I'm not sure when I went FIRE, I guess last May (or maybe this September) and I'm still decompressing.
Part of it is that I worked three jobs (sometimes four), teaching full time and being paid full time at one university (this also involved research and publication), running a family apartment building remotely (4 hours a week usually, but sometimes a bit of stress), and teaching overseas four weeks out of the year (one week at a time). I was let go from my university position since we had a new Dean and she cut a bunch of jobs, mine included (as she said and as was obvious from who she cut besides me, there was no reflection on merit, she only cut us because she could eliminate the positions and was a penny pincher) and about that time I got an amazing offer (double what I expected) on the building. I've retained the overseas position. It's a little bit of a hobby too and in May my wife and I went out on a trip around the country for a week, staying either at the university's expense or at the director's country house as we are friends. I'm always told I can vacation at his places if I want, so I'm kind of keeping that in mind too.
The thing of it also is that my mom died in September, just a couple of weeks after I sold the building (which was officially hers but really mine), so that was about the time that everything I normally did came to an end. No more calls to my building manager or to her. She wasn't well for years, and the calls with her left me disconcerted more than anything, but still.
There's part of decompression that I am finding a bit alienating and that's the loss of these ties to my past. No more teaching full time in the fall, which means the loss of that rhythm which I have only missed three years of since I was a kid (my kids are still going to school). No more talks with my building manager (who I knew since I was 5 and have talked to once a week since 1998), no more calls to my mom or knowledge that she is there. I'm glad I still have my overseas position, but due to my mom's death, the two weeks have loaded up at a time when I also have to do various home related things (stain the deck, paint the stairs), so I'm under a bit of stress. Over the summer I had lost weight and cut back on bad habits like eating dessert and drinking too much beer and wine (I don't get drunk, but do drink too much for my health since I have high blood pressure and am a little overweight). So I still feel the need to decompress.
Part of this is a loss of ties and a need to build new ones and I think this is a big part of FIRE.
My colleagues at work are all working way too hard to have time to hang out. We talked about this a lot, about how we don't ever get together for dinner or hang out. So we'd see each other for lunch and now that's gone. Some of my best friends (the entire class of people like me) lost their jobs too so they have largely left the area. For the rest, it's not like I want to actually go to the the school cafe and visit that place, you know? Meanwhile, there aren't many people my age (47) who have attained FIRE and my friends around here are working full time jobs, so that's out too.
Thankfully my wife isn't working so I have her, but I don't want to drive her crazy with my projects either.
So how does one rebuild one's connections to the world around them?