Retirement Update

I have been retired now for several months, and thought it was a good time to reflect on how things have changed for me.

When I started my retirement, I would start each day with a written list of to-dos on my computer, and work to complete all the things on the list. After about two months, I decided that I did not need to have a list. Now, I have a hand-written list to collect things/tasks as they come to mind, and I just keep adding items, not starting a new list until the page is full.

I had some planned projects for when I retired (mostly website maintenance/migration, start looking at using AI for software development). I was able to finish the migration work in a few months, and did some experiments with AI after that. Over the past few months, I have had difficulty thinking of a project where I want to invest my time. For example, I see articles/posts about apps that people have developed using AI, and I have no interest in those things. If anyone has any ideas for a good project, send them my way!

In general, I have become more relaxed in my day-to-day activities. If I don’t get a task done, there is always tomorrow to get it done, or the day after that….and I have also taken a lot of naps!

Retirement Update – June 2026

I thought I was going to do this last month, but…..oh well, better late than never! I have been exercising more (which is a good thing), and did start some personal software projects (my Feed News Archive site is running nicely!). The other major effort over my first two months was to transition to a new hosting provider (Opalstack) from my previous provider (Bluehost). When I started with Bluehost, they had an “unlimited plan” (websites, storage, etc). Over the years, their cost increased, but I was able to keep adding sites without issues. In the fall of 2025, I found out that my plan “now” only covered 20 websites (I had 59). Although many of them were test sites, the ones I wanted to keep was still higher than 20 – grrr!

I did some looking around at other hosting providers, but got a good recommendation from Anton Zuiker (micro.blog, site), and made the move! A benefit of moving to Opalstack is that I can have PHP, static sites, and Node.js sites all on the same account. With that, I will be able to drop my Digital Ocean account for Node.js apps.

The other things that has happened is that I am slowly approaching each in a more relaxed way. When I started, I had a list, and worked to get everything done on the list, and updated it during the day. Now, having a list is not so important. I feel more and more comfortable being retired.

Organizing my retirement with org-mode

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am now retired. As I approached my first week of retirement, I had been making a list of things I wanted to do. As my list grew to 25 items, I felt a little uneasy. I needed some more structure…and that is when I turned to org-mode in Emacs.

I created an outline with the first level heading of “Retirement” so I could find it easily within my main org file. I then added two second level headings (Tasks and Weekly Planner). The Tasks heading is the “inbox” for when I think of something new that I want/need to get done. Under the Weekly Planner heading, I added sub-headings for each day of the week. Within each day, I had a standard set of tasks (exercise, dog-walking, practicing musical instruments). I then chose a few items from the Tasks list and copied them to the days in the Weekly Planner. As I complete the tasks (TODO items in Org Mode), I change them to DONE, and moving items up and down in the list depending on my priorities. Finally, I have a “Log” heading where I record significant things for each day (PS – I already that this in my org file).

Here is a screenshot with example tasks:

On Monday, I started using this system. Today (Thursday), I would say it is working well for me. Yay! I have created a sample file if anyone want to try this. Enjoy!

Announcing my retirement

As of April 10, 1026, I am officially retired! I have worked over 40 years in the aerospace industry in the US, it has been a good career. In my retirement, I plan to focus on my health (via diet and exercise) and spending more time with family. I also plan to work on some personal software development projects, since I will have more time. If anyone has something in mind where I can help or collaborate, let me know!