play-eat-sleep-repeat is a collection of photos and videos offering one perspective on life in retirement.
My retirement was always going to be about pursuing the interests I’d developed in my earlier life, but that I didn’t have enough time to pursue when I was working. Since I retired, however, it’s also become about developing and pursuing new interests in order to keep challenging myself and to make my retirement more interesting and more fun.
I’d always thought about retiring in my mid-fifties and leaving the working world behind – full-stop – and it occurred to me early on that having an active retirement would help keep me feeling young and make early retirement that much more enjoyable. So, when I wasn’t working, I spent my free-time pursuing as many interests as possible, and keeping myself in the shape I knew I needed to be in to remain as active as possible for as long as possible.
I worked out regularly for most of my adult life. I windsurfed and I skied and snowboarded until my knees said “no more please”, then I learned to ride motorcycles and headed to the track. I learned how to rock climb and to scuba dive. I bought a house or two and learned to do renovations. I developed a bug for international travel, and learned about food and wine and how to cook. I practiced photography and photo editing, played and recorded music, taught myself to paint, and read broadly. And, in my early fifties, with an eye on retirement, I even took up golf – which I swore I wouldn’t do until I couldn’t walk anymore, but after 40 years on the boards I could see that coming. Then, with retirement just around the corner, I decided that going around a racetrack at 100 mph with your knee on the ground wasn’t the smartest thing to keep doing, so I gave up the motor bikes for mountain bikes (different kind of motor) and have been riding ever since.
When I retired at the end of 2015, I realized pretty quickly that life could be a bit dull living full-time in the same city I’d lived and worked in for thirty years. So, I bought a twenty acre property in the country, not far from the city, on a hill with a great view overlooking a lake, and started building my own private mountain bike park. Within a few years, I’d sold my place in the city and moved out there full-time.
Ten years into retirement, I spend a little more than half of each year at my place in the country, mountain biking, golfing, working on the property, hanging out with friends and family, and pursuing my many interests, both old and new. It’s a long list. The rest of the year I spend traveling, with much of that travel currently focused on riding in some of the top mountain biking destinations in North America and abroad. Golf and photography, among other things, fill in my travel days out of the saddle.
I’m not on any social media, so this site is a way for me to let my family and friends (and anyone else who might stumble across the site) see what I’m up to and where I am from time to time. And, to see some cool photos and videos. I hope you like them.
Who am I? Just a guy who had a retirement plan that has come together in spades. I never wake up and have nothing to do. I’m busy all the time. I’m staying in shape. And I’m having an absolute blast!
Now ask yourself: What will you do with the rest of your life?
