Retirement Anniversary

Today marks one year since my retirement, though not necessarily since being a physician which has a way of appearing in different forms.  I've made one major trip, two brief overnight trips but not that much travel.  I still submit my monthly Medscape column, though it was a lot easier to do when part of medicine's pageant.  Even more so with KevinMD which has no forced deadline.  They have a dearth of retirees there.  I made sure that Sermo, which has funnelled into something of an echo chamber, gets rationed severely.  I don't miss it, even if it might have been my principle post-retirement connection to fellow physicians.  Facebook had become a time sink of little enduring value which I had to set limits twice, having failed on the first attempt.  My Ramapo High chums and less than chums have also largely retired.  I opted not to greet them panim el panim a few months ago for a lot of reasons ranging from expense to more fundamental principles of fairness and opportunity when they gathered for a 50th Reunion.  FB, while not an echo chamber, was a time sink that disclosed more about the people who lurk in cyberspace than I really want to know.

My house, long since paid for, has gotten attention.  The kitchen was redone while I was still working.  I struggle with clutter but enjoy using what is there.  My study has been recaptured as My Space, the kind of retreat, maybe even dorm room, that I was never able to afford, though not so elaborate as to be a monument to myself.  And clutter needs to be addressed, which I am doing one small piece at a time, though with a reasonably visionary end point.

I fish less, exercise more, garden about the same.  My need for dress clothing approaches nil, mainly synagogue.  And to my surprise, and maybe to my regret, I do not really miss or seek out the pageant that absorbed my working lifetime.