Retirement?!?!

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Congrats! My first retirements will be in a years. I hope to share part of you exhilaration. I too hope ti have more time to dedicate to rockets and my hobbies.
Chuck, if anyone here has earned it, you have, especially with your part in handling the Wuhan flu. And on top of it, you kept up you admin/moderator duties here, and did your best to give us the straight facts of the matter in a timely way. I sure hope the rest of your service is more tolerable and less stressful. Blessings to you, and thanks for your service.
 
Chuck, if anyone here has earned it, you have, especially with your part in handling the Wuhan flu. And on top of it, you kept up you admin/moderator duties here, and did your best to give us the straight facts of the matter in a timely way. I sure hope the rest of your service is more tolerable and less stressful. Blessings to you, and thanks for your service.

Thanks.
 
Like several others in this thread, I decided to retire due to changes brought about by Covid. It's about 5 years earlier than I thought I would, but my wife retired a couple of years ago and it just got harder and harder to go to work while she was hanging out all day with the dogs. My office lease was up for renewal and I decided to call it quits rather than deal with the uncertainty of the times.

And like others, I've been busier than ever. All those household chores that had piled up finally started getting done. We bought a pickup and camper for trips. And old clients keep convincing me to do one more job for them 'since we have the money already budgeted.' My wife keeps complaining that I can't call myself retired until I'm actually not working anymore, but so far it's only been a few days every couple of months. On my next job I'm going in the camper and staying in a state park, so really mixing and matching.

Sadly, other than going to BALLS I really haven't done much with rockets. I have big plans, and am setting up a workspace in my garage. (The pickup won't fit on my side of the garage, so I can finally officially turn it into a work area.) I've been mixing the same propellant for the last 10 years and I want to try some new ones, and finally build and fly a couple of 2-stage rockets.
So far the most 'retirement' thing I've done is cut a bunch of firewood (with the help of my son) for camping trips. There is something very cathartic about using a sawzall to cut up a bunch of firewood. It was easy to imagine each log as a past business frustration being cut up for burning. I'm looking forward to sitting by the fire with a glass of good scotch or bourbon and watching it all burn.


Tony
 
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Ain't it a joy to cancel those things as they come up? Congratulations, fellow Pittsburgher! Keep the pointy end up!
Thanks. Hope to see you at a local launch. Both Tripoli and Pittsburgh Space Command have wrapped up for the season after the joint launch on the 7th. The weather was perfect and I believe there were 31 successful Junior L1 flights! Biggest crowd I've ever seen!
 
manixFan: I retired a little less than two years ago. And like you, that lead to my finally getting up close and personal with a firewood chore that had languished for years. We installed a swimming pool soon after we moved in, and the project included some vegetation management to make room. The logs have laid in a large unsightly pile ever since. Last week I rented a gasoline-powered 26-ton log splitter from a local rent-all facility and went at it. Like you said, very cathartic! And I, too, look forward to sipping a good whiskey this winter while watching it burn in my fireplace. When I'm not building rockets, that is . . . .
Bob Schultz
 
Been retired since 2010. Now if only these rocket clubs in Northern California would quit being cowards and hold a launch.
We're flying in Argonia, KS Saturday and Sunday. The Kloudbusters have flown pretty reliably, but the weather hasn't always been friendly this year. Forecast for the weekend looks good, I'll be there.

Jim
 
Been retired since 2010. Now if only these rocket clubs in Northern California would quit being cowards and hold a launch.

What do you need a club for? Why not just go launch on your own?
 
I don’t have a pyrotechnics license, a waiver, or a site to launch at. That’s why I need a club that satisfies those requirements. HIGH POWER

I see.

How are the clubs being cowards?
 
I see.

How are the clubs being cowards?

Come on man! I was being hyperbolic. Look around and see what clubs are launching and how long they have been launching. The two clubs near me haven’t had a launch in two years. I don’t know about TCC, but that’s a six hour drive for me.
 
