So if you didn't do anything airgun related what did you do today?

[Madd Hatter]

We've got bobcats, Mexican gray wolves and black Bear. A mountain lion was just spotted about 10 miles east of us.

I’d love to see a mountain lion.  We allegedly have cougar and jaguarundi here in N Florida.  I’ve never seen any.  Plenty of black bear around.  Coyote, bobcat and several members of the family mustelidae.

And these things.  Nasty critters

Careful what you wish for. Better be armed if you run into one chasing you out of it's territory like this one. Maybe it had a cub who knows but good thing dude had pistol or may have had to change his name to Claude Ballz.

Youngest daughter and I were cruising down seniter highway which is just a dirt road through the mountains south of Prescott AZ coming back from trying to do a little dirt bike riding. Come around a corner and there's a big ol mountain lion. Had to of been a good 300 lbs. Luckily we were in my son in-law's Tahoe. It jumped up on the inbankment on the inside of the road and just stared at us. We had just been hiking around checking out a mine entrance and the supporting structures just around a mile from where we seen the mountain lion.

[maraudinglizard]

Finished the last of the retirement loose ends. Found health insurance for myself and not break the bank. Cleared out the last of the state stuff. I have been retired for a month, it's kind of an eerie feeling not having to get up and go to work. I am starting enjoy things that I could not make time for with all the other obligations I had. I have a choice as to what I want to do from day to day, no set schedule. I have plenty to keep me busy and stay active.

[Bicycleman]

Kris wrote:  I have been retired for a month, it's kind of an eerie feeling not having to get up and go to work.
Eerie feeling, but a good eerie!
I was an high school teacher, and retired in early June at the end of the regular school year.  The fact I was retired hit me the following August when a new school year started, and I was going fishing.
Kris, I wish you happiness and health in this new chapter in life.

[Blowpipe Sam]

I got a big windfall a few years back and decided to retire.  Bored me stupid.  I volunteered at a local park to keep myself occupied.  17 years later I'm a park ranger and having more fun than I've ever had in my first career.  They can't make me retire until I'm 74.

Drove three boat tours today.  Snapped the ignition key off in the boat ignition drifting away from the dock with a full crew of tourist on board.  No sweat.  First thing is get the mudhook down.  Uh oh! The anchor rope broke!  No sweat.  Call for help on the radio.  Help on the way.  Got my pocket knife out and pried the broken piece of the key out of the ignition.  Still drifting down stream with no steerage.  Found the spare key.  Stuck it in the slot and fired her up!  About this time the rescue boat arrived.  I gave them a wave off and apologized to the crew for the drama.  The whole incident took less than three minutes and I had drifted less than a hundred yards from the dock.  We finished the tour without further incident and saw a multitude of wildlife.
All of us boat captains are in the habit of starting the boat after we cast off and we will shut off the motor several times during a tour to better listen to nature.  That key was getting mighty worn from constant use.  My bad luck it broke on me but kudos to my coworkers for a quick and professional response.
If I'm lucky none of the passengers took video of me breaking the key and tossing the anchor over the side.

[Insanity]

I think if I were in your AO I would most definitely insist on you giving the boat tour. If not that day and I had to I would come back another day. I know I would have to ask for the old fart that likes his air guns.

[maraudinglizard]

Kris wrote:  I have been retired for a month, it's kind of an eerie feeling not having to get up and go to work.
Eerie feeling, but a good eerie!
I was an high school teacher, and retired in early June at the end of the regular school year.  The fact I was retired hit me the following August when a new school year started, and I was going fishing.
Kris, I wish you happiness and health in this new chapter in life.

Thank you Mike. Not having to deal with the stress has been the biggest relief for me. Things were usually busy after holidays for me and wouldn't slow down until summer and then start back up in the fall. I just take it one day at a time and enjoy moment. Carter as far as getting bored, I won't have that problem, there is plenty for me to do. I have no intentions of going back to work, I have been working since I was in high school, I made sure things were paid off and only thing I need is enough to live on.

[avator]

Finished the last of the retirement loose ends. Found health insurance for myself and not break the bank. Cleared out the last of the state stuff. I have been retired for a month, it's kind of an eerie feeling not having to get up and go to work. I am starting enjoy things that I could not make time for with all the other obligations I had. I have a choice as to what I want to do from day to day, no set schedule. I have plenty to keep me busy and stay active.

Yep, took a few weeks to get past the feeling that I was cheating by not getting up and going to work. Crazy as it sounds, the shingles made it a bit more acceptable because I wasn't in any condition to go to work. But that was bitter sweet because the shingles also limited what I could do to begin enjoying retirement.
I visited my old place of work yesterday. First time since I retired. It was nice to see some of my old co-workers and not so much to see some others. But, we kept it cordial none the less. It didn't take long to feel grateful because I could read the stress on many faces.
Aside from the recent bout of bad weather, retirement is awesome. As you said, I now get to do what we want, when we want.
Case in point... after cleaning and rearranging the the deck yesterday, we built a fire in the stone fire ring and enjoyed a few cold beers. The dogs laid at our feet and life was so good... and this on a Thursday night. 

