Week 40 - Exploration and Productivity

It was a perfect week with a great mix of productivity and socializing plus a mini road trip too. Yes, the weather was still crazy, starting the week in the 90's and then seesawing between fall weather and heat again. All week long. : (

Because of the wacky weather, I didn't spend much time outside. I cut some sunflowers, which were dry and crispy from drought so never formed seeds, and took a load to the burn pile. I did some intermittent stick breaking, making some good headway with getting rid of my brush pile behind the garage. Just a bit more to go.

Tuesday was the first of the month so I cast on new socks for our bending stripes challenge and spent the morning knitting. I also had to tally entries to fulfill my moderator duties in my online Socks from Stash group, which takes at least an hour, then I slogged through more yarn to donate to the upcoming Stuff for Strays garage sale. I tried to watch the debate that night but I was a nervous mess because Goodie wasn't coming in so I walked the alley and called and called. She came in eventually and was scared so I can only assume she was hiding from the big white cat who roams the neighborhood and bothers my cats. Will I ever stop worrying about my cats? I hope someday.

I went to Lincoln on Wednesday, which is becoming my usual day, for a lunch for Liwei - one of the accountants who is leaving. The whole work gang was there, which was nice. After hitting a couple of thrifts and scoring some sock yarn (YAY!), I spent the afternoon at Helen's then hit Aldi and was home in time for Survivor. It was a nice day.

Rene and I were going to Norfolk on Friday for one of our exploration day trips. Since she was picking me up, I spent some time on Thursday doing some cleaning between stints of breaking sticks. Will I ever be done? Rene drove on Friday, which meant I could knit for 200 miles worth of driving time. I got so much done on the socks I was making for Cindy's charity sale that I finished them that night.

So Norfolk, which is pronounced Nor Fork for my non-Nebraskan readers, was fun. We took the scenic route there and back, exploring every little town that we passed. Other than a remnant I bought at a quilt store in Norfolk, all my purchases were food related. We stopped at Buresh Meats on the way there so we both scored so meat deals and there were a couple of bakery stops. The reason for picking Norfolk was Nofo Pizza, which was delish. We got a gelato afterwards and shopped along the cute downtown main drag. We missed the bread bakery owned by the same people as the pizza place by 15 minutes. From there we tried to find the old Norfolk State Hospital but the razor wire dissuaded us. We headed home, exploring more small towns. I was home by 5:00. It was a nice day.

It was 93 degrees on Saturday so I hunkered down inside. It was a perfect fall day on Sunday so I spent a bunch of time outside. I'd found that the birdseed in the barrels on the deck had molded so cleaned all that out (ick!), fixed some hoses and actually watered the grass out of fear that it would die from drought. It was still crunchy but maybe it did some good. It was also Colon's roast beef dinner so I picked that up for lunch and had plenty more for some suppers next week.

So, nice week, right? If my retirement keeps looking like this week, I'll be a happy camper. All except the crazy weather that is.

Week 39 - Hot and Cold

The temps this week were crazy hot - I'm talking high 80's most days and 90 on Sunday. Low humidity so it cooled down at night but HOT during the day. At the end of September. I refuse to put my AC on so closed the house up around noon each day and lived to tell. It also encouraged me to do some work in the basement, which is always cooler. As for the cold, my cold was full blown for the beginning of the week but was mostly gone by mid-week. Maybe the zicam worked?

I didn't do much for the start of the week. Lots of streaming/knitting, of course, plus I dyed some yarn, did a few minimal chores but didn't feel fully functional, albeit snotty, until Thursday. I did some laundry and changed my sheets so was back on the functionality track.

I have had ParmountPlus from before it was called that and had a perfect grandfathered plan that gave me local channels live TV and their regular content for just $7/month. It was under my yahoo email, which I rarely check and so I didn't see that my payment, which was still on my old card that had been cancelled due to fraud, hadn't processed. I was watching it on Tuesday and it went poof. Of course I couldn't get the old plan back so had a choice of basic without live TV, which I need because CBS from Omaha is iffy using my antenna, or pay more for Showtime. Bummer. I opted for basic and am dealing with the spotty reception, especially if it's windy. It usually gets better in the winter so we'll see how long I can hold out.