I outlined what happened to me in mesgs. #28 and #31 so it was bittersweet. Anyone will like retirement as long as they planned for it. Years prior, I told my lovely spouse I would do any chore that she wanted me to do as I can't stay out in the garage working on rockets all the time. She stopped with the comment, "I don't want you to retire, You'll drive me crazy." Unfortunately I lost her and do all the domestic chores now. At least I have the time to do them in retirement. I didn't marry until 31 so I knew how to cook healthy, clean and take care of myself. That relieved some of the trauma. I had some older male patients when their spouses died, they were completely helpless.
Many resorted to unhealthy foods at restaurants and living out of a microwave. I had a few spinster old ladies that never learned to take care of themselves either and lived a questionable existence. They didn't bother to learn to cook as they had no "man" to take care of.
They came from the time when women took care of the home domestic duties and the men worked. No division of labor with the male doing some of the domestic chores.
Kurt Savegnago
 
Well, all, my last day of work was August 13. Ah, the idyllic pleasure of retirement! Just posting on the forum and working on my rockets, free as a bird... OW! Oh, my Pinnochio nose just hit the opposite wall so hard it dented the drywall!

In reality, and to be honest I'm glad I have the opportunity, I'm in the waiting room, having taken my mother-in-law for a follow-up doctor's appt. after she broke her hip -and she is doing very well, but her 92 year old husband is skating on thin ice right now... between trying to get my phone switched over (grr...), getting all the Social Security and Medicare taken care of, switching logins, finally getting to mow after a couple of weeks of rain, fixing the mower, watching the grandkids, and just generally planning and getting used to the incredible idea that I DON'T HAVE TO WORK ANYMORE (sorry, I get giddy and gleeful every time I think of it), I have yet to do anyting serious rocket-wise besides some jokes and pun-filled replies.

But oh, when it settles down a bit... I have @hcmbanjo's Cyclone and Breakaway to build (and some advice to seek), and help my brother-in-law with his Estes Der Red Max, and then my ACME Spitfire (thank you, Jim Flis), and oh, the possibilities! I might even get a couple of launches in finally!

It was really surprising to me over the last couple of months how time consuming all the retirement stuff was. And work kept me busy as a bee as we tried to transfer as much from my pea-brain to those of my juniors as was possible. I have a consulting agreement, but I'm not looking for work; I have a very full life even without spending 40 hours a week trying to wear the bottom of my mouse away! Still, if they get stuck, they can call.

But I'm really hoping to ramp up my involvement in the more technical aspects of our sport. I'm just so glad it's finally here!
How's the 1 year anniversary of retirement?

Sandy.
 
Well, all, my last day of work was August 13. Ah, the idyllic pleasure of retirement!
I might need some help doing that. I've worked one way or another constantly since I was 15, mostly to make money for someone else. These days my wife has plenty of work for me to do so even without a job I would still be too busy to spend much time on rockets. My other problem is I've been doing my job for so long I don't know how to quit, I don't know how to become a different identity. For men from my era our identity is tied so much to our work.
 
I might need some help doing that. I've worked one way or another constantly since I was 15, mostly to make money for someone else. These days my wife has plenty of work for me to do so even without a job I would still be too busy to spend much time on rockets. My other problem is I've been doing my job for so long I don't know how to quit, I don't know how to become a different identity. For men from my era our identity is tied so much to our work.

Life is short, it's your thing, do what ya wanna do. Oh, and if that thing is deciding not to retire, then do that.
 
I might need some help doing that. I've worked one way or another constantly since I was 15, mostly to make money for someone else. These days my wife has plenty of work for me to do so even without a job I would still be too busy to spend much time on rockets. My other problem is I've been doing my job for so long I don't know how to quit, I don't know how to become a different identity. For men from my era our identity is tied so much to our work.
What helped me was when I retired, I was rehired as a contractor, for half time... doing the same thing/place... at a substantial pay raise. After a couple of years of that, I was ready to leave.
 
What helped me was when I retired, I was rehired as a contractor, for half time... doing the same thing/place... at a substantial pay raise. After a couple of years of that, I was ready to leave.
I did something similar, going to 80% time at 80% pay. I'm nowhere near retirement, but it's a big step up in quality of life if you can swing it financially. Every weekend is a 3-day weekend!
 
How's the 1 year anniversary of retirement?

Sandy.
Sandy, that was very thoughtful of you to remember. Thank you.

I wish I could say that I'm adjusting really well. And I am, along many dimensions - certainly I can be thankful for my health, and that of may family. Financially we are ok despite the governments' concerted efforts to the contrary (that's a wisecrack - no threadjacking allowed!). But where does the time go?

