Where was I?

So, where was I? The last time we spoke a few weeks ago I was processing the fact that my baby daughter had somehow aged enough to be engaged to be married.

If that doesn’t validate the “time flies” theory, then nothing does.

Time is a funny thing to someone like me -- the working retired.

I retired from a job that I held for a time long, but I haven’t retired from work, and my time is as much a jumble of tasks and responsibilities as it ever was, perhaps more so in some ways.

I’m like a lot of aging Baby Boomers, who are filing for their Social Security benefits at a rate of 10,000 per day.

We may be getting a retirement check (whether from Social Security or some defined benefit plan from work), but we’re still working … mostly out of financial need, partly out of an emotional need to have structure and purpose.

It doesn’t suit us to do nothing.

I was talking not too long ago to Peter Francese, a widely recognized demographer who has researched and written about Baby Boomer issues.

I told him that I wasn’t the kind of guy who could just stop working altogether. He knew where I was coming from: He said he’s now 70 and has worked every day and plans to continue to work everyday at his craft.

There is still the substance of living that occupies a lot of time and energy. That doesn’t -- and shouldn’t -- change just because you’ve “retired.”

I don’t sleep in. In fact, that’s near impossible. My brain usually starts engaging at about 5 a.m. with the items on the to-do list, and the schedule of the day, and ideas for freelance work.

I haven’t visited this space in a while because other tasks, other responsibilities took priority.

Yes, there’s the matter of Elizabeth getting married next summer. She’s carrying the load of the planning, but there are ancillary tasks that have needed -- and will need -- attention. Some of our Thanksgiving traveling was related to that.

The holidays in general crowd the schedule.

For me and my wife Jane, our Christmas prep is into overdrive because we are hosting both her extended family and my extended family for Christmas dinner.

There’s not only Elizabeth’s engagement to celebrate with everyone, but there’s the pending arrival of a grandchild -- my wife Jane’s daughter Kelsey is due Jan. 1.

So we’ll host about 40 people on Christmas Day. And, oh yeah, we decided to do a kitchen make-over in time for Christmas with all new appliances.

Busy like everyone else, for sure. But a different kind of busy. A retiree, but a different kind of retiree.

I think of it as the new normal.