Retirement has been treating my partner and I pretty well.
Initially, that was not a foregone conclusion.
In fact, there was quite a bit of trepidation when it came to leaving our homes to move south. Both of us were upset that we’d miss our family, and anxious about not fitting in down here. Plus, we weren’t sure that we would be able to withstand the summer heat and all the HVAC adjustments that come with this new climate. However, as soon as we moved into our new home, those fears began to dissipate. First, we enjoyed not having to deal with a gas furnace to stay warm. In fact, there are virtually no heating costs for us while in our ultra mild winters. That being said, the summers and all of that air conditioning did take some getting used to. However, the transition to life in the south, as well as a life of retirement, came far more naturally than either of us expected. Both of us gravitated to our shared and separate interests. My partner turned our property into a showplace with landscaping and gardening, as she is a master at this. I turned to my books and my outdoor activities with a passion. Both of us spent far less time inside the air conditioning than we thought we would have to. But one single weekend while my partner was out of town, I tried to weed some beds close to the house and almost killed our heating and air conditioning equipment. I thoughtlessly tossed a tarp over the heating and air conditioning cabinet to knock off the remaining debris and then forgot it. Thankfully, I realized what I had done a minute before my mistake choked out the heat pump. What a save!