I have had a brief glimpse into the future and I don't like what I see, in fact it makes me want to run as hard as I can in the other direction. The thing that caused such terror was a blog entry by the wife of a newly retired MD of a train operating company. I had never seriously thought about retirement before and at 35 Robbie has a while to go, but I really don't think I could tolerate it.
She spoke of her husband driving home on the day before his retirement with his car crammed with his accumulated possessions, hoarded over many years. She wondered if they should open a museum or create a railway room. She described such delights as a locomotive nameplate, DMU heating panel, various pictures and models. I think we are already well past using just one room, in fact the only room with no significant railway presence is the bathroom! Having a house stuffed with railway related 'junk' causes unexpected problems. When the most recent BT man came at the end of last week he spotted some of Robbie's model trains displayed in the hall, it turned out that he was also a railway crank and he chatted happily about trains for an 'eternity' while he mended our phone line.
She went on to describe the most pressing problem on the first day of her husband's retirement - NO PAGER! She wondered if he would have withdrawal symptoms and how she would cope. Her desperation was such that she asked is there a pager users anonymous? There certainly should be. Robbie is intolerable without his, he has been known to check it at the most intimate of moments, and if he ever misplaces it you would think it was a national emergency!
Role reversal was mentioned and my heart sank. I love Robbie dearly but when he tries to supervise what I am doing or even worse tell me how to do it, it makes me want to harm him! He is obsessive enough about minor things as it is, I couldn't cope with it all day, every day! She also spoke of the luxury of structuring their own days and her husband's need to know the exact agenda for the whole day - a withdrawal symptom from having a detailed diary. Robbie already times everything in intricate detail, I couldn't face having him timetable my entire retirement. There again, according to him he is married to an 'old woman' so I will probably have turned up my toes by the time he retires! Back to the present day. Robbie dragged me out of bed early this morning to take him to the station, he is going to a railway open day near Manchester. Having had a disturbed night I decided to sneak back to bed for half an hour, however Robbie didn't think I deserved t sleep. His first phone call was to tell me that the replacement bus was running 8 minutes late. The next call was equally essential, he was disgusted by the slack standard of journalism in his railway magazine, apparently they had started a sentence with the word 'and'. Hopefully he will meet up with some of his railway buddies, I really don't need an update every half hour
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