At the start of the week, the Virginia trip to drive with my friend Susan as she moves there, was put on hold due to a medical issue. In the time it took to get her results, which were good, the cost of flying back had doubled. I'd also given it a lot of thought and when it came down to it, I really didn't want to go. I felt guilty about cancelling so hemmed and hawed but finally called her on Sunday and told her I was out. It was absolutely the right decision and I'm happy to just be home. Rescheduling the trip to Connie's is up in the air and we briefly discussed either her coming here or meeting in the middle. Nothing definite yet.

Anne is in South America and as she usually does, we chat via Facebook Messenger in the evening some days. When she called on Wednesday, she mentioned that there was a talk the next day about the Nazi influence in Argentina, which is right up my alley. She asked if I could listen to the talk and the person agreed so Anne blazed up Messenger and I got to listen to the entire talk Thursday afternoon. I'd also watched 2.5 hours of the Grocery Girls on YouTube so it was a media intensive day. Worked for me. I ended the day with book club at the library to discuss Bad Blood, which was a good read.

Having been operating on low energy all week, Friday was a big day. I had plans to meet Darla after work but couldn't pass up the opportunity to thrift so left right after lunch. I drove all over Lincoln, hitting 11 thrifts with a stop for peanut butter soft serve at zesto mid-afternoon. I scored some $.99 bags of yarn (mostly for Dottie), 3 new shirts and a project bag but not much else. I was impaled at St. Louise's because someone had left a foot long peg on an end cap that gouged my arm as I walked by. I was bleeding a lot but they got me Band-Aids. Sheesh! I got KFC for supper and ate it while watching the Great British Baking Show, which I love. It was a nice day overall and it felt good to get out of the house.

It was hot on the weekend so I spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoon down in the basement sorting through yarn. I had already filled a box of mystery yarn for Becky's Stuff for Strays sale but when she told me she'd advertise having yarn to bring out the crafty people, I decided it was time to go through all of the vintage yarn that I have listed as for sale on Ravelry. It's mostly better quality vintage yarn but some has been listed for 10 years. Time for it to go. I was merciless on Saturday, sorting 2/3 of it to go. On Sunday, I bagged it all up (there were lots of multiple skeins) and then delisted it on Ravelry. The huge tote pictured, which I'm donating too, is brimming so I'll need to find another big box before I can move it upstairs. It was nice and cool down there and I felt great when I was done because Gone is Good!

So not the best week with having a cold but at least it wasn't bad for long. I had thrifting fun, a productive weekend and even got a blue dot political sign for my front yard. My county got gerrymandered to redden up Omaha, which is the blue dot in Nebraska, and since we split our electoral college votes, one of the 3 votes usually goes democratic. Lindsay Graham visited Nebraska recently to try to get us to change it to winner take all, which would mean Republican always, but it failed. Yay!

On the viewing front, I was mostly streaming Wire in the Blood on Prime but on Saturday night, I watched The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry on Hoopla. I had read the book for book club and loved it and the movie was good too. If you have access to Hoopla, give it a try. TTYL.

Week 38 - Working on Adjusting

Remember last week when I said I was doing it wrong, cramming too much into my days? Well, I clearly learned nothing so still need to work on retirement.

Having moved my new chair into the back room on Sunday, the old chair was just shoved aside, which would not do. So first thing on Monday, I dragged the chair through the house and down the driveway, slapping a FREE sign on it before posting it all over the local Facebook groups in hopes that someone would take it. 

In order to get it out the front door, I'd rolled up the 4x6 foot rug in the front room. Well, since the floor was half bare, I moved the rug to the kitchen and swept, swiffered and then washed (a rare occurrence) that side of the floor. That was the easy side but since that was done, I moved all the furniture to the now clean side and did the other side, which was much more work. Then once it dried, I moved everything back. See - I learned nothing from the previous week but I felt good to have done it all and went to Monday Night Knitting feeling good.

