{"id":18177,"date":"2016-11-26T02:25:06","date_gmt":"2016-11-26T02:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18177"},"modified":"2016-11-26T02:25:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-26T02:25:44","slug":"words-flowing-more-easily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=18177","title":{"rendered":"Words ‘I am retired’ flowing more easily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"retirement.pic_\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.<\/em><\/p>\n

You might not think this is a big deal, but it is to me.<\/p>\n

The words “I am retired” are flowing more easily out of my pie hole these days.<\/p>\n

I get asked frequently by customers at the auto dealership where I work: “Do you do this full time, part time or what? Are you retired?”<\/p>\n

My answer: “Oh I’m retired now.”<\/p>\n

Actually, my presence at the auto dealership reveals that I am not yet fully retired. I’m getting there, slowly but inexorably.<\/p>\n

I’ll admit to being a bit uncomfortable saying “I am retired” when\u00a0I first started collecting my Social Security income. My discomfort wasn’t anything that I can identify. I didn’t have pangs in my gut. I didn’t stutter when I said it. I didn’t flinch, wince or grimace at the sound of the words.<\/p>\n

It was just a strange set of words coming from me<\/em>, of all people, a guy who had worked pretty damn hard for nearly 40 years in daily journalism. Then it ended. I was sent out to pasture, along with a number of other, um, more mature<\/em> fellow practitioners of this noble craft.<\/p>\n

I have admitted already that I wasn’t ready for the day I tendered my resignation after being told someone else would be doing the job I had been doing at my last newspaper stop here in Amarillo. Instead of seeking another job at the Globe-News, I decided to quit.<\/p>\n

Boom<\/em>, just like that, my career was over.<\/p>\n

The onset of retirement is sounding more comfortable to me these days. I’ve still got a couple of part-time jobs that keep me busy. There’s the\u00a0Street Toyota auto dealership customer service gig; there’s also my freelance writing gig at KFDA NewsChannel 10.<\/p>\n

However, I am feeling more retired these days than not.<\/p>\n

What’s more, I am quite comfortable saying it out loud.<\/p>\n

Ain’t it cool?<\/p>\n\n

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This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement. You might not think this is a big deal, but it is to me. The words “I am retired” are flowing more easily out of my pie hole these days. I get asked frequently by customers at the auto dealership … Continue reading Words ‘I am retired’ flowing more easily<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[179,309,2587,3920,4301],"class_list":["post-18177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-news","category-media-news","tag-agn-media","tag-amarillo-globe-news","tag-journalism","tag-retirement","tag-social-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18177"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18180,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18177\/revisions\/18180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}