Senior Moments

It wasn't every second Friday off at my new company but rather the second Fridays of each month that was paid time off. My boss was pushing for us to work because of deadlines. But I guess there were no takers at the meeting when I was travelling because when I arrived home on Thursday, Friday's meeting was canceled. Nevertheless, I did some follow-up emails in the morning.

At lunch, I headed to Boku, a Japanese eatery with some pan-Asian dishes, at Yonge and Wellesley. I usually meet my ex-coworkers at North York Centre because one of them comes from Markham. But this time, they were willing to head downtown on the subway. Their gait was improved from last time though they still suffered from back pain and sciatica. I haven't seen the other one in over 2 years. In that time, their mother's dementia has progressed to the point where they needed to be in a facility with a "memory floor". This for-profit private care was over $8,000 a month which luckily was covered by her late husband's pension and investments. I opined that I would prefer that even "tiered services" should be government run, even if that ran counter to the idea of "equal access to social services" in a progressive country. Because the alternative was the current situation where a life-time of savings was being funneled to corporations.

Since they had "retired early", one from a recent lay-off in September and the other after quitting in 2021, our talk revolved around the golden years. The latter didn't join us last December because they had surgery for a detached retina. There were actually several other treatments before the operation. This was a final resort since there were unavoidable consequences from the procedure. In fact, they will need cataract surgery within a year. But right now, they were healthy and planning a car trip around Iceland, a safari in Botswana, and a tour of the Central Asian "5 stans" for some Silk Road history and Soviet vibes.

The other was warming up to the idea of spending every 6 months in China. Living expenses were cheaper there and there were plentiful locations to visit in that vast country including the ice city of Harbin. I revealed that I was also pondering early retirement in a few years. But my nest-egg was sufficient for myself but not if my mom develop major health issues down the road. In such a case, I would be too long out of the job market to return to work.

We shared Edamame ($6.99), Takoyaki ($9), a plate of Calamari and Coconut Shrimp ($18), and a bowl of Gyu Don ($18). The first two were average but the latter were tasty with large portions. Their ramen looked good though on the expensive side because of ingredients like duck. Hard to say when we will meet again but I might join the travel aficionado for a yoga class in the East End before my sublet expire.