But what would I do at home?

 

Dall-E

I asked a colleague yesterday, isn't it going to be hard for you to continue being motivated to come to work after your wife (who's also a school teacher) retires this year?  This colleague, by the way, is someone who tries to be away from work as much as possible.  Work is a distasteful thing.

He replies generally in the affirmative ("it's already brutal just to think about it") but also says something that catches my attention:  "But what would I do at home?"  He makes a joke out of it: "You can only cut the grass once per day."

He says the same thing about his wife, suggesting that she'll be really busy at home and she'll have to watch over their son.... who currently goes to high school, who seems OK without supervision now.

I felt like this colleague was looking into the abyss, into the void.  But it was retirement that he was imagining.