I did better on other days. I ran errands in town on Tuesday and went though a crate in my closet, which met my goal of going through at least one thing each day to get rid of stuff. I dropped 4 pairs of old glasses when I picked up my new ones and threw tons of stuff into my Becky box for her Stuff for Strays sales. Another day, I put all my summer Birkenstocks away and cleared the rest of the stuff on my bedroom floor. All good.

Wednesday was my Lincoln day for lunch with work friends at Honest Abe's, where I opted for loaded tots instead of a burger because I was going for peanut butter soft serve at Zesto later with Anne. And to maximize being in Lincoln, I also picked up book club books and thrifted all over town, scoring some amazing indie dyed sock yarn for $.99/skein. Get a load of this thrift score!

Under "everything is harder than it should be", on Thursday afternoon I spent 2 hours trying to switch my Hulu and Max subscriptions to the bundle that includes Disney and costs less. I tried everything I could think of for 30 minutes before giving up and calling Hulu. 1.5 hours on the phone with them and at one point they did a conference call with Disney customer service. 2 hours to get it done! Have I watched Disney yet? Nope.

After the Hulu call, I finalized my plans to head to Connie's (8.5 hours away in South Dakota) on Sunday for her birthday. That meant I had lots to do before leaving. You know - chores so I don't come back to a mess, changing litter boxes, arranging friends to feed cats and water plants - that kind of thing. It was 95 degrees on Friday so I spent the day inside getting that stuff done and starting a couple of sock projects that were easy knitting. Because a week after getting back from Connie's, I'd be driving to Virginia with a friend who's moving there so would have plenty of knitting time then too.

Saturday was a busy day. I spent the morning finishing getting ready for my road trip then picked Andrea up at 12:30 to head to Fremont for our monthly spinning and errands run. Spinning was fun and we hit all our regular stops before and after. I got back home later than planned so was a bit late to my friend Amanda's 40th birthday party in Ashland. Anne and Rene met me there and it was lots of fun. She had a cheese food truck on the street and everyone wore black. There were some full blown costumes involved and it was a nice night to be outside in her yard. I had a scratchy throat by the end of the night so just to be cautious, I zicam'd before bed and again at midnight since I was struggling to fall asleep.

Well, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. with a blazing sinus headache and completely congested. With only 4 hours of sleep and feeling like crap, I had to call Connie and break the news that I wouldn't be driving that day. I thought I might be able to drive Monday but after spending the day in bed reading and dozing, I still felt awful so called that night and said it wasn't happening. We'll have to reschedule for October sometime.

So, my 2nd full week of retirement ended on a sour note. At least I had a nice week up to the point of getting cold. Clearly my 3rd week will be impacted by my cold. One of these weeks I'll get it right. Sheesh!

Week 37 - Doing It Wrong

It was my first full week of retirement and it was ridiculously hot and humid all week - 91 on Monday and 91 on Sunday with high 80's in between. Crazy for mid-September! I had to turn the AC back on so was mostly working in the house. And work I did but not much on Monday because I was recovering from spending all weekend cleaning the garage.

I started the week breaking up sticks from the brush pile behind my garage. It's mostly branches that have come down over the years from the silver maples but had grown quite large. My plan was to get it all broken up for future fires and then spread the entire garden area with wood chips from the last of the pile on my alley. It was cool enough to be outside first thing in the morning but I spent the afternoon reading inside. I was reading All the Colors of the Dark and wanted to return it that night. I finished it at 5:58 and so was a few minutes late to knitting. Oh well. When I got home, I needed to put the trash can at the curb but it was so heavy that I couldn't tip it onto its wheel so dragged it down 6 inches at a time. Sheesh!

