It’s not only Eileen who is settling in and enjoying her retirement. I am finding myself less stressed. Some of this is inevitable because I no longer have to watch someone I love suffer from working a job which was causing her frustration (not the reading to kids but the haphazard planning and odd failures to communicate around her).
Eileen now gets to spend her time doing things like messing with her looms and I also get to have her around more. This is very pleasant for me and I am finding myself subtly energized at a time when I am monitoring my own fatigue and ability to accomplish all that I set out for myself to do (church, ballet class, learning and reading).
For example, Wednesdays are really my most full day. I arrive at ballet class at 8:30 AM and am in that building until 1 PM (with an hour break). Then yesterday I had a staff meeting immediately afterwards, met briefly alone with my boss, planned choir rehearsal, and practiced organ. This took me until about 3:30 or so. I arrived home to find Eileen nursing a cold (“Hi, I’m going back to bed.”).
Surprisingly I had enough energy to go out and snow blow the driveway. I have that snow blowing is more physical than it looks, especially when dealing with huge chunks of frozen snow at the end of the drive. This requires chopping away with a shovel and then repeatedly thrusting the blower into the fallen chunks which are dispersed.
It would be just my luck to have a heart attack and die while snow blowing instead of the more traditional cardiac arrest when snow shoveling.
Just kidding. I did the snowblowing instead of treadmilling yesterday. By 5 PM I was soaking in sweat from exertion. No need to treadmill after that.
Eileen stayed home from choir rehearsal last night, nursing her cold. I thought we had a good rehearsal.
Afterwards, a professor from Hope told us that her sister who is a survivor of cancer put up a picture of this slogan on Facebook.
I came home and shared this with Eileen.
1. The Censorship Pendulum – NYTimes.co
Interesting that the return of one kind of censorship in China can signal the ebbing of more sinister kinds.
2. Dangerous Minds | Mind Warriors: Douglas Rushkoff interviewed by Greg Barris
I watched most of this discussion last night. It’s got lots of goofiness but Rushkoff is brilliant.
So glad you and mom are doing well. Hope she gets over her cold soon. And please don’t die of a heart attack while shovelling or blowing snow. 😛 x would like to skype with you guys this weekend. X x x love you
Nice to hear from you on your birthday! Hope the new house is working out well. love from Dad
If it were up to me, I would keep driving over the snow until it melts in the spring. Of course, we don’t get as much here in Cincy – and I have my 4X4.. Safety first!
Cindy, That’s pretty much my default mode (to drive through it if I can with my little Subaru or Mom’s Olds), but Eileen bought this dang snow blower that she likes so much and it tempted me to try using it. love from Uncle Steve and thanks for reading