Yeah? You First

      You've got to love the commenter who told me to "Just go bake cookies" if I'd lost the fire of enthusiasm for some parts of my job.  (Or go elsewhere, which isn't easy once you're over 60.)

      Look, pal, I realize you haven't been paying attention (and why should you?), but the fact that I can't bake cookies right now is one reason why I'm still working.  The oven in my ancient gas stove is unreliable and I have been making holiday dinners on the charcoal grill for years now.  I need to replace it (the range, not the grill).  A nice pilotless range would suit me, so I'll almost certainly have to get a 120V receptacle installed behind it.  Since the range sits between two cabinets, I can't cheat with surface-mount the way I did in my last place.  It's a tiled wall, too, which makes it a job for a pro.  Not because I can't do wiring, but because I can't do a nice, finished job of it.  And I don't want to spend weeks cooking with an electric skillet -- I want to get the old stove out and the new one in, all in the same day.  That takes money.  My fridge is increasingly unhappy these days unless I keep it full, and a size-matched replacement set up the way I prefer (narrow, cabinet-depth, freezer on the bottom; pretty much a UK-standard fridge) leaves very few choices, none cheaper than $1000, American.

      The dishwasher's been dead since 2020.  I'm really hating that.  The water heater is now at least fifteen years old.  The washer and dryer were old when I moved in, too.  Once I retire and "go bake cookies," there won't be money to replace any of them.

      It's a lovely fantasy to think about quitting and spending as much time as I can manage writing, cooking, messing with old radio gear and building furniture.  The reality is, it all needs to be paid for -- and before I can spare money for that, I have to get the basic, high-ticket items squared away.  I could walk away right now and keep the house and utility payments going until full retirement, while eating regular meals, and maybe save enough back to pay the higher real estate taxes that will kick in once the mortgage is paid off.  But there wouldn't be any margin at all.

      I worry that there won't be much of me left when I reach retirement.  Increasing arthritis is going to slow and limit how much I will be able to do of the things I enjoy.  But if I don't get this place squared away first, that will be the least of my worries.  At one point in my current job, I spent about a dozen years working for a guy who disliked me, a sentiment I returned.  He assigned me crummy tasks whenever he could and never spared a chance to make a wisecrack or criticism at my expense.  I got through it.  For that matter, so did he, until leaving for other reasons.  It's not like I haven't had to bear down and deal with this kind of thing before.

      Welcome to the part of middle class where you don't get to just walk away with a golden ticket, where you don't always get to love every part of your job, where you do what you need to do to keep the bills paid, your car running and the basic household appliances working.  Isn't it just like that for most people in the middle -- except for the ones working at jobs they simply despise?