As winter approaches this year (at the time of this writing), thoughts of the impending inclement weather start to materialize, especially as the temperatures start to dip.

Have you ever looked out the window while at work, started seeing it snowing, and wondered if or when they may let you go home early? And then maybe even started to wonder how long it was going to take you to get home? And then how long it actually took you to get home?

Do you know what a retired person doesn’t have to worry about? How long it will take them to get home. Because they are probably already there. Or at least they can plan around not doing anything (read: stay home) because of the impending inclement weather.

Then, of course, there is the cleaning off of the car when you get to the parking lot.

Do you carry an umbrella into the office every day? I have one in the laptop bag I carried back and forth with me each day. But even then, it was small and when there was any sort of wind while it was raining, the umbrella didn’t seem to work all that well anyway. And how annoying is it when it rains in the morning and your first two hours of work are spent in wet clothes?

Or when it is really hot. I mean Africa hot. 100 degree hot (at least here in the mid-Atlantic area, that’s hot). You step out of your comfy-cozy air conditioned workspace, and – WHAM! – it’s like opening the door to the oven. And you have to try to breathe. And you can’t wait to get to your car. And turn the air on. And wait the five minutes for the interior temperature to become tolerable. And the surfaces to become touchable – especially the steering wheel. Eventually its great…

But yes, the retiree has to go out every so often and deal with these issues too, but they certainly have more flexibility to work (sorry, that’s probably not a good word to use…) around these issues. So I don’t think I’ll miss that. I expect to be able to get done what I need to early in the morning before it gets too hot. Or if there is snow predicted, get to the store for essentials (you know, ground coffee, salad fixings, and potato chips – unless you’re of the milk-bread-eggs type) and then just wait for it to melt.