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What did/will you gift yourself?


shootingstar

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When you retired or just after you retire?

Dearie gifted himself by flying to New Zealand and biking+camping solo all over NZ for 6 months. Then he met up with me in Hawaii where we spent a memorable vacation (I brought along my bike and loaded panniers too) for 4 wks. before I returned to work and he started his new "life".

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29 minutes ago, BR46 said:

Racing Slicks

Ok....I would have bought the tires anyway 

5 minutes ago, roadsue said:

I’m thinking an RV.

 mr. is not interested. 
 

Probably a circuitous trip to Yellowstone, the Oregon Coast, the California coast, but whether there’s an RV involved is yet to be determined. 

We love traveling in our motorhome 

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24 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Not even thinking of retirement and I’m not waiting for it to take trips or gift myself.  I have seen too many people, like my dad & oldest brother, never make it to retirement...

I think I gift my self in little ways enough and sure, I agree not waiting for foreign trips until retirement which I'm so thankful I didn't. Of course, dearie has gone on more trips than I since I've been working full-time.

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I'm not sure where, but probably a trip somewhere.   I've taken plenty of trips when working, but it will be nice not to have to worry about clearing my schedule before I go, or spend time on my vacation looking at emails, or  worry about the trip going too fast and having to return to work when it's over.

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4 hours ago, shootingstar said:

When you retired or just after you retire?

Dearie gifted himself by flying to New Zealand and biking+camping solo all over NZ for 6 months. Then he met up with me in Hawaii where we spent a memorable vacation (I brought along my bike and loaded panniers too) for 4 wks. before I returned to work and he started his new "life".

I had wanted to study piano since I was a kid but my parents were too poor and then I got caught up with my career, etc. I decided to study piano - starting with classical  and virtually from scratch. I actually began a few years before I retired buy got serious when I retired in 2006.  I got into the adult program at the world-class Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and have qualified for 12 ACE recitals. playing Chopin, Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, etc.

I can't wait for things to return to normal: I'm going to take more piano lessons there and probably add violin - a top teacher there told me she could have me good enough to playing pop fiddle or quartet violin within 3 years.

The two women in the upper right of the collage are Hyunah Yu (standing), who is a world-renowned (Carnegie Hall, London Palladium, etc.) opera grand diva who told me she was moved by my playing and Frances Cheng-Koors (sitting at far right), my virtuosa piano teacher who passed away 2 years ago. A child prodigy in Shanghai, she escaped Red China and eventually became piano dept. chairman at Peabody.  At the Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Austria, she was one of the few people allowed to play on Mozart's piano. She would sit next to me, either on the same piano at a higher octave or another piano and demonstrate how she wanted me to play. She was so amazing I sometimes missed what instructions she was saying because I was so awestruck by her beautiful playing.

She teased the current great pianist Lang Lang by calling him "Bang Bang" - telling him he didn't have as much touch on the keys as he needed.  When he sent her backstage passes to the party after his Washington, D.C. concert, she passed them on to me and I got to meet and talk to him.

924916432_MickatPeabody5-19-06Collageimpr.jpg.c8ffe8a9f0f48a68b040be5455c5ccc4.jpg 481843243_MickLangLang1-cropped-sml12.jpg.5bcc2399ac0e66c0b5753d8675d9bc04.jpg

 

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8 hours ago, Philander Seabury said:

You didn’t notice this happening on the forum? 

I'm not here for big hunks of days, etc. 

7 hours ago, MickinMD said:

I had wanted to study piano since I was a kid but my parents were too poor and then I got caught up with my career, etc. I decided to study piano - starting with classical  and virtually from scratch. I actually began a few years before I retired buy got serious when I retired in 2006.  I got into the adult program at the world-class Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and have qualified for 12 ACE recitals. playing Chopin, Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, etc.

I can't wait for things to return to normal: I'm going to take more piano lessons there and probably add violin - a top teacher there told me she could have me good enough to playing pop fiddle or quartet violin within 3 years.

The two women in the upper right of the collage are Hyunah Yu (standing), who is a world-renowned (Carnegie Hall, London Palladium, etc.) opera grand diva who told me she was moved by my playing and Frances Cheng-Koors (sitting at far right), my virtuosa piano teacher who passed away 2 years ago. A child prodigy in Shanghai, she escaped Red China and eventually became piano dept. chairman at Peabody.  At the Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Austria, she was one of the few people allowed to play on Mozart's piano. She would sit next to me, either on the same piano at a higher octave or another piano and demonstrate how she wanted me to play. She was so amazing I sometimes missed what instructions she was saying because I was so awestruck by her beautiful playing.

