Friday, December 28, 2012

The Late Summer Wine Retirement Blog



I have recently retired and have come to the realization that it will be very easy to sit in one of three places every day, all day - in front of the TV, watching movies or TV, in front of the computer, or in the easy chair reading.  If that's what I do, I'm willing to bet by the time I'm 70 I'll be in a wheel chair or using a walker at a nursing home somewhere.

The best thing for a person that has retired is to have a variety of hobbies, keep physically active, and try lots of new things one never had the time to try when you are working.  Learning new things can be both fun and an adventure!  So this Blog is going to be a journey with stops on the way, examining things that I enjoy and am interested in and I have no idea where it's going to lead!

The name refers to a BBC sitcom, called Last of the Summer Wine, following three retired men that are acting more like juvenile delinquents then older gentlemen.   Compo is a lower class child-like person that lusts after Nora Batty, walks on fences, and tries almost anything the other two can talk him into.  Clegg is timid, with deep philosophical thoughts, and the other fellow (that changed throughout the course of the program) is a braggart/buffoon, coming up with all kinds of plans and plots to occupy the time of the three friends.  My favorite third fellow is Foggy, a retired Army sign painter, whose war stories about being a trained killer are legendary, and completely untrue!  I believe it was Art Linkletter that wrote a book, called 'Old Age isn't For Sissies', and while he was correct, these three fellows from Last of the Summer Wine make the point that retirement should be fun!  The show certainly is! It's been appearing as of late on a number of PBS stations, and you can find full episodes on YouTube.  It ran on BBC from 1973-2010, With a number of the cast that started on the show in their 50's, still appearing on the show in their 80's!

I spent my career working in (and playing with as a hobby) electronics, fixing everything from radios, TV's, CD players, sound systems, and ore, including Scanning Electron Microscopes that do surface analysis.  I also taught electronics for 10+ years, have an Extra Class Amateur Radio License, enjoy computers/networking computers/gaming, make my own beer at times, and have lots of other interests as well.  So the topics that will be covered are going to be extremely varied at best!

Art Roberts

No comments:

Post a Comment