This afternoon, we’ll go to the movie, probably Equalizer 3 with Denzel Washington or The Creator, followed by dinner and games at a neighbor’s home. I’m sure they will have variations with their interior that my wife will wish we had in ours. This is always this danger of going into another home in our resort center. She looked at a fireplace the other day, checked out some dining room chairs, and wants to have a customized design painted on our white range hood. It’s these little things that distinguish our design and furnishings from the neighbors – our silly little game of staying ahead on the Jones’, rather than just keeping up. 

Funds for this type of work are running low, in fact we’ve gone well over our initial plans by adding a heated pool, custom tile, outdoor kitchen, dining room built-ins, widened the drive, and put in additional landscaping. We’ve also purchased furniture, lighting, and artwork that I didn’t plan for in budgeting. Extensive travel has eaten up our retirement funds and medical bills could soon be a factor. I’m on a campaign to cut down on expenses, while she is pursuing a substitute teaching job. We went to Sarasota the other day to get her fingerprinted. The work will be a good way to give back to the community. Ours will be a much more conservative lifestyle going forward, trying to find contentment with what we have. 

We still have trips to San Francisco, Orlando, Marco Island, and the Trans-Atlantic cruise, that are all mostly paid for, to anticipate. By next summer I will probably doing some part-time work to ease the retirement boredom. By then it will be eight-years of sitting on my butt watching TV. The only exercise I get every day is the morning run that might be a thing of the past by then. I’ve stopped some of my hobbies like baseball card collecting and genealogy and have dropped a couple of streaming services like Hulu and Peacock. 

The Halloween decorations came out yesterday, including the haunted, dancing Snoopy that we bought nearly 25-years ago, just before we got married. Lots of glass pumpkins, Limoges 
Boxes, and candy dishes came out of storage to celebrate the season. I smile when I hear the Peanuts theme but has dancing moves are a victim of old age and corroded batteries, just like me. Regardless, Snoopy Rocks!