She teased the current great pianist Lang Lang by calling him "Bang Bang" - telling him he didn't have as much touch on the keys as he needed.  When he sent her backstage passes to the party after his Washington, D.C. concert, she passed them on to me and I got to meet and talk to him.

924916432_MickatPeabody5-19-06Collageimpr.jpg.c8ffe8a9f0f48a68b040be5455c5ccc4.jpg 481843243_MickLangLang1-cropped-sml12.jpg.5bcc2399ac0e66c0b5753d8675d9bc04.jpg

 

Mick:  My original plan was to enroll in an art course a few months after I begin retirement.  Taking courses online doesn't help since I benefit from in-person instruction and being with other students.

I don't see enrolling in any in-person class happening for another 2 yrs.

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2 hours ago, jsharr said:

A nice tombstone

I already have a plot, and we've been discussing getting the headstones put up so all they have to do is fill in the date.

My parents did that, and it was nice not to have to make another decision after they passed.   Plus, that way they got to pick exactly what they wanted for the tombstone.

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7 minutes ago, Kirby said:

I already have a plot, and we've been discussing getting the headstones put up so all they have to do is fill in the date.

My parents did that, and it was nice not to have to make another decision after they passed.   Plus, that way they got to pick exactly what they wanted for the tombstone.

actually we do to.  Martha's parents bought them long ago. 

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16 hours ago, roadsue said:

I’m thinking an RV.

 mr. is not interested. 
 

Probably a circuitous trip to Yellowstone, the Oregon Coast, the California coast, but whether there’s an RV involved is yet to be determined. 

THIS...but they are too expensive right now with the depleted inventory (new and used) and demand. Hoping September or so that normality returns to the market. 
Beginning to have RV shows again, but general wandering around lots kicking tires is almost impossible with COVID 'cleanliness' precautions.

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16 hours ago, ChrisL said:

Not even thinking of retirement and I’m not waiting for it to take trips or gift myself.  I have seen too many people, like my dad & oldest brother, never make it to retirement...

This. Our first major overseas trip as a couple was a Rick Steves tour group. We were in our early thirties and had finally gotten to a point where discretionary spending was a thing. So many people on our group (ALL) were retirement age. We did the Europe from the back door experience, where you use the hotels, transport, and tour guide as a resource but you are not beholden to any schedule. It was marvelous; our tour guide spent the majority of the time on the private bus going over itinerary plans with us and options like cool restaurants, sight seeing locales not mentioned, and in general assisted. The other couples/groups stayed with the guide and had a much more structured setup.

Nothing wrong with either BTW.

But what stuck with us was the remarks at the group dining events were how "active" we were and how they wished they had started traveling sooner. We've been highly active travelers since (COVID being a hurdle at the moment). We don't want to wait. We choose to play/spend now.

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

THIS...but they are too expensive right now with the depleted inventory (new and used) and demand. Hoping September or so that normality returns to the market. 
Beginning to have RV shows again, but general wandering around lots kicking tires is almost impossible with COVID 'cleanliness' 

With everyone jumping in and buying RV I think that in a year or two there's going to be a bunch of low mileage RVs for sale. 

Wo46 and I have been thinking about getting a newer RV because our current RV has a ton of mileage on it. I wait until the new used ones hit the market. 

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26 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

Did you steal it? What is the yellow police tape around it for? 

The picture was taken a few weeks after the constriction was done.  The tape was there to help the construction workers 'see' the trees that should be avoided.   There 'was' a small pine tree. (behind me and to the right, from where I took the picture)   Some guy backed a trailer over the tree.  "I didn't see the tree."   Etc.. 

After that I added yellow tape too all the trees. Like...   CAN YOU SEE THIS.  

I just didn't take the tape down yet.   It's gone now... 

The picture was before the landscaping, which was done in May/June after the winter. 

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On 2/28/2021 at 6:04 PM, shootingstar said:

When you retired or just after you retire?

Dearie gifted himself by flying to New Zealand and biking+camping solo all over NZ for 6 months. Then he met up with me in Hawaii where we spent a memorable vacation (I brought along my bike and loaded panniers too) for 4 wks. before I returned to work and he started his new "life".

My memory is not remembering all the details because of many different trips he's taken.  He corrected me:  After he retired, he made sure his stuff was moved to Vancovuer from Prairie city. Then he cycled from Vancouver to Toronto solo...where he was with me and where I lived/worked at that city. Before he flew off to New Zealand.  So that's his retirement gift saga.  Before all that, he and I already did some cycling trips, etc.

My retirement gift will probably be alot duller.  He is urging me to think of a trip and he come along. Ok, darling, in the midst of this pandemic...  He feels it will help me change my brain from work mode.

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