I haven’t written in a while so this post may be a weak attempt at something useful. You be the judge.
February has been a good month so far. I had a visitor from Washington for about 10 days. She is a fellow photographer and adventure seeker. We got a couple of photo walks in while she was here. I enjoyed her company and really upped my cooking game. I’ve been a bit of a slacker in that department, so I know the hubs feels like he is benefitting from my surge in culinary interest.
One of the great things about having my friend here is that she has been retired for about 5 years now. She knows how to kick back and take it a day at a time. I definitely am still in training for this new stage in my life. Imagine my delight when she said she takes a nap every day. Permission granted! We started our days with a (mostly) healthy breakfast, maybe a little field trip somewhere, nice lunch, nap, good dinner. One thing about being my house guest is that you have to come up with some ideas for meals or you’re gonna get beans and rice. Not even joking.
Lately, I’ve been doing an unofficial count of the number of times a close neighbor runs his beautiful blue Harley back and forth on our street. I think it might be a new bike to him. I can only imagine his wife saying something like, “oh, gosh, I’m out of butter, can you...” and before she finishes her sentence he is on his way to the store. Any stupid excuse to make those pipes vrooom vrooom. My dog, Remi, hears him fire it up and she’s to the fence to let him know she’d chase him if she could.
In other non-edgy news, I’ve discovered my dogs love love LOVE laying around outside but only if I am out here laying around, too. I love this and wish I could be paid for this service. Reminds me of scenes from a movie filmed in the hollers of West Virginia, or wherever hollers are ... of the old coon dogs laying around on the porch. I feel it’s my duty to make sure my babies are living their best lives, thus, I have a favorite chair I’ve been holding down a lot. It’s a little embarrassing when my cousin and her hubs come to visit next door and see me in the exact same spot every single time. They don’t judge.
It’s not easy but my days of feeling crazy are getting fewer and far between. I found a super great book at the library I’ve been reading and I’ve been making very good use of the iPad I was gifted at Christmas for watching movies and some Netflix series. Sometimes I even make the bed.
But most of all, I’m working really hard at taking a step back and recognizing that making 3 square meals a day, making sure the hubs takes his pills, doing a little bit of volunteer work, and keeping my dogs alive is of value. Honestly, I have been working since I was 14 years old and “jobbing” (as my daughter-in-law aptly puts it) is what my life has been. God knows I’ve seen enough memes on FB about how nobody wants their last day on earth to be a work day.
Just today, I was talking to a woman my age while watching the local parade near where we live. In nonchalant conversation she told me her husband died of a massive heart attack while at work 4 months ago. Yesterday being Valentine’s Day, she teared up as she said it was a hard day. Ugh. I’m pretty sure the Universe puts people in my path to cause me to stop my damn whining about how hard this retirement thing is. That poor man .... died at work. Son of a bitch. That’s just not right.
I’m going to hang on to that one for awhile. I’ll pet my dogs, finish that book, watch another movie and raise my coffee cup to that guy who died at work. And, I’ll stop saying that retirement is hard. Well, I will try.
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