We haven't been especially happy here in our community for the last few months. For awhile it seemed that the only solution would be to move elsewhere. Somewhere outside the walls with less restrictions but still near the downtown area would be perfect. We started halfheartedly to look around at different residential areas and could find very little available within our price range. Since we won't be ready to move until the beginning of next year we figured eventually we'd start finding housing. I hope so.
So it continues.
Monday, October 2, 2017
Loose Ends
Well, I've lived in this community for almost two years and it's just not for me: too much interfering with my lifestyle by the HOA, and too little privacy in general. I need to move back to a regular neighborhood where your neighbors ignore you unless you happen to be out in your yards at the same time. We plan to put this house up for sale in Dec. or Jan. and hope to find something else soon after.
In the meantime I'm experiencing my usual impatience at not being able to snap my fingers and, magically, it's all settled. I'm slowly deciding what I can get rid of and what I should keep. At the time of our last move to this house, I pretty much brought everything with me. Now I'm feeling slightly lost, and very much on edge. The old questions keep returning. What do I want to spend my time doing? How much room will I need? Can we find something even remotely similar to what we want and/or need? One day I want to get rid of everything and find a two-room apartment, and the next day I want a four-bedroom house. Hopefully, we'll end up with something half-way in between.
Retirement hasn't turned out the way I thought it would. It never occurred to me that I would still spend too much time doing housework, and too little time having fun. I know it's my own fault. I'm good at organizing everything but myself.
In the meantime I'm experiencing my usual impatience at not being able to snap my fingers and, magically, it's all settled. I'm slowly deciding what I can get rid of and what I should keep. At the time of our last move to this house, I pretty much brought everything with me. Now I'm feeling slightly lost, and very much on edge. The old questions keep returning. What do I want to spend my time doing? How much room will I need? Can we find something even remotely similar to what we want and/or need? One day I want to get rid of everything and find a two-room apartment, and the next day I want a four-bedroom house. Hopefully, we'll end up with something half-way in between.
Retirement hasn't turned out the way I thought it would. It never occurred to me that I would still spend too much time doing housework, and too little time having fun. I know it's my own fault. I'm good at organizing everything but myself.
Moving Again
We've stuck it out for almost three years here in this small 55+ community. I've complained before about my boredom since I retired, and thought it was because I retired. Not so. It's this community. Even though we have a good range of age groups, it seems to me that everyone acts the same age. I know they're not all in their nineties, but they sure as hell act it.
This community opened in the mid-1980's, and I don't think anything has changed since then. Gossip and eating are the only activities that wake these people from their slumber. I guess I can't blame them. The first residents established the daily activities and life-dulling routine, and no one has been brave enough or awake enough to attempt to make changes.
Bocce, polka, scrabble, hand and foot, whatever that is, quilting, knitting, crocheting and book club almost fill the monthly calendar. The rest of the time they have special activities centered around food. One of the younger women started teaching billiards in our clubhouse where a pool table, practically untouched, rests in all its splendor. I don't know if she has had many takers but I expect not. After all, it's a new activity and hasn't been approved by the original residents. Of course, maybe it's because almost all of them are dead.
I don't understand it. My husband and I have tried to volunteer for activities which require help, but we're very seldom called on. We're usually told they have enough volunteers, thank you anyway. Then, in the next newsletter, we see articles about how there aren't enough volunteers, with requests for more volunteers. Bizarre.
The community is arranged in a kind of rounded rectangle. We live on one of the corners, and consider it to be a neighborhood of the whole. Four corners (neighborhoods) and two side streets which comprise two more neighborhoods. Residents of one neighborhood seem to be in charge of the operations, which is fine with me, but they don't want to share their power with anyone else. That's also fine with me. However, other people seem to want a share of this power, but they're kept out. I guess it's the way the world works here.
Anyway, we've had enough, and have put our house up for sale. Hopefully, it won't take too long to sell. Then we'll move on to another community, but definitely, not another retirement community.
This community opened in the mid-1980's, and I don't think anything has changed since then. Gossip and eating are the only activities that wake these people from their slumber. I guess I can't blame them. The first residents established the daily activities and life-dulling routine, and no one has been brave enough or awake enough to attempt to make changes.
Bocce, polka, scrabble, hand and foot, whatever that is, quilting, knitting, crocheting and book club almost fill the monthly calendar. The rest of the time they have special activities centered around food. One of the younger women started teaching billiards in our clubhouse where a pool table, practically untouched, rests in all its splendor. I don't know if she has had many takers but I expect not. After all, it's a new activity and hasn't been approved by the original residents. Of course, maybe it's because almost all of them are dead.
I don't understand it. My husband and I have tried to volunteer for activities which require help, but we're very seldom called on. We're usually told they have enough volunteers, thank you anyway. Then, in the next newsletter, we see articles about how there aren't enough volunteers, with requests for more volunteers. Bizarre.
The community is arranged in a kind of rounded rectangle. We live on one of the corners, and consider it to be a neighborhood of the whole. Four corners (neighborhoods) and two side streets which comprise two more neighborhoods. Residents of one neighborhood seem to be in charge of the operations, which is fine with me, but they don't want to share their power with anyone else. That's also fine with me. However, other people seem to want a share of this power, but they're kept out. I guess it's the way the world works here.
Anyway, we've had enough, and have put our house up for sale. Hopefully, it won't take too long to sell. Then we'll move on to another community, but definitely, not another retirement community.
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