I just turned 60. I work for the federal government, and I can’t wait for retirement! I’m very good at what I do, but I’m bone-tired of the soul-killing bureaucracy. Also, every 18-20 months, the colonel and the general rotate out, and it’s back to re-inventing the wheel according to their druthers. Institutionally, I and the other old heads know what to do and how to do it, but we have to bugger our internal processes and products to make the new leadership happy. Lather, rinse, repeat. After doing this for so long, and watching activity become a substitute for progress, I’m ready to chuck it all and just sit on the back deck and watch the grass grow. When I was young and stupid, this used to be fun. Google “Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy.”

I write and edit for a living, but I lack the energy and motivation to do it outside my office. Why take work home? I am, however, more than happy to read the brilliant essays of people like Wretchard.

I realize I ought to start a new/different hobby, since motorcycling (which I’ve been doing less and less of lately) is becoming too expensive. And I no longer tolerate the extremes of weather as I used to.

I fully realize I’m going to have a problem with my eventual transition out of government service, but no mortal can keep doing it into their 90s and still be sane.