No posts in 4 months. I sense that most of our audience
is far from retirement (age wise). Uke is still a few years
shy of posting here daily. Perhaps we can get a consensus
on a new topic for this spot. Maybe something like "Railroad
Bullshit" or "Rail News...Like it or not".

I often sit around doing nothing at all... Maybe I should post here cause often it seems like I have the life of a retiree.

You could also have something for people to post photos that they have taken.

-- Edited by Widerstand at 06:58, 2008-09-02

I keep thinking that I shoud post something here, but I'm just having to much fun being retired.

A railroad retiree can come forth via many scenarios. You could be fired for running a red block, you could be lucky enough to snatch up a handsome buyoff in the numbers game, or you told the railroad to fuck off...I don't need this shit in my life. And then there is the honorary retirement at the ripe old age of 62 or 65 or 70 or whatever the age they raised the bar to. I'd say if you handled railroad life in this day and age for 20 years or more, your opinions mean something. My game plan from the very beginning was to be one of those fuckers with 40 years seniority or more and die in my office chair with a date stamper in my hand or a pen or a stapler. While my premature departure from railroad life seemed tragic at the time, it has been a godsend. I still listen to the daily railroad chatter on my scanner and know what the fuck is going on and know in my mind if my job still existed that I could still do it. Come this December it will be 10 years since I recieved a railroad paycheck. Life after railroading depends on how much you either hated it or loved it.

Hmm, I am retired from the Air Force, perhaps I can take this one over. Krink has his 100 posts club Mir site.

Dusty in here, reminds me of my house.

2nd day of my three days off. I am practicing being retired. So far, I have determined that I do it well.

Retirement...it's so wonderful. Stay up til 3:30 am on the internet,
go to bed drunk every night. Get up about 10 am, make coffee and
sit around in your underwear reading yesterdays newspaper. Think
I need to get into the shower but I'm just not ready yet. Tidy up
the place a little bit, put last nights dishes in the dishwasher, maybe
clear off the dining room table of assorted old mail or some project
thats been going for a week or more. OK...I'm ready to get in the
shower now. Wow! I'm all squeaky clean and my hair is combed
and it's only 1:30 pm. Let's see...what was I going to do today.
I can't remember. Oh yeah...mow the lawn. I used to be able to
mow the lawn all at one time. Now I shut things down about the
halfway mark and sit and swab the sweat from my brow and have
a cigarette. I know I need to finish the lawn but now I don't want
to, I don't have to, no ones making finish the lawn. Finally a half
hour later you go "OK...I gotta finish the lawn". Fire up the lawn mower
again and "getter' done". Your retirement has a lot to do with if
your married or not. If your lovely wife is part of the picture, things
can be superwonderful or a nightmare. If you're cruising into retirement
solo...it all depends on you lifelong plans. Yeah I'm going fishing every
day or I can't wait to fireup the Winnabego and travel and travel.
You'd be surprised how many rails that retire go quickly to the dogs.
They've worked their whole life on the railroad, they were needed, they
had structure, they had purpose, and now that's not there. Ya all
probably have been formulating you retirement fantasies for some
time. In my experience at the railroad, saying goodbye to a retiree
you may never hear from them again. You'll never know if their
retirement years were good or bad. Judging by checking the obituaries
in my local paper daily, it's about a 70/30 split that most have lived
nearly another 20 years after retirement. The "30" part usually croak
in a year or two. Speculating on how long any railroad employee will
live to is futile. Retirement is a great thing unless you miss being at work.
Sounds silly but I know several individuals that worked into their 70's
because of a lack of home life, wife passed away, or some other circumstance.
Retirement...check it out. It could be shangri-la or slightly less.

-- Edited by The Krink on Friday 17th of April 2009 02:35:55 AM

Known a few that the proverbial "first retirement check was lying on the table", when they dropped over, most recently as about three years ago when a well-liked conductor retired. Less than one month later, his wife found him lying in the yard where he'd been planting a tree. No, no known health issues, other than a brother who died under somewhat similar circumstances. So, you never know. Best argument I know for quitting as soon as you can, though.

Well, I figure I can come in here and learn to be a bidder old man.

This whole site is bidder old men eating their one.