Tuesday was a Lincoln day. I had a few reasons to do Tuesdays on a regular basis and had scheduled lunch with Dodie but when it comes down to it, all my office friends aren't there on Tuesdays so I'll be rethinking that. Anyway, I was going to Cindy's on the way to Lincoln and had a detailed list of stops before and after lunch with Dodie on campus. So what did I do first thing but lock myself out of my house. I called my friend Lorri who has a key and thankfully she came right over. I went straight to Cindy's for a tour of her schoolie (a school bus they had converted to a camper) and then had to go right to campus for lunch, which was fun as always. I pared down my list of stops in favor of hanging out with Anne, who was leaving for a 3 week trip. I had a library board meeting, which was my first as president, so I got it done in record time so I could be home for the debate. I watched the entire thing and all I can say is holy crap!

I had another big to do list for Wednesday so after breaking more sticks in the cool morning, I started. Laundry, dishes, organized knitting projects and then started going through the laundry room. When I finally sat down at the end of the day, I reached down to brush something off my foot and pulled a muscle in my lower back. Yes, just reaching down to my foot. I couldn't stand up straight but sitting was no problem so I spent Thursday taking muscle relaxants while streaming and knitting. Luckily sleeping wasn't an issue.

Even taking no meds, my back was much better on Friday and I needed some groceries (that was one thing I'd pared down on Tuesday) so I did a quick Fremont run. I went to a thrift shop that's only open on weekdays then hit HyVee for their Friday the 13th sale. Actually, walking with the cart felt good and it limbered me up some. I got their Chinese special and ate that for lunch, took it easy in the afternoon (finished these scrappy socks) and then ate more Chinese for supper. I was on the mend.

I was almost back to normal on Saturday so got some light housework done and went to bed early to read. I did a bunch of cooking on Sunday and at the end of the day, moved my new chair, which had been sitting in the middle of my front room for 2 months, to my back room. I was happy to have my back fully functional again.

Everyone says that when you retire, you need to adjust to it and figure out what works for you. Well, I clearly need to work on that because if the past 2 weeks are any indication, I'm doing it wrong. While I want to get things done, I'm doing too much and working too hard in too short a time, which is too much for my 63 year old body. I need to work on breaking my big projects into smaller parts and spreading them over multiple days. Other than socializing, I can be home most days so need to stop cramming everything in like I have done on weekends for decades. I also need to give myself permission to relax. I'm enjoying reading during the day so need to do more of that. Wish me luck.

Week 36 - Done with Work

I would normally start with any week that starts with a holiday is great but when you're retired, even part way, a holiday is pretty much like any other day. I had my last work obligation on Thursday so full retirement is close.

Labor Day started with sleeping late and having a lazy morning but I redeemed myself with cutting weed trees and beggar's tick and taking them to the city burn pile. I noticed some wood debris there, which isn't allowed, and by the next day, the city closed the pile so it could be cleaned up. I got there just in time.

I had social commitments in Lincoln for the next 2 days. Tuesday was lunch at Helen's so I stopped at Menard's on the way there to buy a new handle for my slider. After a nice lunch, Helen and I chatted all afternoon, only stopping when Charlie got home from work. I went to Aldi when I left and picked up chicken fingers that I ate in the car. It was a nice day.

I was back in Lincoln for lunch with Layton and Steve on Wednesday. We went to Piedmont Bistro, which is my favorite Lincoln restaurant, and Layton said it was to celebrate my retirement (that was news to me) so they treated. I hit several thrifts before heading home and scored sock yarn at one of them, which is the best. 

I got home early enough to tackle replacing the sliding glass doorhandle so gathered tools and promptly tripped in my back room and went down hard. Damn! I got up and was determined to get it done. Well, turns out my door is thick so the screws weren't long enough. I attempted to use the old ones but they had a head that was bigger than the hole so wouldn't work. It was approaching 6:00 so my only option in town was Bomgaar's - the farm store. A kid helped me find the perfect screws in the many tiny drawers of screws. After paying 18 cents, he offered to help me carry out. Made me laugh. I installed the handle in minutes and was happy to have that done. Everything is harder than it should be.

After 2 weeks on antibiotics, Pixel was still a snotty mess (Tot was fine) so I took her back to the vet Thursday morning. He said to give it time because he'd injected her with long acting steroids and antibiotics 2 weeks before so there was nothing left to do. At 1:30, I logged onto zoom for the last training class with Dana and with that done, I was officially retired. Yay!

