Staying Busy at Retiement

 This is what I call Hubby's play area. It makes me NUTS!!! His vintage tractor that he is rebuilding, the jeep that still runs but we never use he plans on rebuilding, and piles of junk IMO. BTW we have a good lawn tractor that should last us our lifetime, I have no idea why we need this old thing that he paid MONEY for!!

 Another ongoing project is the high performance engine he has completed. Not that we have anything to put the engine in or any reason for it to be setting in the garage but sit it does. Tools, tools, and more tool's. Really I hate to go out in the garage. I am a neat freak, hubby not so much.

 See what I mean? This is my play area.

 I know he will enjoy more time to do this with AJ the beagle.

 And we will still take some short trips on the bike together.

But most of his Harley time will be with the guys (I hope).

 Do you know what this black object is? Looks sort like a backyard speed radar set up doesn't it? Na... It's hubby's newest tool to defend our garden from squirrels. Yep, he can come up with the most unique ideas of anyone I know. So here's how it works. It is hooked to a garden hose that is turned on, when a squirrel or any other varmint cross within I have no idea how many yards it will activate the sprinkler attached thus running off whatever it is after our veggies. The first day he activated his new undercover system sure to keep everything away from the garden, poor AJ the beagle got shoot with the sprinkler anytime she tried to potty in her favorite spot. Poor baby was about to have a nervous breakdown. As the day went on the stupid thing went off over and over again. Seems he had the sensor set too high so even a falling leaf was being attacked. This is the sort of thing that keeps hubby happy and busy. I have no idea what his gadget cost but I do know our water bill will be sky high!! This is one of the many reasons I have grave concerns over how hubby will entertain himself at retirement.

Of course we both are addicted to keeping up with the grands so that's one thing we do agree on.

I feel confidant at retirement I can stay plenty busy, entertained, and satisfied. Sewing, quilting, scrapbooking, reading, cooking, gardening, cleaning (hey I'm being honest here), visiting with GF's.

 My BIGGEST fear is what retirement will do to our long time marriage!!

We won't be one of those couples who are planning the next trip to see the sights of the world. During hubby's career we have seen 90% of the US and he has traveled most of the world. As a teen I had the opportunity to visit most of Europe. Traveling won't be on our agenda other than a few short trips in the mountains which we both enjoy and I can pull of on the 50% off sales.

Hubby has very few (none) hobbies. Maybe that is typical for men, who knows. We have been discussing how he will spend his time at retirement lately. So far each thing he has said he might be interested in are BIG ticket items! See my man is a tinker, he likes to fix things which is great for me as there is nothing he can't fix but being a fix it man when you run out of things to fix is a problem. Rebuilding engines, giving new life to old objects and such cost money. One thing he came up with is to rebuild the jeep, he can modify the frame so the high performance engine will fit in it, start looking around for a new body maybe from the 1970 era. Rebuilding stuff is NOT cheap!! He likes to go to the gun range with his buddy's, here is the typical cost. Meet up at breakfast to talk about guns ($10.00), and hour or so at the range ($60.00-$70.00), finish up with lunch ($10.00) to talk about guns. A typical day of shooting is close to $100.00. The fellas like to take day trips on the bikes, meet up for breakfast, ride someplace to eat, ride some more, then eat, more riding then dinner. Hubby doesn't like to read, he likes magazines. Have you seen the price of magazines?

So one of hubby's To Do's before retirement is to figure out how he wants to spend his days on a budget. I have spent most of my life ripping and running with the big kiddos activities when they were home, now it's the grands. I do NOT want to become hubby's activity coordinator.

Hubby has this grand idea that at retirement he can do what he wants when he wants. I'm OK with that however he is going to have to come up with budget friendly things to fill his time.

Have you thought about how you would fill your days at retirement? What about your hubby? I know the divorce rate in the US is 50% I wonder how many of those are of the retirement generation.