For one, I am no project manager. Designer, fine. Builder, fine. But figuring out how long it would take? Dear glory. We had a slight further slippage of about 1/4 acre of a sloping field that I own, so I went ahead an pulled permits to get that stabilized and drained - and then the water authority stopped me because they are concerned about damage to their old asbestos cement water line running near the slipped area. Let's not get into that either, suffice to say it may end up in court, not because I want it to, but because they want it to so they can say they were forced. It's a 6", 120 psi line, so the consequences of a break are no joke. But I did start on one aspect of the adjoining project, which was to drain my natural spring into the new borough storm drain boxes so the road shoulder (that the spring had drained down since time immemorial) stopped being a muddy swamp all winter.

And that shot my summer, because now you work your way back up from the catch basin, up the badly eroded waterfall, to the idyllic pond that the spring feeds, and it all needed rebuilt. Retaining walls, a paver patio and.. wait a minute, how did the outlet get to be 1/2" higher than the inlet? - It's 165 gal plastic preformed pond. Why's the top of the pond not level anymore? Oh glory... That has taken me since June 6 and I still ain't done (after estimating a couple of weeks...). Not to mention I need to put a shed up this year, and I still need to come to terms with the water authority and get all that done.

I rebuilt my utility trailer with my middle son through spring after two weeks of flu in early March. We've had an unusual amount of time with the grandkids, at least we've done some stomp rockets and gliders and stuff.

But hobby time has been almost zero. I think about rockets WAY more than I work on them. And even at that - over the winter, my brother-in-law and I started building a 1/24 Bf-109E Airfix kit. We thought we'd be done by April; I'm just now finishing the cockpit. We just get a couple of hours every couple of weeks with his schedule. He loves that plane, and it certainly was a potent fighter, but it ain't my cup of tea, I'm doing it for him. In between steps I picked at @hcmbanjo's Breakaway, but it sits forlornly on my bench craving attention. My careful preparations to mke the tube meetings as inconspicuous as possible came to naught so now I need plan "B".

And of course I still consult for my former employer, that sometimes really chews up a week.

Rocketry wise, I did manage to contact First Energy about their Little Blue remediation. This has a LOT of promise and I think I need to get with the local NAR/Tripoli clubs to make a joint effort to secure this field. This would innclude any clubs in the Pittsburgh-Chester, WV, East Liverpool Ohio area at the very least. The site is currently under environmental remediation, and get this - in hilly, tree-covered western PA, here is a relatively flat area that is a mile wide, over two miles long, and due to the remediation measures, THEY DON'T WANT ANY TREES ON IT!!!!

Yup, it was a fly ash slurry containment pond, and so there is a rubber liner, geotextile, and a foot of earth. The First Energy guy said they cannot have anything risking puncturing that membrane, and so crews go through periodically removing any saplings that start. For us, if we were to secure an agreement, it may limit us on possible ballistic energy etc. But he actually loved my idea - he was quite enthusiastic about linking up with schools, the STEM aspect, field trips, etc. But as it stands now there are some legal hurdles. and another owner (Energy Harbor) that has purchased the Shippingport Nuclear Station and the (non-operational) Bruce Mansfield Generating Station (the one that generated the fly ash for Little Blue), and are now part owners of Little Blue. We are officially on the list, though, as a possible future use. The remediation goes through 2028, but I think with enough effort there is no reason why we couldn't fly there with the proper agreements.

My build pile has grown slightly. I grabbed a Bullet Bobby during Chris's Christmas in July sale. So in addition to some repairs on my Mercury-Redstone, I have Bobby, the Breakaway, the ACME Spitfire, and... and...

Well, when I was a kid, I had started designing my own rockets using the old CG and CP-by-cardboard-cutout method. I had this real beaut, a 4FNC 3 engine "D" cluster. Got it built, but life intervened, and it never saw paint or the sky. I never did know what finally happened to it. So earlier this year, I grabbed some parts for it - a Sunward mount for 3 x 24 mm motors into a BT-80, a couple of BT-80 tubes, a Sunward BT-80 ejection baffle and an Estes blow-molded nose cone. I think I want to replace the 70mm long engine tubes with 95mm tubes. This is to be a heavy lifter, not a high flier, and I really am looking at doing some interesting calculations to get it right - speed off the rail and all that; payload/engine combinations, cameras, other electronics, maybe even that French kid's fly-me-home system if it'll fit. Apogee sells clear BT-80 segments, so there is just so many possible things to sit on top of the booster.

