The ability to just head out whenever I feel like…

Transcript

One of the most significant pleasant surprises about retirement to me was the ability to just pick up and go whenever I want. I was sort of starting to get beat down by the grayness in Ohio. The cold and the snow is bad, but the constant grayness just gets me down. So I thought, I'm just going to go to Texas and enjoy some sunshine for a little while. And I just watched the forecast. For the week that I was planning to go to Texas, it was going to be like 10 degrees in Texas and cloudy and gross, just like Ohio. So I didn't want to go that week. So I just kept watching the forecast. And finally, like I think it was last Saturday, the forecast said it's going to be in the 70s and sunny on Monday. So Sunday morning, I packed up and I headed to Texas. If I were working, there's no way I could do it. First of all, I'd have to book a flight because you can't spend 17 hours of your weekend or your vacation driving each way. That's just impractical. And I'd have to coordinate so many things to make that trip. But when you're retired, you can just pick up and go. And that's exactly what I did. So I stayed here in Texas for as long as it took for me to scrape that gray out of my psyche. And I'm going to be happy. I'm heading back. I feel great. But the idea that you can just pick up and go. I never thought of that as an advantage of retirement going in. But it's probably the advantage of retirement that I value the most.