[buellm2]

I still miss my job after being retired for 8 years.   For the first few years they called me regularly whenever there was a problem but now it's been over a year since I've had a panicky work call.  I hugely miss being the "go to" problem solver guy.  On the positive side, my blood pressure and cholesterol went way down.  Doc claims it's because of no more work stress.   In 3 months my wife retires and I'm looking forward to that as much as she is.

[avator]

Betty Lou has not worked in the 10+ years we've been together. Since I retired we have 24 hours a day to get on each other's nerves. 

[oldnamvet]

Betty Lou has not worked in the 10+ years we've been together. Since I retired we have 24 hours a day to get on each other's nerves. 

When I retired my wife hit me with 2 rules (for starters anyway).
No naps in the morning
No following her around commenting on how what she was doing could be done quicker/better/cheaper etc.

[avator]

Lol.. I need to impose that second rule on her.  She is very quick to ummm, advise.

[Blowpipe Sam]

I have 430 hours of annual leave accrued.  I have 1587 hours of sick leave accrued.  I'll never get a chance to even make a dent in the annual leave because I accrue it so fast and I have to burn my comp time before I use my annual leave.

I called in today.  I'm taking a "mental health" day.

Good mental health requires lots of airgun shooting!

[Hoosier Daddy]

Sounds like you need a 10 week vacation!

[Rabbit\Squirrel Killer]

I have 430 hours of annual leave accrued.  I have 1587 hours of sick leave accrued.  I'll never get a chance to even make a dent in the annual leave because I accrue it so fast and I have to burn my comp time before I use my annual leave.

I called in today.  I'm taking a "mental health" day.

Good mental health requires lots of airgun shooting!

 I have never been able to relate to why accrued time even exists since it was not even close to an option in my career. We got 6 days of sick leave each year, and unused sick pay was paid out on the vacation check which was also not accruable, unused vacation days were just paid out on the anniversary date each year. I did have 5 weeks vacation each year after 20 years. (so that was 5 weeks vacation time for the last 22 years) I also stretched the weeks out by taking a week here and there including the weekend before and Monday after making some of those "weeks" 10 days long. 

 Sick days were only allowed for actual illnesses and if out for more than two days a doctors note was required to return to work.

 For the last ten years or so we did get three payed personal days, but they had to be scheduled with two weeks notice.

 I saw a few people in 42 years get fired for calling in sick and then being seen/caught not being sick.

 It was a huge inconvenience to be down sick workers at the grocery store, the work must get done every day especially with perishable items customers need to have available when they need them, and hours scheduled were short to begin with. The chain I worked for was considered as having slave laborer's by those that worked for our competition. We just expected everyone to work hard IMHO though.

 I am glad you got a better gig Carter and hope you enjoy every bit of it.

 I know a guy named Gilbert that worked for Cal Trans for 20 years "retired" for six months, and then got re-hired, worked another 20 years and then drew 2 full pensions. I guess us CA tax payers can afford the double pensions that are allowed by the rules.     

[avator]

Before I retired we got no sick days. Had to burn vacation days if sick. I got 3 weeks vacation and 2 two week paid shutdowns for retooling each year. One covering the 4th if July and the other covering Christmas and New Year. We had and additional 11 paid holidays including MLK and Juneteenth.
We could only roll 5 vacation days over and got paid out for the rest or all if we chose.
But then again... that was the salaried deal... Hourly folks weren't so fortunate however they got time and a half for overtime and salaried below department manager got 1/2 time pay for overtime past 45 hours minus lunch hours.

[Rabbit\Squirrel Killer]

Back when I was Produce manager (hourly pay) we got triple time on holidays we worked, it was really double time for working because the day was paid anyway.
 One holiday the store manager asked me if I would go home after I worked 3 hours, I said lets get this straight, if I had been scheduled off and not came in I would have been paid 8 hours, now I have worked 3 hours and will get paid for 9 hours.
 So you want to know if I will work 3 hours on a holiday for 1 hour of pay, I don't think so!

 He had an apprentice that he figured on using in my stead.   

[Struckat]

9 years to wait. They will change the rules before I get there…I really don’t want to die at my stupid desk.

[Blowpipe Sam]

The leave thing is a scam.  The longer you work for this state the more leave you accrue each year.  I get about 3 days of annual leave and 3 days of sick leave a month now plus holidays plus an annual "personal" day.  I get two weeks of "Holiday" time a year.  At the beginning of each fiscal year all accrued leave over 360 hours gets rolled into my sick leave balance.  Any unused Holiday time just disappears.  When I retire all unused leave just evaporates.

[Bicycleman]

When I retired, I had accumulated 240+ days of sick leave.  In Louisiana, teachers were paid $$$ for the first 25 day of leave.  Then a FORMULA was applied to the remaining days.  [Guess what = They didn't even supply any petroleum jelly (Vaseline).]  The final number of sick leave days (after the FORMULA) were added to days of service.
My insurance agent in Louisiana was a retired public school teacher.  He was sick for the entire last year of his teaching career.  He used that year to get the insurance company going on a solid footing.
My best advice, concerning the sick leave, would be to 'use it'.  Use ALL of it now. 

[avator]

I used all of my remaining vacation before I retired. I wasn't even going to give them a chance to screw me. They have a sneaky way of doing that.