Catching Up

 

"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." Walt Disney

Hello again from the almost retired. Apologies if anyone missed reading my ramblings but last year dragged on entirely too long. Just as we all thought we were conquering Covid it reared it's ugly head again. My brain could just not invent anything fun to write about. As 2020 dragged on the outlook for fun and entertainment was bleak. Even Christmas seemed to have less sparkle than previous years. Now we have started a New Year and I am trying to build up my enthusiasm. 

Since last I wrote I blew right past another birthday. We spent a month camping off and on at our nearby state park in October. Our daughter's family camped some also and we managed more than a little fun. I finally loaded my pack and went backpacking. I think I had been wondering if I would enjoy it as I had years ago. Thankfully I did and now I'm eager to follow this up with more backpacking adventures. My husband and I have been working at the new grandparent role of overseeing remote learning. That's been interesting to say the least. I continued to feed my sourdough starter and explore various recipes for it's use. I also spent a wonderful weekend with my living history friends camping and and cooking out in the fall. 

I have to say that overall we managed far better than a lot of people during this time. We have managed to be able to stay close to our family and avoid illness at home. It's one of those times I've been thankful for living in a small, rural town close to nowhere. 

Last year had so many differences from all years prior. Most notable was the feeling of unfulfilled dreams. The year did leave me with a lot of time for thinking, planning, researching, etc. My husband and I talked a lot about retirement plans. It boils down to this: I don't have so many years left that I want to continue to waste another year doing mostly nothing. While I've always dreamed of retiring to travel to other countries, I am eager now to head out and explore everything there is to see here in the USA. And then there's the simple things I want to enjoy such as figuring out how to sleep late, learning a new language, working with my herb garden, spending time with my family, reading a good book, or just walking in the woods. So I have once again turned in my notice to retire effective late March. This time there were no questions or doubts in my mind about it and IT WILL HAPPEN! 

For now I am focusing on getting in a little better shape. I started the Noom program for weight loss and have to say it is going better than I expected. I have been walking around my neighborhood or at the park 2-3 miles almost every day. Rain or cold has not stopped me and I miss it now if I don't have time to walk. (Work really gets in the way with these short winter days.) I had been learning Gaelic but couldn't think of anytime I'd ever use it and recently switched to Spanish. I've done a (very) little bit of clearing out clutter but I have big plans to get moving on that project this spring. And I pulled my camera out of the closet in hopes to improve my very basic photography skills. Most of all I'm counting the days until I say goodbye to my coworkers and clean out my desk. 

So I hope any readers will hang out a little longer and see what kind of misadventure I can get into when I finally begin retirement.