More writing and less complaining

New Year's Day in TX

Who would have thought that retirement is seasonal? I guess I should have known, but this is my first year being retired. It will be a year next May. I don't have grounds for complaint because up until just before New Year we were still fishing off the dock in the evenings and also taking the boat out on the lake occasionally. But since then the weather has been too cold and windy.

Of course I do have my indoor hobbies to keep me occupied. I am still writing and reading, plus I have my embroidery, though that is taking on a life of its own. I have way more t-shirts than anyone needs, all of them embroidered with amusing quotes both front and back. And let us not forget that we just returned from a week in Seattle. Well, not quite a week, six days and not quite Seattle, Bellevue. But the point is we could plan that trip with no consideration for vacation days. And the prospect of weather and cancelled flights was merely a possible inconvenience rather than a major issue. 

12/26 in WA

We were lucky, our flights were not cancelled and the heavy snow that fell on Christmas night didn't delay our travel though it did interfere with my plans to meet up with my old team. I will be back in the summer and I hope to see them then.

Flight home

I suppose it is normal for habits of a life time to linger. And, if the choice to retire had been mine it might be different. Well, of course the choice to retire was mine, I wasn't fired. However, I was put in an unbearable position and my working life became extremely unpleasant as my new manager did everything in her power to force me out. If you haven't read my previous blog on why I retired, see here. My choice to retire was the lesser of two evils but I have to admit, I am enjoying it. I still worry about being bored, particularly with this winter weather preventing me from fishing.

Some of the habits I still have difficult letting go of is that Sunday night/Monday morning feeling. I sit down after dinner on Sunday and get that feeling. You know? Am I ready for the week? Immediately I remember that everyday is the same now so yes, I am ready, as ready as I need to be. I suppose that is not so much a habit as an ingrained state of mind.

I do try to differentiate. I mean, I have my Monday to Thursday early morning workout, and again on Saturday. My Friday 'do nothing' day; that is, nothing planned of course. I would go mad if I had nothing at all to do. Then Sunday is almost a do nothing day, but I do take care of laundry—another throw back to my working weeks, I always like to start the week off with clean sheets, clean clothes and ready to go. I have finally broken the habit of doing the ironing on Sunday. Now I do it whenever it needs doing and if I feel like it. I do catch myself saying "I will do that over the weekend" but then I immediately remember I don't have to wait for the weekend.

I do sleep better now that the stress from work is removed; and though I don't get up as early as I used to, I still get up early. I used to get up at 2.30 a.m. in order to get my workout and get to the office by 4.30 a.m. With work from home I started getting up at 3.30 a.m. and was still at my desk by 4.30 a.m. Now I am usually up by 5 a.m. which means I can still workout before the day starts in earnest. But with this wintery weather, I am somewhat lost without my regular fishing outings. I think I need another indoor hobby to get me through the winter. I plan to extend my workout from sixty to eighty minutes. Apart from that I will just do more writing and less complaining. This is Texas, fishing weather will return any day now.