I live in northern Indiana where there was a 30 year period that we did not change our clocks...loved it! Then in 2005 the wizards of smart decided we needed to go to DST for reasons unknown, hopefully it gets changed back.
Congrats! The wife and I are kicking around the idea of hanging it up a little early, but the one big thing we haven't spent much time on is health insurance. Just curious how that will work out for you?
BatteryMINDer is my go to brand. I have one that has been plugged in 24/7 for the past ~20 years, used on multiple different batts, still going strong.