GILROY
– Some people think retirement means slowing down.
”
Not us,
”
Irene Ynzunza said.
Irene, 63, and her husband, Ruben, 64, have been living the
retired life for nearly two years. She was an instructional
assistant in Santa Barbara city schools, and he worked for
Caltrans.
GILROY – Some people think retirement means slowing down.
“Not us,” Irene Ynzunza said.
Irene, 63, and her husband, Ruben, 64, have been living the retired life for nearly two years. She was an instructional assistant in Santa Barbara city schools, and he worked for Caltrans.
However, now that they’re living the supposed life of leisure, they’re just as busy as they were when they were working.
“One of the questions that we always ask is, ‘How did we have time to do what we do and include work in there?’ ” Ruben said.
It’s a handful puttering around in the garden and fixing up the house, plus they try to sneak in some travel. Not even their vacations are relaxing.
In July, Ruben plans to climb Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States at more than 14,400 feet, with his son and a friend from Hollister. They’ll make the strenuous climb of 6,000 feet from the trailhead to the peak and return in two days, although it is possible to complete the journey in one long, tiring day.
Irene said she’ll be at home cheering for them. But she’s no couch potato, either. She ran the first Big Sur Marathon 19 years ago. Meanwhile, Ruben has run the American River 50-Miler from Sacramento to Auburn three times.
Now, Irene enjoys walking. While she walks, she carries a plastic bag and picks up garbage.
“That’s one of my pet peeves right now, coming back to Gilroy and seeing all of the litter,” she said.
She and Ruben are on a small crusade against litter, making phone calls to city and county officials asking them to clean up the neighborhood, but so far their efforts have been to no avail. Irene is particularly upset that people have started dumping couches and other garbage in the historic graveyard nearby.
The couple left Gilroy for a “short 12-year vacation in Santa Barbara,” Ruben joked. They kept their house in Gilroy and returned often to visit their son, daughter and two grandchildren.
Being in Gilroy allows Irene to be more involved in her grandchildren’s lives. Irene volunteers at her granddaughter’s school in San Martin as a reading aide for first- and second-graders.
Their favorite place to spend time, whether it’s gardening or barbecuing, is their back yard.
“It’s a nice back yard for parties,” Irene said. “A lot of people from Gilroy have been back here.”
Dozens of containers of flowering plants and trees dot the back yard. Anything can be a planter – an antique wheelbarrow Irene purchased at a yard sale for $1 or old milk cans.
Most of the plants have a history. To hear them talk about their plants is like someone talking about old friends.
The miniature rose cuttings are taken from plants at the Santa Barbara Mission, and other rose cuttings come from the mission in San Juan Bautista. Her geranium planted along the fence is fondly named after the friend who gave it to her.
Ruben rescued the Yucca tree from the side of the road where a Caltrans crew was going to spray and kill it. It’s now covered in an appreciative show of white blossoms.
Squash, string beans and cucumbers are just starting to poke through the soil in the vegetable garden.
“I’m also kind of experimenting with different varieties of Anaheim chilies,” Ruben said.
Indoors, beautiful white and purple orchids bloom on the kitchen table and bedroom night stand.
When they travel, they take just as much pleasure in the journey as the final destination. They drove to a casino recently and ended up meandering through a lot of small towns on the way.
“We go on a one-hour trip, and we take six hours to get there,” he said.
But they always return to Gilroy.
“There’s that small town atmosphere,” Irene said. “I love the mountains – that you can see the foothills.”
