Frank, how have you been lately? We haven’t heard much from you. Are things going okay? What kind of day is it? My kid comes home from Iraq in a month - good and short, and everyday a little shorter.

Mugsy Peabody you are so clever. I really enjoy your posts. I was forced to retire (SSDI) due to illness. Retirement under those circumstances feels more like being put out in the back pasture to spend your life chewing yer cud. So even though my body has retired, my mind and mouth work twice as hard to make up for lack of energy. Retirement: That which I should have done I did not do, and now I’m makin up for lost time.

Mugsy, the creative mind hopefully never retires. Painting, sculpting, photography and now glass fusing, how could I ever retire- no time!

“Why would you ever stop doing what you love?” Mugsy Peabody, I am all for your opinion! If you love one thing, the work is limitless, not about the money. In our country people retired from their work when they are 55. But it is not exactly that it depends on the work they do. In the past time, people prefer to work for one company for their whole life , such as my grandparents and my parents. However, with the developement and the open minds our young generation accepting, we would like to do what we like and maybe change our jobs many times because of the salaries, the work environment, the opportunity for promotion and privarate reasons. So the retirement would not mean what it meant before. If we have the ability and could work as we will, I think we even opened our business when we were in the 70s. For another thing… When you mentioned baby boom, I felt the pressure of the population for a nation and its society. It is not denied that in China, finding a good job is really a hard work than work itself to a fresh young people who is just out of school. The competition sometimes is very harsh. However, many young people don’t dare to face them, they would to face the challenges and prove their values.