Retirement is a state of Mind . . . and freedom to do what you want, when you want. . . as much as you can afford to do that!

Submitted by volunteer47305 on Mon, 05/24/2010 - 5:00pm.

Well I have been retired now for little over a few months and am still getting used to the slower pace. . . a bit boring actually. Not that I mind too much, but after having a reason to get up by a certain time on certain day(s) of the week it is different and takes some getting used to.

At this point I miss the additional cash flow that used to make thing happen faster. The combination of things that interacted to make it a very interesting day with all sorts of folks who came in looking for surplus and sewing modifications.

Now I see folks for sewing repairs mostly, but sometimes modifications too. yet it is a much slower pace, and it is all on an as available or by appointment basis. So I am seeing how my clientèle base is adjusting. . . as I am to the changes in our lives.

Gone are the day of drop by and find me there waiting on someone to show up. Now, I can go where I want if I have no appointments and only come back to be there for the appointment. Gone are the days of being there on certain days of the week. Now, we can take off hours, days, weekends, and weeks if we had a mind to and could afford that. All I have to do is leave a message on the door, and phone answering machine and tell the next door neighbor how to contact us; as we ask them to watch over the homestead and let the dog out and feed him.

What is not gone yet is folks still stopping by to get surplus and ask for this or that, that no longer pertain to what we are currently doing. That will take some time to change and I hope the new owners of the Army Surplus of Muncie will do a good job of promoting themselves; so we can take a bit of a back seat and let folks find them through Internet, phone book, and directory assistance and that will just about complete our retirement from that part of our lives. Anyone wanting surplus should call 765-585-0776 and find them in the basement of the VFW Post 651.

On the other hand Sow-N-Sews can still be found our home in the Green Quonset Hut (Rigger Hut) and still making, modifying and repairing everything from holsters to bible covers. But please do call ahead and make sure we are there for you.

My home phone is our shop phone 765-747-1934 and my AT&T cell is 765-760-7697. And of course I kept our same email: sownsews@yahoo.com Not to mention being all over the Muncie Free Press, and social networking sites like Facebook.

So if you are getting ready to retire? think about how others think about where you live and work, especially if you work from home the way we have for so many years. You can say your retired, but actually retiring is harder then you may think.

In my own case, we want to make a little side income of sorts and still enjoy what I do in the sewing shop a lot, so I still expect to want to see folks when they have sewing projects.

Just be sure to call ahead.