To celebrate my first full day of retirement, I got up Friday and made strawberry pancakes for breakfast. After running errands in Wahoo, I made my favorite lunch - a tuna melt with tater tots. I spent the afternoon going through all the yarn in the spare room, sorting some for Dottie, a bit for me and a huge Chewy box for Becky's Stuff for Strays sales. Just before bedtime, I signed up for the Walkfit app and despite it being 9:30, I put on my sneakers and did my first workout. Getting more exercise in retirement is on the list so I'll give this a try.

After spending a chunk of Saturday morning clearing out my gmail account, I decided to take advantage of the perfect weather to clean the garage. I spent all day in there, moving Corelle filled bookcases, reorganizing and throwing out bunches of stuff, filling my trash can. I ended the day feeling good about my progress and having bean dip, chips and a beer for Saturday snack supper.

After working so hard, I dialed it back on Sunday. I filled the kiddy pool from the garage and washed all the grimy recycling I'd found in the garage and filled my recycle bin too. I broke some sticks in the backyard for future firepit fires and was done, spending the rest of the afternoon reading on my bench and drinking tea.

So not a bad week with a nice mix of socializing, productivity and relaxing plus I'd kept up with my wakfit workouts. But the best part, of course, was being done with work. It doesn't mean I won't help as needed but I have nothing more scheduled. Yippee for my first few days of being fully retired! Now to settle into it and figure out how my retirement will work. Any ideas?

Week 35 - Not Quite Yet

It felt fabulous to have a whole week at home after getting back from Rhode Island in the middle of last week. But it wasn't 100% retirement yet because I was going into the office all day on Wednesday for my retirement food day and had to be on 2 zoom trainings because they were Dana's first time leading the training. That left me working for 3 days so full retirement would wait. Despite having to work a bit more, I attempted to get something done each day - sometimes social, sometimes productive.

On Monday, I took Lorri to lunch at The Branding Iron as a thank you for watering my plants while I was gone. I did some laundry and made a blueberry/peach pie to take to knitting, using up some of the fruit in the freezer. Just easing into retirement.

The weather was mostly hot so I spent a couple of mornings getting some yard work done early before it heated it. After deadheading my containers and digging my potatoes, I planted lettuce and peas in the newly empty spot. I cut some weed trees and took them to the burn pile. After watching a YouTube that said we still had time to plant zucchini, I went in search of seeds in Wahoo. I failed at Dollar General, the hardware store and the farm store before finding some on clearance at Family Dollar. I planted those around the remaining squash plants, which were hanging on after being ravaged by borers. Having never done much fall gardening, I was excited to be planting again. Not much to lose - the seeds only cost 38 cents.

I joined Dana's training zooms on Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning. She did great on both considering it was her first time. Wednesday was my retirement food day so I went into work for the whole day, which clearly no one expected. I was the first one in and the office was already decorated with flowers and garlands of socks I'd made for Cindy and Lana. Mike bought a gorgeous (and delicious) cake. The food day was wonderful. I got to talk to lots of my co-workers and the speeches didn't make me blubber. It was exactly the send off I was looking for. I did do some actual work too after setting my computer up in Ben's old office because Dana's old cubie was full of crockpots. After taking the last bits from my old cubie, which Dana had boxed up when she moved in, I went to Anne's for pizza with her and Rene to celebrate my retirement just a bit more.

After Thursday morning's zoom, I went to the eye doctors and ordered my new glasses then drove to St. John's in Weston for their sale. I found 2 big boxes - 1 of yarn and another with vintage linens and old sewing supplies. I picked up BK on the way home and spent the afternoon sorting through the boxes, ending up with some for Dottie, some for me and a bunch for Becky to sell at her next Stuff for Strays sale. All good. Before it got hot on the weekend, I had time a couple of afternoons to read outside on my bench while drinking tea. Believe it or not, that was high on my list of things to do during retirement.

