I Need to Find Myself!

Have you ever wondered what to say to those individuals you come across every now and then who ask your opinion on how they can “Find themselves!”

I mean, come on, who are we to ask that question of. Most of us when we retire lose our identity within 24 hours of being retired. Besides that, being of the age I am at the present time – not only has my identity been lost for 22 plus years now, most recently I lost my house key ….. (not really, I just forgot to put it in my pants pocket before leaving the house). Fact is that the car key was on the same ring as the house key so I couldn’t even get in the car to go anyplace….but I digress! 

I cannot even remember who I might have identified myself with back when we first got married. Ozzie and Harriet – not really! Were I a bit bigger both in height and width, perhaps I could associate myself with Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners but then I truthfully cannot see myself saying to Dolly (my wife – given name Gladys) – “You’re going to the moon!” Dolly! Although truth be told, I think Dolly would have no problem repeating the lines Alice used to say to Ralph when she said: “Ahhh, shaddap!”  And for those of you reading this that know us, can you really imagine me saying to Dolly: “One of these days, POW!!! Right in the kisser!” “BANG, ZOOM!” Nope, after 55 plus years of marriage and three children later, my standards would be more like picturing myself as Dagwood of Blondie and Dagwood!

56 years together come May 18

Thinking back to my working years, I cannot truly remember ever attending an event associated with my work where someone would come up to us and say to Dolly: “Oh, you’re Irwin’s wife.” But, I can remember an occasion where I attended one of her school events (she worked for the school board and a truly emancipated woman) where when I entered the room, her boss looked at me, shook my hand saying: “Oh, you’re Mr. Gladys” For that evening I was ‘Mr. Gladys’. For the longest time after that, every now and then when I was sort of discombobulated, I found myself whispering silently: “I need to find myself!”

From My Perspective

What to do in Retirement!

Seeing that my life these days is much busier than, I expected it to be, let me just say that when I first started blogging, much of what I wrote was geared towards either those individuals that were soon going to retire or   that, like me had already retired. Let’s face it – retirement is merely just another phase of our lives. And while I may have intended to write about retirement issues, fact is that when it was all said and done, I found myself starting this blog site (second site I blog on) basically for my own enjoyment. Well, mine and those of you that get a chuckle out of the gibberish I come up and that flows onto these pages.

Sound selfish – not really. How many of you out there reading this blog, and be honest, have what we all would consider to be “good days and bad days?” If we are being honest, most of us will admit that we do experience both good days and bad days. The secret to master though is to have more good days than we do bad days. I have never quite determined what my “niche” is. I just sit down at the computer and well, what may be rolling around in my brain (yes, I do have one – leastways, I hope I do) eventually gets transferred to the page I happen to be creating. 

Should I come across any idea or subject that I feel will assist other retirees or those soon – to – be retirees, I try to share same via a blog post. However, there are those days when I really do not have an inkling let alone an idea of what I may want to write other than knowing that I do want to sit and write and want to share what it is I am writing about with others. So, what do I do – I just let my fingers flow across the keyboard and hope that what goes onto the page is something worthy of reading that will not only bring a smile to my face – especially on days where I am down but will bring a smile to your face as well! They say that misery loves company – well – I would add that reading comical stuff causes others to think comically too and that given the choice, most of us would rather be in a comical mood versus a down and out mood.

I try my best to smile as well as laugh as often as possible plus I am very fond of trivia, quotes and thoughts to ponder. So, this post has no specific niche other than hopefully after reading it, if you were in a bad frame of mind that you will be in a good frame of mind. And if you were already in a good frame of mind, that what follows will only add to your happiness.

Trivia/Puzzle

Name the law that says: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”  NOTE: Answer at the end of the post.

Thought to ponder

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

Joke of the day – this one is a one-liner

Evening news is where they begin with ‘Good evening’, and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.

Quote for today

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
― Charles M. Schulz

Interesting math statement

40 when written “forty” is the only number with letters in alphabetical order, while “one” is the only one with letters in reverse order.

Senior moment

You are delighted to discover that your new acquaintance is taking all the same prescriptions that you are.

This day in History

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell – is granted a patent for the telephone.

In 1933

The film King Kong premieres in New York City.

Answer to Trivia/Puzzle: A proverb coined by the twentieth-century British scholar, C. Northcote Parkinson, known as Parkinson’s Law. It points out that people usually take all the time allotted.

 Until next time!