I Retired...And/But/So/Therefore...I'm Back!

 

So, after my several year hiatus, I've restarted the Frugalpropellerhead blog. I don't know what other retirees experience, but I know what it isn't. You know those commercials that we're constantly fed with several "golden years" folks getting together with others at a farmers market or coffee shop and "living it up". For, me what it is: 

• Not getting up at a particular time, although it seems mostly the same anyway. There's less stress about it because, I don't have to.
• No hurry through my breakfast and coffee. I just have that at a leisurely pace while I read my email and decide what I need to and/or want to do the rest of that day.
• Catch up on the news that isn't fed to me by the networks which also contributes to lowering my stress since I'm not being talked at by a bunch of talking-heads who actually don't have the slightest idea what they are talking about, but want me to buy into their biases (regardless of which side they're on). Walter Cronkite/Tom Brokaw, where are you when we need you?
• About half the days of the week, I start my "work-day" halfway through the afternoon by going to the stadium or a meeting/or meetings from which I'll be home either early evening or later that night. That's my job as a District Stadium Manager for the Athletic Office. It's something that the bigger districts 5A/6A schools here in Texas often have since the are big facilities that need to be managed by someone who know the sports and folks involved.

BetterLife Stadium at North Forney High School under construction a few weeks ago.

BL from the pressbox, today... one week, and one day from opening for our 1st home game, next Friday, Oct. 4th.

 

So yeah; I'm working, but I can't go over 92 hrs each month (according to the state of Texas), so it ends up being around 20 or so hours a week. What it amounts to is that I have responsibilities and work most of the days of the week in some capacity, but I have lots of time on my own.

Therefore, under the watchful eye of "the Big Chungis" AKA Charlie, I'm in the process of restarting my hobbies! If you've read the old posts of this blog, that has mostly amounted to 

• Computing/Computers
• Photography/Cameras
• Music/Home Theater/Audio Equipment

To that, I've added; Shooting/Hand loading. As you can probably imagine, teaching, coaching and parenting teenager(s) has been detrimental to these pursuits! And over the last few years, I've been the Head Swim & Dive coach at North Forney HS and father of a senior at our high school who happened to swim for me (as well as play Water Polo for which I was the assistant). Let's just say, I've been busy. 

As you can imagine; the roughly 10 year break from my hobbies has left me somewhat out of touch and behind in the various technologies!

Therefore, it isn't as simple as restarting an activity, especially when there's equipment involved! Over the course of the next few weeks and months, I'm endeavoring to document my catching up process, step-by-step as well as explaining my decision-making rationale as I progress. 

Hope you will follow along.