Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Grateful for My Dad

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Dad, Dementia, family, Good life, Reading, Retirement, YouTube

Dad’s got Dementia. I returned home in January 2017 to come home to help out the folks. Since coming back home, I have seen first-hand how devastating this disease is. Dad loved TV for most of his life. He was born in 1939, so he was part of the first TV generation, growing up on radio initially. Within a year of my return, he forgot how to turn on the TV.

His short-term memory and attention span have also taken a hit. He can no longer follow long and complicated plots on TV or on streaming sources like Netflix. He is also not a huge fan of public TV because he hates all of the commercials. So, I got him on YouTube and he loves it. There is a lot of variety, most of the videos he watches are 5-10 minutes in length and they are entertaining to him.

Dad provided for the family for over 40 years. He made a good home for Mom, provided for three kids, and before he retired, was working 16-hour shifts to put together a big enough nest egg for he and Mom to retire on. Well done, Dad.

Dad is still an avid reader. He probably puts down 3-4 books a month. I don’t think he understands much of the stories, but it keeps him busy. Today, I’m grateful to my Dad, who now needs my help. It feels good to pay back the life my parents gave me and my siblings, by retiring early and refocusing my life on new things and them.

Today, I’m grateful for my Dad.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Grateful for Retirement

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Blogging, Exercising, Grateful, Gratitude, Joy, Learning, Loving, Reading, Retirement, Service, Writing

When I was in the Army, particularly when I surpassed 10 years of service, I knew I was going to retire. It just didn’t make sense to leave the service and walk away from retirement. Boy, I’m glad I did.

I am grateful for the time I served, and if young enough, and faced with the same choices when I was younger, I’d do it all again. It was an adventure of a lifetime and it offered me the opportunity to do things I would have never had an opportunity to experience any other way.

I served in Europe for 6 years. I was in Berlin, Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. I was at the retirement ceremony for Checkpoint Charlie. I got to see Reagan give his famous “Tear down this wall” speech. So many memories.

Because of my service, my medical care is literally free for life. I had the opportunity to retire early and come home to help my folks. This has been a great thing. How many people get to celebrate their parent’s senior years? Not many. In fact, most people will never retire.

Honestly, I am not retired either. The key difference between my working life and my “retired” life is that I can do what I want. So, I am.

What do I love? I love reading. I love writing. I love exercise. I love serving. I love meeting new people and having impromptu conversations with people. I also love learning. So this is what I do every day.

What is something I discovered pretty quickly? I learned that I couldn’t just hang out and do nothing. Netflix is entertaining, but watching it all day every day—No thanks!

My military experience has bled into this retired life. I need structure. I don’t need a minute-by-minute schedule, but I need to do the same things daily. I do all the things I enjoy each day. I love blogging. I love working on my book projects. I love learning new things. All the things I do every day are an absolute joy. I hope all of you are in a position some day to do the same if you wish to.

So this is what I’m grateful for. My retirement and the new adventure I’ve embarked upon.

Have a great Thursday everybody!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Making Time and Focusing on What Matters

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Focus, Making Changes, Making Choices, Making time, motivation, New Rituals, Retirement

Photo Credit: Image by Jonas Svidras from Pixabay 

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer
Read more at: Brainyquote.com

What’s going on this week? I’m working on my book, going through a web development course, hitting the gym hard using Kris Gethin’s 4-week Muscle Building Trainer, and following the rest of my rituals.

Recently I changed my daily rituals. I always add and add and add to my daily routine, until it becomes untenable. This resulted in an audit of my daily to-dos and I came up with a neat idea–minimize my daily to-dos to a certain number and not add anything else. This has helped greatly.

My focus is important. I always want to read, write, contemplate, and exercise daily. These are my priorities. My core focus is on writing my books and spending some time learning something new each day. I finished a course on Aristotle’s Ethics yesterday offered by Hillsdale College. Now I am moving through an NLP course. It is long. It is about 179 online sessions, but really fascinating.

What is my motivation? It’s simple. I just want to be productive in retirement and take advantage of the time I have now to do the things I didn’t want to put time into when I was working full time. This is the key. You have to make time for things, even in retirement. Retirement doesn’t change what you are motivated to do. You still have to discipline yourself to go to the gym, set aside time to contemplate the spiritual things, read books, learn, and write. Trust me, there is no difference between what you do now and what you want to do. Everything you commit to doing, requires you to NOT do something else.

My Mom got her second cataract surgery today. Everything is ok. She has to go back to the doctor tomorrow to check the eye after it’s had some time to calm down, but there were no issues with the surgery. While I was there in the office, they had Women’s World Cup soccer on the television. Germany trounced the Rwandan team 4 – 0.

That’s it for today, folks! I hope you have a terrific Monday!

Until next time…

Dave