It was a very long day, I pushed through to finish a job ahead of the weather. The boss was working late himself, and came out to offer a cup of coffee before i started home. It just seemed like the right time to broach the subject. The work has dried up greatly, and I have been making hours out of thin air sometimes. I explained that the pension is about 2 weeks pay, and I can work 50 hours while collecting it. He was actually quite pleased that it would take some overhead off the books and still have me as their operator. We did not discuss a final date for the clean break, but I think he knows when the new house is done, so am I. I set the date for the pension as May 1, and I will work full time the next two months to get as many hours in the pension and medical coverage.
Congrats! One step closer.
Thanks. It is something that has been brewing for a week or so..
Congratulations skyking1! You’re gonna love retirement,espically the first of every month lol!
Congrats! Time to open a brothel.
I'll just get more grid paper and start drawing that up.
Thank you brother.
Congrats from here in NY!
Congratulations!! I submitted the applications for my Canadian pensions last week. I will get the first cheques in November as long as Canada doesn't go bankrupt first.
Congratulations to you too mekanik ! Start enjoying the rest of you’re life!
Congratulations! That is a beautiful piece of land you are building on!
What I’ve learned is; it’s just more time to work around the house..!! I really enjoy the days I have nothing to do.!! Congratulations..
Retirement looks fun.
fingers crossed
Best thing I ever did. Hope it works out as well for you. I was able to start having coffee with my wife before work in the last year of work and we continue that to this day. Still get up at 5 most days. Now we don’t rush to get out the door Unless we want to.
My Dad vaguely mentioned thinking about it one day. Next thing I know a month later he was having a retirement shing ding. 38 years at the mill. Started a few months after it opened in 83 and was the 2nd most tenured employee there. His boss, now the plant manager was #1, started a week before him.
Congratulations!
Congratulations Skyking! I can't see what retirement looks like yet. I need about four years to get all equipment paid for so I can turn it over to the crew.
Congratulations.
I am really looking forward to it someday. I hope i make it that far . Its hard to understand people that dont retire.
congratulations !!!
Congratulations SkyKing1 !! I hope you didn't wait till you are 65. It is scary how fast retirement years pass. Some can't afford to. I had a BIL that worked until he died at the age 82. He was quite wealthy, but loved what he did (farmer). Another BIL is 82. He was an Operating Engineer and retired at 65. He owns two farms and rents a couple more. He is still farming them.
I guess if you had some kind of a low stress job. I havnt had too many of those i guess if i cared less i would have less stress.
@Tinkerer I am 63 and change. I originally set the same month last year, but then I had the two carpal tunnel surgeries and we figured to get the new house going before pulling the plug. We call it One More Year (OMY) on the retirement forum I go to. It will be Two More Years in reality, but the last one is 50 hours a month tops. It is hard to step away from doing things like Tuesday's trench box work, but that is a fraction of the job. When my employer's contribution to my medical starts getting wasted, I will go. That is probably a year from today. It takes ~128 hours of work to get a month of medical, and the bank will run out by then. @mekanik welcome to the club. My brother is in North Vancouver and semi-retired too. Thanks everybody. I appreciate it.
My Mom retired last spring, figured they'd want to spend time visiting. Seems like there was a better chance of that when they were both working. I've heard every excuse from no one to mow their yard or water garden/plants, flight is too long, I don't have room for them, I'm busy. Told them to latch the camper and make the trek then. May as well suggested for my Dad to do ballet.
Congrats on pulling the plug. Something tells me you won't get bored. You're going to wonder how the hell you got anything done when you had a full time gig.
Plenty of fly time,---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *
Flying on a pension?? More like this, will be his style!!
Congrats and Welcome to Retirement, I could not stand it and ended up taking other work on to pass time easier, felt two pegs below worthless trying to be a Home Body. That has come to an end. Wife is coming to that magic moment of retirement three years AT MOST and will shut it all down, she will be insane in a week. I have the Projects and the Farm stuff but body is beginning to note time to slack it up. Have not done much of anything to the Ford in three days allowing the Aches and Cuts to heal up some.
Yeah--a feller has to have some peckering around to do, not allot peckering mind you, just some peckering.
I'll have plenty to do. My dad got me hooked on boatbuilding, and we are 15 minutes from John Wayne Marina. Boat launch annual fee is $100 a year. The 1 ton will tow a big enough boat for us. That gets me year round access to salt water fishing and crabbing. The ferry to Victoria and Vancouver Island is 20 minutes away.