Since it was too hot to be outside, I spent all weekend inside and a chunk of that was in the basement making a start on slogging through my craft room. I went through the biggest section of my Ikea wall unit, boxing up lots of books for Becky. I went through some spare room stuff too. Of course, there was some streaming and knitting too.

So not a full week of freedom but enough to get a taste. Even with work, I had time for social things, gardening and starting the slog through my house, which is my main goal for the rest of 2024. I am going to like retirement. : )

Week 34 - Home to Retirement

I just had one more day in Rhode Island before I'd fly home on Tuesday and much as I love hanging with Carolyn, I was definitely ready to go home. Monday was day 12 of being gone, which is a long time to be away.

Janice had tipped me off that I could get my favorite lemon filled chocolate covered donut, which Dunkin' no longer makes, at Market Basket so when Carolyn had to take her car into Kia for service, I asked to go along because it was near the market. I grabbed the donut (delish and cheap), we dropped Matt back home and then headed to one of Carolyn's schools. She had been there for years but not last year so she wanted to redo bulletin boards, which is easier with 2 people. I helped with that and then alphabetized the book order that had been delivered so she could check them in. She was under the weather so we didn't stay long, heading back home. I'd bought enough at Job Lot that I'd be checking my carry on too so needed to repack. We finished the movie Snow Cake, which we'd started the night before and just like that, the day was done.

Carolyn made me eggs Tuesday morning and I packed a lunch and snacks for the day before we headed to the airport at 10:30. I have TSA pre-check now so sailed right through and knitted at the gate. The flights were completely uneventful but when I got to my car, I couldn't find my parking stub, even digging through my suitcase to check the pants I was wearing the day I parked. I caused a back up at the booth while they checked video for when I drove in and I was glad I didn't have to pay some fine or other. After a stop at Aldi to restock groceries, I was home. The cats were happy to see me and after popping a frozen pizza in the oven, I unpacked. The house was hot enough that I needed to shut the windows and turn on the AC even though it would be cool overnight. It felt great to sleep in my own bed.

I spent all day Wednesday putting things away and doing load after load of laundry between the linens (you have to bring your own sheets when you rent a beach house and I'd brought for John too) and 2 weeks of clothes. On Thursday, I went to the optician to order glasses (I had planned to go in January but hadn't and I'd scratched one of my lenses in RI), ran errands in town and after lunch, during which I watched my favorite knitting podcast, I took my 2 old cats to the vet. They both had snot noses so got antibiotic and steroid shots and I'd be giving them pink antibiotic liquid for the next week or so. With all that crossed off, I made a cup of tea and read an actual book (as opposed to on my ipad) in the backyard. That was actually on my retirement to do list so I was starting to feel sort of retirementy.

On Friday, my boss was throwing me a retirement party with just my immediate work group of accountants and the data team. After a nice morning chatting with friends, I cut some sunflowers down, took a shower and headed to Seward. It's a town near Lacey's house that has a consignment store I wanted to check out for possibly consigning some of my work clothes and a fun thrift shop that I always enjoy. I found all kinds of goodies then headed to Lacey's.

It was a wonderful party. Lacey had made a taco/nacho bar and there were lemon cupcakes for dessert. They had decorated with a big poster of all the Rosie posts - the skeleton they photographed everywhere and posted on Facebook back when I had my shoulder surgery. They had all pitched in and gave me a birdfeeder with a camera that sends pics to your phone of all the birds that eat there. Lacey had told me about hers and I'd said it was cool so she filed that thought away. And apparently I spent a team meeting going on and on about getting a weed whacker when I retired (I have no recollection of this) so Dana bought me a cordless one. She is originally from Jordan so had no idea what they were so had to ask at Walmart, which I found funny. We all had a nice time and ended the night on Lacey's patio watching sunset. I do love the people I work(ed) with.

The heat set in so I happily stayed inside all weekend. I had started going through something every day so kept that up by going through most of my hutch. Otherwise I did minimal chores and caught up on online things - Ravelry, YouTube, etc. It felt like a regular old weekend so not like retirement and I had to work 3 days in the next week. I'm betting on September to bring retirement vibes. Can't wait.