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Journals / Re: Retirement in the rearview mirror
« on: October 13, 2020, 01:37:23 PM »
Well, it has been a while since I posted. Turns out I was really busy and had no trouble filling my time in retirement.
Today is a blustery rainy day so I am hanging out inside and trying not to mourn the loss of summer and dread the upcoming season of gray and drizzle. Winters are so hard around here. During my working years, we would make a point of traveling somewhere warm and sunny about every 2-3 months just to break up the monotony and gain some valuable natural vitamin D.
This year, we have a few trips planned to sunny areas and we are keeping our fingers crossed that it is safe for us to travel there when the time comes. Also we are keeping our air travel to the US west coast to minimize time in the air and multiple legs/multiple airlines that might have different cleaning and distancing standards than our beloved Alaska Airlines.
So, how did I spend my summer?
I did my best to take advantage of activities outside. This wasn't hard to do because summer is the best season in the Pacific Northwest. I worked on projects at home some...I did a lot of hiking, gold prospecting, rock hounding, exploring local and almost local nature attractions, and camping with family and friends in my small social(distancing) bubble.
The gold prospecting and rockhounding were both a great deal of fun. I managed to get my niece and nephew interested in the hobby so that makes for a nice bonding experience for all of us. I have been toying with the idea of monetizing the hobby. I think I could make a decent amount by selling what I find on Ebay or some other platform(maybe my own website?-so many things to learn about!!). I haven't dug into the details yet of what turning it into a business would be like but I think I will at least explore that possibility. I am thinking that I may be able to find a sweet spot from an income and tax perspective and still have it be casual enough that it is fun and interesting to me.
Well, that's all for now...the rain stopped so I have to go outside now.
Today is a blustery rainy day so I am hanging out inside and trying not to mourn the loss of summer and dread the upcoming season of gray and drizzle. Winters are so hard around here. During my working years, we would make a point of traveling somewhere warm and sunny about every 2-3 months just to break up the monotony and gain some valuable natural vitamin D.
This year, we have a few trips planned to sunny areas and we are keeping our fingers crossed that it is safe for us to travel there when the time comes. Also we are keeping our air travel to the US west coast to minimize time in the air and multiple legs/multiple airlines that might have different cleaning and distancing standards than our beloved Alaska Airlines.
So, how did I spend my summer?
I did my best to take advantage of activities outside. This wasn't hard to do because summer is the best season in the Pacific Northwest. I worked on projects at home some...I did a lot of hiking, gold prospecting, rock hounding, exploring local and almost local nature attractions, and camping with family and friends in my small social(distancing) bubble.
The gold prospecting and rockhounding were both a great deal of fun. I managed to get my niece and nephew interested in the hobby so that makes for a nice bonding experience for all of us. I have been toying with the idea of monetizing the hobby. I think I could make a decent amount by selling what I find on Ebay or some other platform(maybe my own website?-so many things to learn about!!). I haven't dug into the details yet of what turning it into a business would be like but I think I will at least explore that possibility. I am thinking that I may be able to find a sweet spot from an income and tax perspective and still have it be casual enough that it is fun and interesting to me.
Well, that's all for now...the rain stopped so I have to go outside now.
