One of the retirement compromises I made with my wife was to cook one night a week.  I had never done any cooking in my life until about two months ago.  Since that time I have made Sticky Baked Chicken Wings, Spaghetti & Meat Balls, Mini BBQ Meat Loaves, Pan- Roasted Brine Pork Chops, Veal Parmigiana, Sausage & Pepper Calzones, Glazed Pork Belly, and Skillet Shepherd’s Pie.  I also did a Super Bowl Party encore of the Sticky Baked Chicken Wings along with my spaghetti sauce that was used to make pizza bread.  I’ve done pretty well, with the exception of last night’s Shepard’s Pie.  I apparently added to much salt to the water when preparing the mashed potatoes, since both my wife and I are both feeling like we spent the night licking a salt block.

I get very stressed out when I cook.  Tuesday, my day in the kitchen, is definitely the most stressful day of my retirement week.  I have grown to appreciate the hard work that goes in to preparing meals, something I’ve taken for granted most of my life.  I remember making fun of my mother for always preparing the same dish when we had guests for dinner – a cheesy chicken as I recall.  It was actually quite practical on her part not to experiment with something new.  After all, her guests might have spent the night and the next morning licking their lips, thinking they’d just gone for a swim in the Great Salt Lake.  I also used to make fun of our freezer, filled with pre-prepared meals, neatly stacked in their microwavable plastic containers.  Soups were frozen and wrapped in Saran Wrap in the shapes of the bowls in which they would be served.  TV Dinners were also a mainstay, served on TV trays.   She was a smart lady, but never taught me a thing about cooking.

My wife is a great cook, constantly trying out new recipes, and certainly as much at ease in the kitchen as in the office. She does admit that it was indeed stressful as she was first trying to learn.  She’s also a very picky eater, so this adds to the stress for me in cooking for her.  I, on the other hand, will eat anything without complaint.  I’m not sure I even really have taste buds, to be quite honest.  I’m a true Mikey who likes everything, so I make it easy on the chef.  I just know that I don’t want to adopt anything that is stressful as a hobby.  Cooking will not be a hobby but will be a challenge.

After Meatless Monday and Salty Tuesday, we enjoy Date Night every Wednesday.  We go to a different restaurant every Wednesday night (Thursday night is the back-up in case of a business obligation).  Every Saturday night is movie and popcorn night, foregoing any dinner for the big-screen.  As you can see, there is a lot of structure in our week.  The dogs are top priority on the weekends.  I’m on dog duty 24 hours a day.  It’s my main job now in retirement, making sure that they are fed, walked, and entertained.  This was another skill I did not learn from my mother.  We never had a dog so it made life pretty simple.  Once again, I salute her practicality.

Since my mom worked at home, employed a cleaning service, didn’t spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and didn’t have to care for a pet – just me and my sister – it’s now clear to me why she was an avid  hobbyist.  She collected stamps, took and developed photos, and eventually formed her own business personalizing doll houses with miniature photos and frames.  She had her own tools, photo lab, and power saw, things that most dads usually  enjoy.  She was an exceptional, practical woman that would have embraced today’s feminist movement.  My wife’s philosophy is that the kitchen is no place for a woman, unless it’s gourmet!

I’ve tried to develop hobbies, knowing that they are retirement requirements.  This is where practicing for retirement is important.  You supposedly need these hobbies to fill in the gap that not working leaves in your life.  Writing seems to be my hobby.  It’s also what I most enjoyed about working.  I do run every day, but haven’t found a passion for other recreational sports like golf or tennis.  I have a coin collection and inherited my Mom’s stamp collection, but haven’t been motivated to expand on what I have.  I do enjoy collecting baseball cards, something my Mom threw away thinking they didn’t have much value.  Maybe she wasn’t so practical after all?  I know I had several Mickey Mantle cards as a kid and would have to pay a fortune to replace them.  I did buy a couple of cartons of Topps 2016 and 2017 baseball cards the other day, something I could only rarely afford to do as a kid.  Back then, you bought them one pack at a time, trying to fill the whole set and using duplicates to trade.  I fully expected to have to make several more purchases to complete my set, but they were all there.  At first I was excited, then disappointed.  I wanted that experience of finally finding something that you were missing, but nothing was missing.  I also was anticipating the smell of bubble gum, but they don’t come with bubble gum any more.  In a way I was glad, that smell was almost sickening and the gum often hard and brittle, but it was part of that childhood experience.  I guess you just can’t go back – but I’ll continue to try!