Monday,
September 30, 2002
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
garden jobs require the right tools
"Haste still pays haste, and
leisure answers leisure, |
|
in touch Remember I promised to start on the bamboo hacking? So I don't get up real early (it was before eight, though), but I put on jeans and a T-Shirt and a long-sleeved shirt and an old pair of waterproof hiking boots. I notice that the sprinkler cycle is still making its way around the yard. I use this as an excuse to read The New York Times and drink coffee while trying to decide on the right gloves and the right loper-type tool. Finally, I actually start working around nine. I pick the waterproofed gloves because it's still damp from sprinklers. I've sprayed Off on my neck and hands, too. I tried to do yard work the other day in shorts and a Tee. Think scrapes and bug bites. And I didn't do anything hard like weighing in against the bamboo. I work on it for an hour. My face is red and I'm dripping with sweat. I have felled a fair amount, cut up some, picked up other debris. The job is definitely just started. This yard will provide jobs forever. But this is what I wanted...to get in touch with what I own instead of just hiring people to keep it up and, in fact, not even taking time to look at the result.
I shower up and call Dad and SuRu and arrange to have lunch. I take them to Whole Foods. Then I make a call about an account I'm trying to get transferred to Dad alone. That call is my 'one thing for the day.' Or maybe the bamboo is my thing. A form needs a notarized signature. Dad promises to go get that done tomorrow. I drive all the way to 620 to deliver something for Forrest. Boy, US183 North is a big mess. But, I'm retired and have time to get in touch with highway messes around the city. Back home, I watch the bookkeeper work on Good Right Arm bills (I'm trying to learn Quick Books and how she uses it to do our stuff) and fiddle with the Mac, thinking I need to learn to use Final Cut Pro. But...these things take time, right? Retirement wasn't built in a day.)
Then I help bookkeeper Gayle make a list so that she can buy food for taco salads for dinner and check the pantry for seasoning mix and jalapenos and the like. I notice we don't have any Shiner Bock or sweet sodas. Rather than add that to her shopping list or go myself and buy them, I call Dad and ask if he has any to bring. I've invited him and SuRu to share our dinner and TV evening.
At Whole Foods today I saw someone who works at BMC and then I saw some BMC joggers in the parking lot when I was dropping SuRu back at work. They seemed surprised to see me and had the look of people who see someone from way in the past. It's only been a little over a week. But I also feel that I'm way beyond it. I'm on a different track now. Admittedly I'm casting around for what this new life will be like, but it's coming together.
We cook, we eat, we clean up, we watch TV. Isn't retirement exciting? Well the part where you don't have to think about work tomorrow certainly is!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
179
JUST
TYPING