Dungeness and True Cod---your in a good spot.
I put a no-later-than date of May 20 on my “retirement”. I will be 80 then. We both started social security at 67 years, and I left the dealership two years later when I had a heart attack. I have kept busy puttering on small jobs and diagnosis for several local farms and contractors, but no heavy work or extensive disassembly & repair. Kinda like “you get that outta there and I will guide you through the job”. Probably clean out the crummmy and try to sell it. Just keep basic tools in the Jeep just in case. It’s been a long and interesting ride. Considering having a knee replaced, but being realistic about how much benefit I’ll get out of that in the time I have left. We‘ll see.... Oliver Durand
What does retirement mean to you, Oliver? What it means to me is getting up any old morning, looking at the weather for the next few days in California or Montana and Idaho, and suggesting we hook up the trailer and go for a few days. No plan needed, just load up the trailer and go.
Man with a plan
Congratulations Skyking1......from some of the stories you have shared in your posts, I believe you have ice water running through you veins. I believe pilots are a breed of their own and to have successfully spent a career in aviation and retire from it is truly remarkable. It's kind of a contradiction considering the heavyequiptmentformum discusses all sorts of "heavy" equipment that crawls along guzzling gallons of diesel fuel......as a pilot and depending on your aircraft your plane uses highly refined aviation fuel, you probably cruise over 150 MPH, and the weight of your cargo and aircraft is extremely relevant as you prepare for each flight. Enjoy your last few hours in the air and thanks again for the fantastic stories you have shared with us from the air.....
to be clear, @Project-man , I never made much money in aviation and I am retiring after 32+ years in the International Union of Operating Engineers. Aviation was just a vice I mostly paid for, except for the banner business.
Would you believe I have retired 2 times. First at 57 after 40 plus years as an electronics engineer--had enough--got itchy fingers 2 weeks later and opened up a business as aself employed house and commercial maintenance sole trader. Ran that for a number of years --no advertiseing--word of mouth recomendations--wanted 2 or 3 days to top up my works pension--that didn`t last--got to 6 days a week working and my son in law came home after a relationship break up--retrained him and bought him into business. Took on more work , bigger jobs and got really crazy. At 65 Decided to scale things down and passed over more of the business to the lad--needed some down time--Covid hit and after suffering a dose of the original strain was left short of energy,tired exhausted--decided to say i`m going to retire properly, passed everything over to the lad and he built it up even more. Now I can concentrate on the canals and my boat--which my wife bought me for my 65th birthday. Working around the canals make me feel better but still suffer from tiredness--get asked to do paid work--only if I can get the money invested in the canal society.
Lol.!!! U could put my name at the start of this last thread.!! I’m STILL working 7 days a week, just to keep up.!! It would be A WHOLE LOT DIFFERENT if I didn’t LOVE what I do.!!! I get so much gratification on bringing these big YELLOW, GREEN, and RED dinosaurs back to life.!!
@Knuckleduster I would love to volunteer on the canals, if they'd have a Yankee operator who came over a couple of weeks out of the year. They really struck a chord with me. The natural streams for power and all the wildlife, cruising for the most part on the back sides of farms. All delightful. Hard to say if Darling wife is down for all that, but she could stay home @thepumpguysc we appreciate you so much. Your job is different, you made a niche there. I love my job and will miss it, but not on those days when they ask me to put gumbo back in the trenches and call it good. I won't miss waking up in the night and hearing the rain, wondering how bad the site will be tomorrow. I'm ready to move on from all that.
I tired of the late nights wrenching only to turn to rolling shifts power station, all weather, all manner weekends, nights, holidays, the long weeks of 12 1/2 hour days or nights refueling outages, fire brigade drills, emergency drills, suiting up for actual in radiologic areas emergent work, dead of winter 105 degrees coolest spot in turbine hall, same time frame 15 minute stay time in the reactor building due to heat. Body was tired, mind was done. I was but 60 going on 61, had had plenty enough. Just turned 67, feeling my age every month more and more. Uncle Arthir and I are Dear acquaintances.
