I remember I called my dad a few weeks after he retired and asked him how it was going.
"oh, it's tough" he said "You know, I always used to get up early. Well, I can't seem to stop that, so I'm up a couple of hours before your stepmother, and I'm forced to drink a nice cup of coffee and read the paper by myself"
"Oh poor you"
"And then, since I'm up early, I feel obligated to bake some fresh muffins for breakfast."
"Fresh muffins for breakfast every morning, Dad, I don't know how you cope"
"Yeah, and then your stepmother gets up, so I have to make ANOTHER pot of coffee, and she has breakfast and goes to work, so I'm left by myself. And being by myself, I feel like I have to go for a long bike ride"
"okay, I get it dad. You're enjoying yourself. You have nothing to say. Stop talking"
"And then I get back from riding my bike, and I still have all this time, so then I have to go out to my shed and do some woodcarving for a few hours. And then, since I'm home so much, I feel like I'm obligated to cook a nice dinner, so maybe I even have to go walk down the street and pick up some free range chicken from the farmer's market, and do something really nicer with it. "
"Shut up, dad"
"But enough about me. How's work?"
Fortunately for the the continued amicability of our relationship, he did eventually get bored...I could tell because he sent me multiple emails per day about his cat....and started volunteering.
I occasionally worry that that the longer life expectancies we see these days will deplete the Canada Pension Plan before I retire. Then I remember that we no longer have mandatory retirement, and opportunities for advancement are becoming scarcer, so I will probably never be able to afford to retire anyhow, which is oddly comforting.

