I am semi-retired against my will. Sixty-two, knees and ankles like Joe Namath, frying pans for ears and floaters in both eyes, which means I can still drive just fine but looking through a tiny viewfinder on a quarter million dollar cinematography rig isn't easy the way it used to be and directors don't have time for old men with bad eyes.
I can still edit but that's because instead of a tiny viewfinder I have three giant monitors to squint at and I can crank the volume so I can hear.
Plus, my real full time job nowadays for the last year and a half is "caregiver for my disabled Navy veteran wife" who is going through some serious health issues, so I can't take off and fly halfway across the country for two months on a shoot anyway.
She can get all the home health aides she wants but in the end I still find that I am more comfortable taking care of her myself.
I'm okay leaving her with a home health aide for a few days but not for a month or two.
I have money coming in from retail assets that I own and rental property, that fills in the gaps.
In three years I'll start collecting my issue from SS.
Funny thing is, my back and shoulders, things camera operators usually complain about, are perfectly fine.
As long as you don't make me walk a mile and a half carrying the damn thing, and if I wasn't half blind and half deaf I could still do it.
Out to pasture, I would much rather be like
Haskell Wexler, who was older than dirt but still had decent eyesight and hearing and was able to work till his dying day. Here he is meeting my wife.
What a great guy he was.
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