Oops--don`t upset "she who must bbe obeyed" as we say in u.k. We (wife and I) are due to go to Trustee meeting tonight with the others (similar to a board of directors) and I`m going to put it too them to see what the reaction is. We were recently on TV featuring in a BBC programme called "Countryfile" and from that numerous enquiries were made to us regarding volunteering oppotunities. There is a general increase in U.K. regarding looking after the enviroment and programmes like Countryfile are helping us get the message out that looking after the canals with over 2000miles of active waterways is worthwhile passtime. When I see another bit repaired and working I get a real sense of satisfaction that I helped do that. Will get back to you soon--don`t forget, don`t upset the wife.
I moved the month up to April now. I just have to get the paperwork turned in before the first. There was just no incentive to wait and might as well get started.
Good for you brother!,the sooner the better!start the pension checks!
So April 1st is the first day of your second life? That is my day and it still strikes the funny bone 4 yrs later
Thanks, I had not thought of it that way. It is a first step, not cold turkey. Like the patch or the gum for the cigarette smokers, I will still pull a lever now and then in anger.
Just short of 70 and looking back, I retired for second time at about 66-67. Haven`t got time nor the energy to work now. Did a couple of jobs during this week--hated every minute of them but didn`t want to let people down I`ve known for years. Paid work get in the way of my obsession--messing about with boats. Always feel recharged after going to our boat, there is something about being on canal charges up my body and my mind. The piece and tranquility of the canals really gets to your soul. Got trip up the canal tomorrow pushing the craneboat with a tugboat to get ready for a extraction pump change that will happen on Monday. Afterwards a gental trip back to homebase--down as skipper for both journeys. HEAVEN
It's better already. I was going in and trying to gin up some hours out of thin air. Monday I will move the mini and do a couple of government jobs, on Monday and Wednesday. Government jobs is what we called personal projects at the machine shop Then that's it. The job I am working on is stalled 2~3 weeks and that will be the next time I go to work. There's a short week and then another 2~3 week break. I can handle that schedule
Will start getting used to G-job and Off Days, is defined as the time slips by!!
Now the push is get permitting and then rent the 120 and truck to get the site prep done.
Odd--I just read a interesting story written about the UK Canals of the 19th century. When the canals were in use the crime was rampant---BBC-History--Death on the canal, www.historyextra.com issue 300.
idle hands are the devils workshop, old operators don't retire,there filter falls out, they use the word NO a lot more, and get to do whatever they want. enjoy my friend !!
What filter
You noticed that eh?
Do not believe I owned a Filter for as noted in 40+ years!!!
Crime was certainly rampant--both on and off the canals. The guys rhat dug the canals were a hard lot--worked hard and would always have a fight in the local pubs when they had many beers. there was also fighting at the locks, because the gaffer (boat boss) would go up to the next lock and pick a fight with any boater that was thinking of going into the lock before him His fully laden boat could go straight into the lock and speed up his journey and he would get paid more money. The marks on either side of the bow depicted a half crescent moon on one side and the sun on the other letting other boat owners know he was prepared to work all day (sun) and all night (moon) The diamonds eather side depicted how wealthy he was--more diamonds depicted more wealth and more determination to get the job done at any cost--fighting ,thieving, sinking oppositions boats. Hard men--Hard times
Generally just good times.
Rough and tumble types, drink a lot, fight some, drink more, eat some!!
Reading the story--there were allot of murders along the canals during the use of them. Some very unsavory people were attracted to the business.
Money Trail, crime always follows.
Congratulations!
So Whats different now--trouble is I haven`t got the energy for fightin, but I can still drink a lot,eat too much and periodically loose my rag, all of which are bad for my health--only kidding. I do loose my rag with people who dont take care of our gear. Lost it yesterday on a boat job. Some idiot put 2 wheelbarrows on top of a Mercury outboard which was laid in the hold of the craneboat( until I get time to fit it.) I was so cross.Probably heard me shouting 2 locks away.
It might be nice if you could work on a few jobs from time to time when there's nothing else going on or it's an interesting job. Great to have a pension in retirement. I wasn't fortunate enough to work for a company long term that had a pension plan. I'm getting early disability pension now but it's not very much. Still better than nothing. Just wish I didn't ache so much and get so fatigued. I try to do what I can so I'm not in worse shape. Congrats on making to retirement still in pretty good shape.
I moved the start month to April, and I'll have my 50 hours in next week. The current job will start up again for a couple of days around May 1. Good timing. It takes 30~60 days to get sorted out. When the deposits hit the bank it will get real.