had to I could absolutely do it again, there might be some rusty machinery noises, but it would all come back.

Other than travel (which requires future planning,)I really don’t have any hard and fast goals or KPIs ( sarcasm ) other than to continue as I am. I hope I get to do it for a long time.

That’s all I can think of right now, I’ll probably post another update at some point.

Cheers,
James