This is another in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

My wife’s wisdom is understated, but profound nonetheless.

I stuck my head out the front door late this morning and then told her about how the wind was howling like the dickens.

“Sometimes it’s really good to be retired … on days like this,” she said.

Indeed.

So, I’m not really and truly “retired” fully in the strictest definition of the word. But she’s right about this fact: Neither of us had to be anywhere today, reporting for work, doing things on other people’s behest.

It’s nice to be sort of semi-retired, to be sure.

The wind has been blowing dirt into the air all damn day! Fires have closed highways all across the Texas Panhandle. I’ve heard reports of potential danger to some homes in rural Randall County.

I had a brief conversation this morning with a news source with whom I will speak Thursday afternoon about a feature I’ll be writing for KFDA-NewsChannel 10’s website. I had called him; he called back a little later. I answered the phone. My source said, “It must be nice to work from home.” He laughed. So did I. “That’s the payoff for getting old,” I told him.

“But you’re not old,” he said. I don’t feel old, but I am older than he is, which is the point of why I said what I said.

Retirement has its benefits. I’ll experience all of them in due course.

It is rewarding, though, to enjoy being able to stay indoors today — and away from the raging wind that gives the Texas Panhandle its, um, special quality.