But that will require some more study time, which, to be honest, I love... if i can find it. I've only covered the first two chapters of "Topics in Advanced Model Rocketry" and don't have the calcs mastered yet, but by glory it just calls to me... If I can get through the sections on drag and trajectory analysis, I'll be a very happy camper.

But yeah, the first year has been tough. There are a million things I like to do, but there was a ton of big things we'd necessarily put off until I retired. I still help my widowed mother-in-law, and even if I had no other projects, taking care of this place is no joke. But I gotta get off, it's bed time.

Thanks again, Sandy for thinking of me. I was going to necrotize my own thread eventaully and gripe, you made me do it!
 
Sandy, that was very thoughtful of you to remember. Thank you.

I wish I could say that I'm adjusting really well. And I am, along many dimensions - certainly I can be thankful for my health, and that of may family. Financially we are ok despite the governments' concerted efforts to the contrary (that's a wisecrack - no threadjacking allowed!). But where does the time go?

For one, I am no project manager. Designer, fine. Builder, fine. But figuring out how long it would take? Dear glory. We had a slight further slippage of about 1/4 acre of a sloping field that I own, so I went ahead an pulled permits to get that stabilized and drained - and then the water authority stopped me because they are concerned about damage to their old asbestos cement water line running near the slipped area. Let's not get into that either, suffice to say it may end up in court, not because I want it to, but because they want it to so they can say they were forced. It's a 6", 120 psi line, so the consequences of a break are no joke. But I did start on one aspect of the adjoining project, which was to drain my natural spring into the new borough storm drain boxes so the road shoulder (that the spring had drained down since time immemorial) stopped being a muddy swamp all winter.

... {snip}
Hope it all works out for you Tom.

TP
 
What a coincidence I just found this thread, as I'm retiring the 26th of this month. Believe it or not, I really struggled making the decision to retire, but once the decision was made, I feel relived and ready start this next stage of my life. The wife has started a "to-do" list of things to keep me busy between rocket builds (like she thinks there will be ANY time between rocket builds)!!
 
Been retired since 2010. Now if only these rocket clubs in Northern California would quit being cowards and hold a launch.
Cowards? We lost most of our launching fields….I don’t know where you launch in Northern CA but in the Bay Area there is nothing now….Lunar lost Moffett field and I think Sacramento lost theirs too (maybe wrong about that)….has nothing to do about bravery…everything to do about a legal place to launch in the fire state.
 
What a coincidence I just found this thread, as I'm retiring the 26th of this month. Believe it or not, I really struggled making the decision to retire, but once the decision was made, I feel relived and ready start this next stage of my life. The wife has started a "to-do" list of things to keep me busy between rocket builds (like she thinks there will be ANY time between rocket builds)!!
Good for you. millions of people face-plant at work each year, working to get a few more dollars each month.
 
Sandy, that was very thoughtful of you to remember. Thank you.

I wish I could say that I'm adjusting really well. And I am, along many dimensions - certainly I can be thankful for my health, and that of may family. Financially we are ok despite the governments' concerted efforts to the contrary (that's a wisecrack - no threadjacking allowed!). But where does the time go?

For one, I am no project manager. Designer, fine. Builder, fine. But figuring out how long it would take? Dear glory. We had a slight further slippage of about 1/4 acre of a sloping field that I own, so I went ahead an pulled permits to get that stabilized and drained - and then the water authority stopped me because they are concerned about damage to their old asbestos cement water line running near the slipped area. Let's not get into that either, suffice to say it may end up in court, not because I want it to, but because they want it to so they can say they were forced. It's a 6", 120 psi line, so the consequences of a break are no joke. But I did start on one aspect of the adjoining project, which was to drain my natural spring into the new borough storm drain boxes so the road shoulder (that the spring had drained down since time immemorial) stopped being a muddy swamp all winter.

And that shot my summer, because now you work your way back up from the catch basin, up the badly eroded waterfall, to the idyllic pond that the spring feeds, and it all needed rebuilt. Retaining walls, a paver patio and.. wait a minute, how did the outlet get to be 1/2" higher than the inlet? - It's 165 gal plastic preformed pond. Why's the top of the pond not level anymore? Oh glory... That has taken me since June 6 and I still ain't done (after estimating a couple of weeks...). Not to mention I need to put a shed up this year, and I still need to come to terms with the water authority and get all that done.

I rebuilt my utility trailer with my middle son through spring after two weeks of flu in early March. We've had an unusual amount of time with the grandkids, at least we've done some stomp rockets and gliders and stuff.

