This weekend, we watched a HBO Music Box documentary about the “Yacht Rock” music phenomenon. It was interesting to see how some young folks “uncovered” the previously unreported late 70s/early 80s Los Angeles music scene and connections between Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Toto, and Christopher Cross.
The next morning, I commented that the Yacht Rock era “was almost 45 years ago!” How did it get so long ago, I wondered? At the same time, I was sorting out prescription pills as my wife was on the couch knitting. Boy, are we playing the part of the Florida retired couple now!
On top of that retiree look, we played pickleball later in the day, complained about the HOA with neighbors, and walked around the farmer’s market. All “retired couple activities” for sure. Has our life become a cliche? It really hit home when we called to say “hi” to our son – back in Minnesota – from the rocking chairs on our Florida front porch. Rocking chairs!
Reflecting on the sudden realization of how terribly geriatric & predictable our lives had become, I went to ChatGPT and had it spit out a “humorous list” of 50 cliche’d Florida retiree experiences. Thankfully, we only scored 8 out of the 50.
We don’t “wake up at 5am”, “drive 20 mph in the slow lane”, “have the TV volume turned up loudly”, “display tacky lawn ornaments”, “refuse to use self-checkout”, “have a pocket of Wether’s Originals”, “save plastic bags”, or “or ask for a Senior discount”.
Still, we do “complain about the neighborhood landscaping”, “comment on the humidity”, “fall asleep watching tv”, “frequently check the weather up north”, “spoil their dog” (not too much!), and often exclaim “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere” when pouring an early drink. Maybe we are on our way!
What retiree cliches have become part of your lifestyle?
Image: HBO Music Box
MrFireStation 
I am totally guilty of spoiling dogs. After getting our first Doberman after always having Rottweilers and thinking they are just skinny Rottweilers, I found out why Dobermans are called Velcro dogs.
The most eccentric thing I do is feed my dogs a homemade raw diet featuring Grass Fed Hamburger. My wife thought I was crazy when I started it, but our dogs don’t smell bad and are super healthy. I think it is a wash in terms of cost because the health benefits have zeroed out our vet bills.
Anyone interest in raw homemade check out https://ketopet.org/
You will learn to replicate the diet that wolves eat, which is 5% carbohydrate. Commercial dog food has around 60% carbohydrates and according to the website carbs and additives are responsible for the uptick in dog cancers.
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Wow – that’s gotta be expensive for how much they can eat! Still, you won’t be guilty of “walking a dog in a stroller”, which was on the retiree cliche list. Our little guy is far from a wolf. He gets NutriSource, which is made in Minnesota. It’s 32% protein.
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You can calculate the carb percentage by subtracting the protean % and fat % from 100%. I use Costco frozen Grass Fed Burgers which are a little over $5 per pound. They eat around 2.3 pounds per day. My weekly food cost is around $100 for both dogs. My female Rottweiler is 9 1/2 years old and I can see she is changing the slope on the aging curve. The only way you can tell she is 9 1/2 is she has a little grey under her chin.
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So that’s about $2500 a dog annually. They eat a lot more than our little Riley could, so probably half of that for him … $1250, or so.
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If I recall correctly, Riley is a Maltese. I estimated his weight at 8 pounds, activity level as medium and current weight as ideal. I ran the numbers through Keto Pet Sanctuary’s Calculator and here are the diet numbers they gave me.
80/20 Ground Beef 60 grams, Purple Cabbage 6.8 g, Chia Seeds 1 tsp, Calcium 1/3 tsp. This diet has the carbohydrates dialed in around 5%, just like dog’s wolf ancestors. The gist of this diet is by avoiding carbs and all the chemicals RFK Jr. wants to ban, dogs avoid cancer.
I converted 60 grams to ounces and got 2.11 ounces. Each Costco Grass Fed Burger is 1/3 lb or 5.33 ounces. So Riley would eat 1/2 a Costco Burger per day.
I had to make slight adjustments for each of my dog’s metabolism and ended up at 3 Costco Burgers per day for my female Rottweiler and 4 per day for the Doberman. They both weigh almost exactly 100 pounds and as you can see, the Doberman has a higher metabolism. My dogs are consuming 14 out of a 15 burger 5 lb pack every two days. They eat a quarter head of cabbage with two carrots, 4 tbs of chia seeds and 2 tsp of Bone Meal split into two dishes for each meal. Costco Grass Fed Burgers are my main cost driver and currently are around $28.50 per five pound pack. I go through 3 1/4 per week. Riley would only go through around one per month. My pooches really enjoy crunching the carrots.
I would peg the cost of Riley eating raw fresh natural at around $450 per year.
Recently when checking out at Costco, the clerk wondered why five packs of burgers? I told him I made homemade dog food with it. The clerk told me his family fed their 145 pound Mastiff only table scraps when he was growing up and the Mastiff lived to age 14 which is excellent longevity and much longer than many small breeds currently eating kibble.
Ending on a fun note, I would like to recommend four nice dog movies; “Dog”, “Rescued by Ruby”, “Finding Rin Tin Tin” and “Meagan Levy”. Rescued by Ruby, Finding Rin Tin Tin and Meagan Levy were based on true stories. One of the best books I read over the past year was “The Dog Master”. The Dog Master is a fictional account of how a less physical human ancestor teamed up with a wolf puppy to become the lead hunter in his tribe. It is set in Europe during the coming of the Ice Age. This book was written around some real archeological finds which is one of the three timelines in the book.
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Terrific analysis!
I was using some of your #s earlier and came up with a cost of $1200 for Riley. He’s quite a bit bigger than you estimated. He’s a ‘Teddy Bear’ (half Shitzu & half Bichon), but bigger framed than most. He weighs a touch under 20#s (most of them are closer to 15#s).
Adjusting for weight, that would come out to about $1,125. I’ll share your insights / links with Mrs FireStation.
I haven’t seen any of those dog movies. We watched one called “King Arthur” with Matt Damon recently. It was a good watch. As long as the dog doesn’t sadly die in the third act, I generally like those kinds of stories. 🙂
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No Old Yellers in the bunch, I promise. Arthur the King was another movie from my recommended list.
Never would have guessed Riley was almost 20 pounds.
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