Dear Crabby,
As spring (finally) starts blooming, I start thinking of all the yard work that will take up my precious weekends. Sometimes, I think I should just sell my house, downsize, and move to one of those swanky retirement communities I see popping up everywhere. What do you think? Would you ever move to one of those places?
Thanks!
Lee Zure
Dear Lee Zure,
Retirement can be a tricky thing. A lot of people, wives especially, worry that they’ll have to keep their husbands entertained once they don’t have a 9-to-5 routine to rely on anymore. I thought my sister was going to divorce her hubby when he retired. He was so bored, he started following her everywhere and ‘helping’ her out with the grocery shopping. Turns out, she’d been doing that all wrong their entire marriage. I think that’s why these retirement communities are so popular. Couples can still live together, but don’t have to be together all the time. It’s a win-win. I know Mrs. Crabby would move to one of those places in a heartbeat. She would relish the opportunity to let someone else do all the cooking. While I certainly wouldn’t mind not having to worry about snow removal and such, I don’t know if I’d like being that close to other people. I’d have to be you know, neighborly on a consistent basis.
Recently, me and the Mrs. went to visit friends who moved into a place called Cedarbrook located here in lovely Rochester and practically right next door to the OPC. Man. When we walked in, I thought we’d been transported to the lobby of a resort hotel. After we checked in at the front desk and took one of those annoying up-the-nose COVID tests, we headed toward our friend’s apartment. Along the way, we walked by a pub, a state-of-the-art exercise facility, a salon and spa, and a movie theater! To be honest, I was starting to rethink my aversion to having neighbors so close by. Our friend’s apartment was pretty impressive too. In fact, it might be larger than our first house was! I couldn’t believe how big and nice everything looked. And even though she’d deny it, I’m certain Mrs. Crabby was drooling over the appliances and countertops. The husband told me when they toured the place, they left with a gourmet dinner for two and a bottle of wine. And they haven’t even decided at that point if they were going to live there! That got me thinking. There are a lot of these places in the Rochester and Rochester Hills area. Maybe Mrs. Crabby and I will just take tours and enjoy all the freebies they give us. That sounds like a better option than spending my weekends weeding until my hands are raw.
Even with all the amenities we saw, I don’t see myself moving into one of these places in the near future. But I can certainly see the appeal. Did places like this even exist 10 or 15 years ago? Possibly. But I doubt they were as nice as the places being built nowadays. You know, I might be willing to give one of these places a go if everything was a little more spread out and I didn’t have to be social all the time. Oh! And if I could own a golf cart instead of a car so I could ride it around and terrorize anyone who got in my way. It’s always good to have a hobby.
I hope this answers your question and good luck… wherever you end up.
Dear Crabby
Stuck in a rut? Need some biased advice from a crabby old baby-boomer? Then email me your question at dearcrabby@rochestermedia.com. You can also head on over to my Facebook page and tell me how wonderful I am.
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