1500 Days to Freedom

Think different and escape the rat race.

What Day Is It?

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There is one huge problem with early retirement and it is this:

I never know what day it is.

I’m absent minded to begin with:

Where is my wallet?

Where are the *&^%ing car keys?

But most of the time when I was working, I knew what day it was. However, even then, I never really knew the date except around a holiday:

The 4th of July was yesterday, so it’s the 5th!

However, the holiday soon fades away and then I find myself confused again.

But now the problem is even worse. I don’t know the number or the day. Today could be a Tuesday or Thursday or a Sunday. The problem is at its peak in the summertime when the girls are out of school. At least when they’re in school, I know if it’s a weekday or weekend.

To add to the confusion, weekdays are the new weekends. Weekdays are better!

  • Saturday at 10am in the Home Depot garden section sucks. On Tuesday morning, no lines!
  • There are loads of people at the gym on weekends. On a weekday morning, it’s only seniors playing pickleball.
  • Sometimes, I’ll go see a movie at 1pm on a Wednesday. There are usually like 3 other people in there. No obnoxious adults or chatty kids, just some random seniors (this is what they do after pickleball).

To help with the situation, I considered buying one of these clocks:

However, the clock is $30 and I’m a cheapass. But more than that, it’s ugly. I don’t like all of that wood. If someone came up with a modern version, I’d probably jump on it. I’ll probably just make my own with Arduino and LEDs.

What the hell is the point of this post? I don’t know. If you’ve made it this far, I’m sorry. I just wasted 2.4 minutes of your precious day. To make it up, if you come to Boulder County, I’ll buy you a nice beer. Not a Coors, but a good micro. That is the least I can do.

But wait, don’t go away just yet. Have you ever read My Son’s Father? It’s pretty great and Mr. MSF devoted a whole post to me: https://www.mysonsfather.com/mr-1500-visits-the-fi-laboratory/

The FIRE community including bloggers, readers and podcasters is composed of some of the finest people I know. I’m so happy to be a part of it all, even if I have no clue what day it is.

Join the 10s who have signed up already!

Subscribing will improve your life in incredible ways*.

*Only if your life is pretty bad to begin with.

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Comments

  1. I go to the community center during the winters and have been surprised at how chippy those pickle balls games can get. Nice to see the competitive spirit alive and well in our senior citizens.

    Thanks for the shoutout, I appreciate it!

    I can’t think of a better muse for my bizarre creative expressions then the FIRE community.

    • “I can’t think of a better muse for my bizarre creative expressions then the FIRE community.”

      Yep. This community is one of the few places where I feel like I can really be myself without people thinking that I’m crazy. This is my crowd.

  2. Mr PoP is already messing his days up! It’s been like 3 weeks! As he would say, the struggle is real. =).

    Relatedly, my favorite line from downton abbey was when the Maggie Smith character asked, “what is a weekend?” to someone unfortunate enough to have a job. It’s something to aspire to.
    Mrs PoP recently posted…He Said / She Said – Dispatches From CO – Part 1My Profile

    • Yep, we quote that Maggie Smith line. All. The. Time. Hilarious!

      As a still somewhat working person, we might need to enact a law to keep the FIRE and senior community out of the grocery stores on the weekend. Seriously?! You have every other day to do that. Stop rubbing your leisurely time in my face.

    • Mr. PoP is doing well in early retirement! He hasn’t been done for even a month and his FIRE nap count is already way higher than mine. Admittedly, my count is 0.

  3. This is something I look forward to. I miss it when we come back from traveling. When traveling we do what ever when ever. Then we come back and the day of week is important again.

    That MSF post is awesome. The podcast referenced was fun. You should join in on a round table sometime.

  4. Do you really *need* to know what day it is?? Just be zen… enter important appointments into your calendar, set some alarms for them, and be done with it. ‘Days of the week’ are for wage slaves – which you no longer are.
    Wallow in it… then pass the beer.

    DayLessNess is something I humbly aspire to!

    • DayLessNess! Love it!

      Yeah, sometimes I do want to know what day it is to avoid the weekend crowds. But for the most part, you’re right. I should just enter it all in the calendar and let the phone beep when I have something coming up.

  5. Half the reason I wear my fitbit is that is shows the day of the week, the date and time. It is definitely a weird side affect of early retirement. You should check out what day of the week you can get a discount on movies. For us, Tuesday is the winner at $5 instead of the normal $7+. I have been thinking lately I need to look for all the random day of the week specials that places offer like “kids eat free” Wedensday’s.

    • Ha, I’ve had a FitBit for almost a year. So, I just read your comment and the thought I had in my head was this: “FitBits don’t show the day of the week!” Two seconds later, I look at my wrist and BOOM, there it is, the day of the week! Thanks for the tip!

  6. I have that clock, and yes, my wife hates it.
    We have to keep it out of the way in our vacation trailer because it’s too ugly for our home…but it works. You easily know what day it is if you’re lounging around on a Tue afternoon. I think we should all created a cooler FIRE version of the “weekday clock.”
    Great post! We love living off-peak: M-F 9a-3p
    …BTW, soon your “1500 days” will be FIREd days instead of pre-FIRE days…time will go SO fast.

  7. I have seen that clock, and seen it given as a retirement present!

    If you don’t like the clock, have you considered a floor insert like a cruise ship has in their elevator? Of course, then you need someone to change it out. But, I think that’s an interesting case where the “normal” person can experience the same blissful ignorance of the calendar: what you are doing in the moment is much more important than some common reference to the day.