Humor and beauty is hidden in everything, just learn to observe!

First of all I must start with my disclaimer: I have noticed a funny thing in this journey of life, even though we may begin in different places, our paths cross with others so we can learn things from them.  I choose to do this by observing, in a positive way, rather than a negative one.  I feel that some life lessons are best learned through observation.  That is the vein of my writings about my Sun Lakes experiences.  In sharing my little adventure about Sun Lakes, it is not my intent to humiliate or make fun of the people who live here, well kind of on the making fun part.  <Grin>  As BFF Hubby so loves to remind me, I am one of these oldies!  I am merely observing and seeing the humor in my life at Sun Lakes, which I attribute to the diversity of people and ages.

This week’s blog observation is about seniors and driving, so keep in mind my rant here has nothing to do with fact and reason.  

We have several gates in Sun Lakes - there is, of course, the main gate with a guard and then several other gates where the residents can enter with a scanning device.  We enter the one that is closest to our house, and since we have moved in, we have noticed our gate rail arm is broken no less than once a week. Seriously, it really makes us belly laugh, we don’t know why it makes us hysterical it just does.  

We figure it has to be a resident, and since they live here they must know how the gates work.  BFF Hubby and I have come up with our own story as to how it gets broken, much in the same way we make up stories about people when we people watch.  We decided they see the gate open and a car just going through; they push the gas pedal and try to go on in behind the prior vehicle.  Bam the guard rail comes down on their car, and crash the guard rail is broken!  We asked the guards, and they say they have no idea, but they think it is outsiders trying to get in behind a resident. Uh huh, sure it is.  I asked them why they don’t put up cameras to catch them.  If it’s residents, then maybe you can give them lessons on entering the gate; if it’s outsiders, get their license plate information and make them pay for it.  BFF Hubby and I are sure our story is correct. 

I have to let you in on a secret; they drive very scary here both with cars and their golf carts. And you know the definition of scary is frightening, causing fear or alarm!

My biggest frustration, or at the very least annoyance, when traversing the streets of Banning, is getting stuck behind a massive American sedan driven by that "little old lady from Pasadena" whose blue hair barely clears the headrest and who is driving slowly.  As George Carlin put it, “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”  And then I say that someone going the same speed behind me is obviously a deranged maniac stalking me to my house to kill me. I mean sometimes I wish Google Maps had an avoid the senior drivers route.  <Grin>

On one occasion, my daughter and her family were visiting and she was driving our car at the time, which was an Infinity FX35 medium-sized SUV, so not a small vehicle (you get the picture).  We were at a stop sign, getting ready to turn right, and this lady opposite us was attempting, and I use the word loosely, to turn left.  The bad news is she was cutting the corner into our lane, I mean literally if she would have hit us it would have been head on and she was driving a big Cadillac sedan.   My daughter honked at her; fortunately she was going slow, and stopped in time.  She rolled her window down and said, “I am so sorry, you were in my blind spot.” What the hey!!

Then there are those drivers, both men and women, that pull out of their driveways and don’t look!               I have had this happen in the golf cart and in our car on several different occasions, phew, very scary. The UPS driver gave me some good advice; you must drive defensively while driving in Sun Lakes, if you see them, always give them the right away.  Not a bad tip.  

BFF hubby loves to remind me when I complain about these old people that now that I'm retired I’m one of them.  So, argh, my attitude and snotty verbal references have changed considerably, as that blue-haired senior citizen is now me!  I’m beginning to think retesting for seniors is not such a bad idea!

I remember when watching the movie Back to the Future, we thought after the year 2000 the world would be full of flying cars; can you imagine how that would be for seniors? <Shudder>  But the good news is we now have blankets with sleeves, I don’t really see the relevance, but it cracked me up.

Now when I am driving slowly through the town of Banning, I have created my own game. I see if the blinker on the little old ladies car ahead of me matches the beat of my music.  Oh come on now, you know they drive forever with their blinkers on.  <Grin>

And so I will leave you with one last recent observation, you know those orange cones they put on the highways? Well, the little old man in front of me the other day hit so many I think he was trying to beat some imaginary high score.

