Retirement Relocation –Ten Things I’ll Miss When We Move

10. My tailor, who knows my left arm is 3/4 inch longer than my right. (It’s from carrying a packed brief case cross town in Manhattan for 15 years.)

9. Six closets for my clothes (plus the walk in cedar closet.) Sigh.

8. Room for an 8 feet tall Christmas tree in our entry hall (plus the 19 inch star on top.) Another sigh.

7. The contractor I found when I chatted him up on the line at the check out at Ocean State Job Lot. For sure we’d better get a condo when we move.

6.  My vet, who doesn’t make fun of me because I get blubbery every time one of my cats has a glitch in their blood work. (Can you say “artifact?” As in: a pricier retest showed that it wasn’t a real problem, just an artifact.)

5. The squirrels that hang out on our front porch and burrow into the stuffing of the pillows on our wicker furniture during rain storms. (And send me scurrying around after the storm to recover the poufs of stuffing that have blown into the neighbors’ yards.)

4. My hairdresser, and not just because he gives me great cuts every time. He’s a transplanted New Yorker, and when he says he’s gong to “the city,” he means Manhattan, not downtown Providence.

3. The jogging path up the center of Blackstone Boulevard, three blocks from our house. It was designed by the Olmstead’s landscape architecture firm. They also did Central Park in Manhattan, the Emerald Ring in Boston and Roger Williams Park in Providence. (And also Swan Point Cemetery, at the end of Blackstone Boulevard. So if you drop dead jogging, they can just roll you across the boulevard to your beautifully landscaped plot.)

2. Four primo ice cream shops within 30 minutes drive (two within 5 minutes.) One is located—you guessed it—at the other end of Blackstone Boulevard. Perfectly positioned for a reward after some exercise.

And the number one thing I’ll miss when we relocate after retirement:

1. Three words: Whole Foods Market. (There are two within a mile and a half of our house—one is within five blocks.) OK. it was a toss up between this and the primo ice cream shops for number one.


Head nod to David Letterman.