What Life Decision are you thinking about right now?

[Bikewer]

Retirement.

I’m 72, and still working in police work. It’s “campus” law enforcement, not exactly the “mean streets”. I still feel quite competent; I lift weights twice a week, ride my bike (we do bike patrol) and all that.

Still, as Sheriff Brody said in “No Country For Old Men”, I begin to feel “overmatched”.

Problem is, due to rotten finances earlier in my life we have essentially no retirement savings and can’t really live on our combined social security... So I have to continue working at something....

I plan to give this a go for this year, then maybe go into dispatching... Or something.

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by dkstott

Hearing aids. After years of denying that I had issues with my hearing. I'm about to take the plunge and get hearing aids.

All the hearing aids people - my hearing is pretty good. I have it checked annually as part of my job. I have the audiograms to show its good. My wife is losing her hearing. Significantly. Its worse than she admits. I've suggested hearing aids and she is very much against the idea. She is 57. What convinced you it was time for hearing aids? What makes it hard to accept?

[buddyhu]

Happily, I/we are not facing any troubling decisions at this time.

We have put a deposit down in a pilgrimage that will happen this Fall, and we have until mid-March to cancel...so we are wondering whether such a pilgrimage is a good fit for us at this stage.

A couple of my music-minded friends have moved away, which has brought our aspirations for developing a repertoire and doing some gigs to a halt. I am on the fence about whether to pursue the goal of being in a band with some other folks, or whether to focus on solo fingerpicking.

Yeah...the hearing aid issue is present for me, as well. But as I see more and more friends wearing them and/or hearing them discuss their problems with hearing, I feel less resistance. Still not making the appointment though....

[DCCougar]

Finally retired and sold a rental in SoCal and exchanged it for a cool place in the forest overlooking Lake Pend Oreille in northern Idaho....

[fitness1]

My main issue is that I CAN'T make any life decisions. My life has been on hold for 4 years now (and no end in sight) while taking care of my parents.

It's very hard to make any plans, except in my mind, for the future.

I've probably got about 10 years left to work, but after that, I'm hoping I can make a move south where I can do the things I like to do on much more of a year round basis.

[KevWind]

We made our big decisions last July. When we finally got on offer on our old place in Wyoming.
Then in a whirlwind 3 months we made an offer on our new place in Wyoming , which was accepted , put our Colorado place on the market , accepted an offer 4 days after listing it.

Then proceeded to have to move everything out of both old places and into the new Wyoming place . Now we have settled down to a dull roar of learning this new place and everything involved in plowing and blowing 3/4 of a mile of private road out to the Highway

[TaoMaas]

I'm debating retirement. I had thought I'd need to work 3-4 more years, but our circumstances changed over the last year so that I no longer need to work those years. However, I still love my job so I'm debating how much longer to keep at it. I don't think there's really a wrong answer here so that takes most of the pressure off.

[RP]

I purchased a 2010 Mazda MX5 in December, but that was more of a "when" than an "if." I toy with the idea of going back to school in a field of law enforcement based on interest not future employment, but I don't see it happening for various reasons...

[sevargnhoj]

Mom passed away a little over two years ago and left my two brothers and me a lifetime of collected antiques of all varieties, books, carved wooden figurines and such. It's pretty overwhelming.

Two of us are retired now and have time to try to deal with the stuff. Number 3 will probably move into Mom's house in the not to distant future. I think we've put it off long enough.

Over the weekend the three of us went through all of Mom's collected "papers". Boxes and boxes, drawer after drawer. A few mementos and alot of shredder material. Dad's artifacts took up one small box. All keepers.

I spent yesterday sorting and researching books and might have gotten 1/4 of the way through them. Maybe a small handful are of any monetary value, but there's still a chance a hidden gem may turn up.

At least we've finally started this task.

[TaoMaas]

Originally Posted by RP

I purchased a 2010 Mazda MX5 in December, but that was more of a "when" than an "if."

I once went shopping for a pick-up and came home with a Miata. Never regretted it for an instant. Despite it's limitations, it was one of the best cars I've ever owned.

[dkstott]

Aside from my wife's claim that I had selective hearing. I had acknowledged that my hearing had reached the point that I occasionally couldn't hear the server. Always blamed the restaurant noise for that. Plus, I have a bit of Tinnitus... high C (8th fret, 1st string) ringing in my ear which was prevalent, but not to the annoying stage

I attend a 2 hour acoustic guitar jam on a weekly basis. Again, there were times when I couldn't hear conversations going on between songs. Blamed it on the loud noise of the room.

Similar situation when attending solo guitar shows... Love the music, but the performers banter was muddy at best. Blamed it on the loud noise of the room.

Saw my GP and he tested my hearing... Couldn't hear a single one of the tones, but could hear the nurse conversations outside the room... Blamed it on a bad hearing test.

See a pattern yet??




The final straw for me was that I recently attending a few funerals. I was unable to carry on a conversation because I couldn't hear what was being said in what was a very quiet room.

So, about a month ago, I saw the audiologist and had my hearing tested. My hearing had completely degraded & is considered moderate to severe hearing loss after the tones reach a certain frequency.

It's taken me a month to absorb the information and tomorrow, we start the process of sizing and selecting the proper hearing aids.

Dave

Originally Posted by Mandobart

All the hearing aids people - my hearing is pretty good. I have it checked annually as part of my job. I have the audiograms to show its good. My wife is losing her hearing. Significantly. Its worse than she admits. I've suggested hearing aids and she is very much against the idea. She is 57. What convinced you it was time for hearing aids? What makes it hard to accept?

[dkstott]

yep, old man stuff going on for me too. In a lot of ways, I feel and think like I did in my 40's. But there's times when I feel my 64 years.

My hearing loss is a result of too many years of working in very loud manufacturing environments without using hearing protection.

Dave

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

Yea, I keep putting it off myself. I fear I wouldn't wear them after I had them for awhile. Last night at a restaurant my wife answered all the servers questions. I think she could see I was figuring out what the server just said and she just started answering. Old man stuff going on here.

[rmp]

in December we took in an unexpected house guest. A friend of my Grandson's

we thought she was living in an abusive situation, and felt that providing safe shelter while Family Services worked out long term options was the right thing to do. (her family is a mess)

Remember that saying No good deed goes unpunished?

The longer she's been with us, the more we've seen of who this girl (she's 17) really is. basically severely Bipolar and schizophrenic..

When she started making death threats to my daughter yesterday via facebook msg to my grandson, (who lives in the second floor of our two family in Central Mass) that's when the plug got pulled.

We told DCF today, She's no longer welcomed here, come get her.. and that's what has happened.

it was a hard decision to make, we know she needs help but, I've come to realize that the help she needs goes beyond what my family can provide..

[Jaden]

Career change. Getting the chainsaw, pruning shears, hand saw, out of my hands for a more peaceful line of work.

Not many gardeners in my area know how to prune foliage so I’m the one that goes in after it’s been left overgrown to do all the cutting with an assistant to do clean up.

It’s a violent job/ don’t like it anymore.

[mr. beaumont]

A relatively happy thing that I'm secretly dreading a bit too.

Our "obligatory" trip to Disney with the kids next year.

Hate saving all that $ just to throw it at the evil empire, but it's not about me