In which we remain retired

My freelance job for the DJ has concluded. I took it on only because they asked, as they needed someone with a fresh style but nonetheless an RD mindset to have at something. As it turned out, I’m not that much of an RD stylist. They have a meatier, pack-it-all-in approach, no doubt as a result of the magazine mentality, whereas I have a slower, more dramatic, let-it-play-out approach, born of my book mentality. I think the work I did for them acted mostly as a structural starter set than anything else. But, hey, it was only a few days and it was sort of fun. And they didn’t threaten to sue me for dereliction of duty, so I guess I didn’t foul it up too badly.

The thing is, having been retired for over a year, I don’t miss the DJ at all (although I do miss a lot of the people). Having started working when I was thirteen, caddying at our local golf courses, I was ready to stop when I tumbled into my seventies. This is not to say that I sit in the rocker all day, as I’ve been doing all my usual tournament stuff (until the pandemic came along) as well as various other bits of business. It’s just that they’ve been my bits of business, writing stories for my granddaughter and archiving my photos in digital format and things like that. Spending more time cooking and getting pretty good at it. Nice long daily walks to keep the blood flowing. Reading what I want to read. It’s interesting, actually. For years I couldn’t imagine retiring, and then one day I was done, and now I can’t imagine working. I have friends my age in various stages of the same. One thing that unites us is keeping our hands into some sort of real labor. They tend to have just one or two workdays a week, or they take on the odd freelance job, while for me it’s tournaments. None of us are doing it for the money (if there’s money in running tournaments I have yet to find out about it), just for the connection. If I didn’t have tournaments I might not have so completely severed the DJ connection. But I do have tournaments, and if anything, they’ve unexpectedly gotten a hell of a lot more interesting lately. 2020-2021 is going to be one hell of a roller coaster ride. 

Anyhow, so much for my little freelance moment. Short, sweet, done. On to the MSDL championships.