But hobby time has been almost zero. I think about rockets WAY more than I work on them. And even at that - over the winter, my brother-in-law and I started building a 1/24 Bf-109E Airfix kit. We thought we'd be done by April; I'm just now finishing the cockpit. We just get a couple of hours every couple of weeks with his schedule. He loves that plane, and it certainly was a potent fighter, but it ain't my cup of tea, I'm doing it for him. In between steps I picked at @hcmbanjo's Breakaway, but it sits forlornly on my bench craving attention. My careful preparations to mke the tube meetings as inconspicuous as possible came to naught so now I need plan "B".

And of course I still consult for my former employer, that sometimes really chews up a week.

Rocketry wise, I did manage to contact First Energy about their Little Blue remediation. This has a LOT of promise and I think I need to get with the local NAR/Tripoli clubs to make a joint effort to secure this field. This would innclude any clubs in the Pittsburgh-Chester, WV, East Liverpool Ohio area at the very least. The site is currently under environmental remediation, and get this - in hilly, tree-covered western PA, here is a relatively flat area that is a mile wide, over two miles long, and due to the remediation measures, THEY DON'T WANT ANY TREES ON IT!!!!

Yup, it was a fly ash slurry containment pond, and so there is a rubber liner, geotextile, and a foot of earth. The First Energy guy said they cannot have anything risking puncturing that membrane, and so crews go through periodically removing any saplings that start. For us, if we were to secure an agreement, it may limit us on possible ballistic energy etc. But he actually loved my idea - he was quite enthusiastic about linking up with schools, the STEM aspect, field trips, etc. But as it stands now there are some legal hurdles. and another owner (Energy Harbor) that has purchased the Shippingport Nuclear Station and the (non-operational) Bruce Mansfield Generating Station (the one that generated the fly ash for Little Blue), and are now part owners of Little Blue. We are officially on the list, though, as a possible future use. The remediation goes through 2028, but I think with enough effort there is no reason why we couldn't fly there with the proper agreements.

My build pile has grown slightly. I grabbed a Bullet Bobby during Chris's Christmas in July sale. So in addition to some repairs on my Mercury-Redstone, I have Bobby, the Breakaway, the ACME Spitfire, and... and...

Well, when I was a kid, I had started designing my own rockets using the old CG and CP-by-cardboard-cutout method. I had this real beaut, a 4FNC 3 engine "D" cluster. Got it built, but life intervened, and it never saw paint or the sky. I never did know what finally happened to it. So earlier this year, I grabbed some parts for it - a Sunward mount for 3 x 24 mm motors into a BT-80, a couple of BT-80 tubes, a Sunward BT-80 ejection baffle and an Estes blow-molded nose cone. I think I want to replace the 70mm long engine tubes with 95mm tubes. This is to be a heavy lifter, not a high flier, and I really am looking at doing some interesting calculations to get it right - speed off the rail and all that; payload/engine combinations, cameras, other electronics, maybe even that French kid's fly-me-home system if it'll fit. Apogee sells clear BT-80 segments, so there is just so many possible things to sit on top of the booster.

But that will require some more study time, which, to be honest, I love... if i can find it. I've only covered the first two chapters of "Topics in Advanced Model Rocketry" and don't have the calcs mastered yet, but by glory it just calls to me... If I can get through the sections on drag and trajectory analysis, I'll be a very happy camper.

But yeah, the first year has been tough. There are a million things I like to do, but there was a ton of big things we'd necessarily put off until I retired. I still help my widowed mother-in-law, and even if I had no other projects, taking care of this place is no joke. But I gotta get off, it's bed time.

Thanks again, Sandy for thinking of me. I was going to necrotize my own thread eventaully and gripe, you made me do it!
Thanks for the lengthy reply. I love it when people do that. :bravo:
 
Cowards? We lost most of our launching fields….I don’t know where you launch in Northern CA but in the Bay Area there is nothing now….Lunar lost Moffett field and I think Sacramento lost theirs too (maybe wrong about that)….has nothing to do about bravery…everything to do about a legal place to launch in the fire state.
How the dickens does NASA pull permission to launch at such a perfect location? Surely fire containment there shouldn't be a huge task? (Thread-jacking my own thread for a sec...) It just seems ironic.

Best to you guys out west, that sounds tough.
 
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