How My Dad Spends Retirement

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I always knew that my dad would never be completely retired. He's worked his whole life - from newspaper routes as a kid, to FedEx operations in college, to being a physical therapist for the U.S. Public Health Service. When my dad set his retirement date a few years ago, I tried to imagine him not working, but it just didn't match his character - especially since my dad was vocal in his fear of reitrement boredom. My mom was vocal about that too, now that I think of it!

Retirement settled well with Dad, though. He's always loved vacation and that's kind of what retirement became - my parents visited my neices a bunch to play Nana and Papa, they traveled the West Coast looking for their new home, and my dad recently finished a PhD program in Physical Therapy to officially become Dr. Cavanaugh. As though that weren't enough, my dad started to volunteer his therapy services part-time at an equestrian center in the Medford area that provides "horsie therapy."That's what I call it.

I suppose for my dad that equine therapy still isn't even in the work category. My dad loves horses and he loves physical therapy, so it is more like a dream come true! He was recently photographed volunteering for this article. He looks happy, doesn't he?