Stay with me, and I thank you again for taking this retirement journey with me, or "my longest coffee break."  I'm just sayin’…

Days go by, hours pass, minutes keep on ticking and time marches on...

Fast forward, all of the renovations were completed, all new furniture, appliances delivered, and we officially moved into the house on March 1, 2014. My daughter graciously allowed me to stay at her home in Corona, from Monday through Wednesday, and then I went home Thursday night after work.  My son and daughter-in-law also offered their guest room, which was actually closer to my work.  But I was used to the commute and apparently a glutton for punishment. <Grin> It really was a great experience for me, as I got to be a part of the daily routine of my Grandkids, who at the time were ages 7 (Kendall), and 11 (Chandler).

But I must tell you on the other hand, it was a very rough three months for BFF hubby and me.  Well, I think more for me than for him, as I would go home for the weekend, where  I felt like a visitor.  Every Sunday night I would pack up my stuff for the week, and as I hugged BFF Hubby goodbye I would start crying and did that for most of the drive to my daughter’s every time I left. This was the first time BFF hubby and I were separated that long from each other and keep in mind we have been together for 35 years, making it very rough.   I wasn’t worried about him so much, as I knew he would be eating all right, taking his main meals at the clubhouse restaurant, not a bad way to go I’d say. And for me I focused on thoughts of being permanently home in June, which gave me the strength to go on each day.

Okay maudlin part is over, and then there is the work thing; I tried being grateful for my job, but reality always won over.  How can a person really enjoy waking up every morning at 5:30 am, leaping out of bed, take a shower, get dressed, fix hair and makeup, grab some coffee and breakfast to go, only to fight traffic so you can get to a place where in essence, you make a lot of money for someone else, and are expected to feel grateful for the opportunity to do so! Phew, it exhausts me just thinking about it.  Oh come on now, if we are being completely honest, you know that’s it in a nutshell! <Grin>  

On a side note, getting ahead and talking about my present life - there is no better feeling than going to bed at night, when you feel like it, and not having to set an alarm for the next morning, and arising when you wake up naturally. That’s a perk of retirement! <Grin>

Okay, so back to what was going on at work.  I determined with my boss that I would begin to be more like a consultant and hand off my work, slowly transitioning out of things, which I felt sounded like a good plan and we had three months left to do it.

Delegating to me meant helping and letting my staff become the experts.  Unfortunately, the person ahem, I reported to had a different management style.  <Grin> Managing by not wanting to know anything…he wanted me to pass it on to the staff, and let them give the answers, while he filled our time with irrelevant anecdotes and stories,seriously that’s the amazing truth of the matter, the man could spend countless useless hours regaling you with his past life at his old job, and how wonderful he was and what wonderful things he had done, ad infinitum!  And what the heck, he continued to hand off key projects to me as if nothing was changing.  Reality check here, I’m gone in three months, dude.

I kept my cool telling myself, “Why do you care, it is no longer your problem,” the way I kept a smile on my face, was by remembering he exemplified the Peter Principal: “every employee tends to rise to the level of their incompetence."  I have to say the days moved slowly, I found myself leaving early, as why not, he doesn’t care, so why should I? And hey, the best part about my last work days was that my chair swiveled, and after all what was he going to do to me, fire me?  Please do! <Grin>

I just have to add one more disheartening boss bashing thing, why, because I can; it’s pretty sad when your boss gets paid more than you, and you still have to help him write a basic email.  I’m not saying he’s stupid, I’m just saying he has bad luck when it comes to thinking.  I mean the qualities you must possess to be him are ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. <Grin> Okay, all done and yes, it does make me feel better!

So the days kept on passing and the months, thank goodness, after all life is somewhat like a taxi, the meter just keeps ticking whether you are getting somewhere or just standing still. So I hung in there, bit the bullet and put a retirement calendar app on my phone.  June could not come soon enough!

Stay with me as we keep moving towards the goal, and I thank you again for taking this retirement journey with me, or "my longest coffee break."  I'm just sayin’…