One of the things I most enjoy about my new retirement community life is the 0.66 mile walking path around the perimeter of the property. It is a peaceful trek that I take twice a day, and sometimes even more. Before the pandemic, I would drive the 40-mile round trip to cruise a shopping mall once a week. Of course, that shut down last Spring, basically shutting off my cardio exercise.

Being deaf, it is just too dangerous for me to walk on the roadside, so this is ideal. I also run across a few residents who are fellow hikers. I am getting to know a couple of them pretty well. That means a lot to me. Getting good cardio exercise and making potential friends, that alone makes my stay here a little more worthwhile.

Just to show the quality of care here, there are several places long this 0.66 mile path where raised edges due to ground movement between the concrete pads have been ground off to assure we hikers don’t stumble.

On the getting to know the residents, I am doing a little better now. I have a couple of friends (especially one) who I lunch with somewhat regularly. Maybe I will eventually fit in here quite well. Just being around so many people daily is quite an adjustment for me.

My advice for this post is to consider what you want to do with your life, and then judge the facility based on how it meets those specific needs. Being an Aspie, I naturally do a lot of planning, but I actually didn’t think the walking path was as important as it ended up being.

Another thing that popped into my mind was since my car would now be outside, I would have to scrape the windows regularly in the winter! I haven’t done that in decades. So, I decided to spring for one of the carports on the property. It only increases the monthly rent by 1%, so why not go for it. As luck would have it, I ended up getting the best carport on the property. It is only 50 feet from the main entrance.

Things are starting to come together in my RetComLife 😁