I'm 62 and retired now for 2 years.
It was rough but I made it. And then again compared to some it was a cake walk.
When I was young, I had ambition and energy.
Now that I am retired, I don't have any ambition and it is hard to muster the energy.
I retired as a detention officer in the county jail.
I got a retirement and had good benefits while I worked but it was a demandng job
requiring a lot of hours and stifled my avocation, my extracuricular activities.
I would say for the amount of energy 2 years of college, I put into it. Being a civil servant
for the state was a good job.
But I wish I would have gotten a 4 year degree out of high school and become a school
teacher.
I would have had more time to pursue my avocation of music.
School teachers get the summer off and are home at nights and on the weekends.
All time I could have pursued music.
During my life, I was a rock star of sorts.
I played music in bars and festivities on the weekends.
I had people ask me and my band mates for our autographs
I had lots of girls women flash us in front of the stage.
To just have been a straight rock star,
is a risky proposition.
You have to have a lot of luck and some talent.
If your not the top bannana, the head honcho, the Robert Plant, Jimmy Page of
the group, you don't necessarily end up all that well at the end.
I know a rock star with a national hit from the 70's who lives in his car.
I know because I replaced him in a band. And his car was falling apart.
Florida is home to many, many rock stars and most of them don't live any better than I.
I know where they live, I have seen their homes.
It is kind of anticlimatic.
I'm talking about 2nd teir rockstars.
2nd tier is every body below the Beatles and the Stones.
Then again maybe I live pretty well here in Florida.
I had a good life.
If I could have tweaked it, I would have been a school teacher and
made just a little more music.
But I get to make music every day.
Now that I am retired and I do.
I started my life wanting to be a fireman.
I took a lot of test and went all the way through
the process with St Petersburgh.
And at the last minute they said we have budget restrictions
with the fire department.
We are going to make you a policeman.
So I spent my life in law enforcement.
Being a fireman would have given me more time off to play music.
At least I thought so.
Firemen work 1 day and are off 2 So every other day you have a weekend.
Plus they get paid to sleep.
When I was young and applied for the fire department.
Firemen fought fires, so there wasnt much to do.
Nowadays, firemen are heart attack specialist and emergency responders to health crisis
in big trucks with ladders.
The job doesnt seem so appealing today.
I still pursue music and hopefully someday, I will find the lost chord.
Or make another Dark side of the moon album.
Every day, I try to write one song.
Everyday I turn on the recorder and record.
I wish I could make paragraphs on this site.