Being retired doesn't mean we are always on vacation. We do establish routines to some extent. We have a residency, regular hours- sort of - and local businesses we patronize. Some times we throw it all aside and do something different with our lives. We call those vacations. They are important.

If we knew how long we were going to live we plan a bit better financially for our retirement. But we don't. And that is probably a good thing. We will just need to make some good decisions - and be lucky.

When should I retire? Or can I afford to retire? We find these questions first and foremost as we age. Does work just become accepted as a way of life that can't be changed? We might want to give these questions some thought - serious thought.

Friends give value to each day. The problem is hanging on to them. They tend to come and go over a lifetime. We face a new challenge when we retire or they retire. Friendship requires duration and that is sometimes hard to find in today's world.

Stumbling on a secret to living well is one of life's pure pleasures. Here is the story of an experience I had with K. Eileen Allen that certainly made me take notice. She was ninety when we met and she had learned a lot in her long life.

How many choices do we have? It is sometimes hard to know which of the many options would be best. We pause to think. The important thing is to not stop. We need to make a choice and then move on it.

It is easy to fall into a life of doing very little when we retire. It is easy to do the same old thing everyday. Risk is something that may take us into a new stage. We need to keep in mind the joy of doing something different, learning something new or seeing something we have never seen.

Sliding into a world of silence is a danger of retirement and old age. No one seems to want to listen to us or we find our hearing starting to fail. We are difficult to talk to. Is there a solution? It would seem to be that there is, or soon will be.

Some of us tend to look ahead in our daily lives and some tend to look back. It seems like one or the other dominate. Do we want to spend our time anticipating or reflecting? Or is there a happy place right in between? Or do we just sort of drift along?

Weather is one of the elements we talk about all our life. It takes on a bit of different meaning when we retire. Sometimes this is the only factor that seems to matter. People are sure they want to live in the sun.