Retirement Thanks – Things I’m Grateful For

As tomorrow is Thanksgiving, it seems appropriate for this post to celebrate some of the things for which I am grateful as I approach retirement.

10. I’m grateful for 3.25 magnifiers at the dollar stores. (Next year I’ll probably be grateful for 3.5.)

9. I’m grateful that my best friend from seventh grade and good friends from high school summers found me on FaceBook. I’m even more grateful that they think the 5-years (and 15 pounds) old picture on my profile page is what I actually look like now.

8. I’m grateful that the only donut holes I have to worry about today come in Dunkin’s Munchkins boxes.

7. I’m grateful for the yard-long shoehorn that my brother-in-law gave me. I’m not as flexible as I used to be, but I’m still too young for Velcro shoes.

6. I’m grateful that when I was downsized out of a Fortune 500 company in the late eighties after 17 years with them, I was not allowed to take my pension money with me. (I love having that third leg on my retirement stool. It would have been sawdust years ago if I’d had control of it.)

5. I’m grateful for all of you who read my RetirementSparks blog and especially for those of you who let me know you’ve read it. (Hits good. Feedback even better!)

4. With two aging cats with over-active bladders, I’m grateful for the invention of clumping litter. (As I approach retirement, it’s the little things that count.)

3. I’m grateful for being old enough to collect Social Security before the system implodes under the weight of the entire Baby Boomer generation.

2. I’m grateful for living long enough to see retirement. (20 plus years cancer free as I write this.)

And the number one thing for which I am grateful this Thanksgiving:

1. My husband of twenty years. Especially that we’re able to look forward to enjoying our retirement together. (You may want to check back on this one next year, after we’ve had some time to drive each other crazy in our side-by-side retirement bliss…)

Head nod to David Letterman, and best wishes for a safe and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!