My Tireless Retirement - Week 28

 

Hello my friends.  I had an enjoyable week and I hope you all did as well.  I went to dinner with a group of friends last Monday night at an old steakhouse we like to go to.  It was a fantastic meal, as always, as well as a great time visiting and getting caught up.  All of us at the table, with the exception of one, are now retired so we have that in common.  It was fun to find out what everyone has been up to.

 

Most of my week was spent getting things buttoned up around here in preparation for winter.  With the warmer than usual temperatures it is hard to imagine cold weather is on its way.  I'm taking advantage of every sunny day we are blessed with as I know our Indian summer will not last forever.

 

I put the raised garden beds to rest for the season by pulling up everything and giving it all to the chickens along with a full trash bin of leaves I raked up.  That always makes them happy.  The leaves are definitely changing and falling to the ground so I'll be busy with that chore for a while.  Fortunately I have my mulching leaf blower vac to help me keep it under control.  I not only used it to clean up leaves, but I also blew off all of the vehicles and blew out the inside of my garage.  Those pesky leaves get everywhere.

 

I've been working on some journals and thinking about adding them to my eBay store.  I write in a journal every day and I usually give these as gifts to my friends.  I'm thinking others might enjoy these as well.  What do you think?  I've got some ideas formulating for dayplanners too.

 

Although it has been cooler at night I've yet to add my electric blanket to my bed, but I did start wearing my winter pajamas and slippers.  It is still warm enough during the daytime to keep the house plenty comfortable so I haven't turned on the heat or used the fireplace yet.  Sometimes in the morning I'll curl up in my chair with my hot cup of coffee and a throw while I'm writing or answering emails until the sun comes up.  I will also light a candle or two and it feels really cozy.  I love that special time I have in the morning.

 

Wednesday afternoon I did go to Albertsons and do a mini produce run and picked up some cream for my Keto coffees.  They had bags of mandarin oranges and avocados on sale so I got one of each.  I haven't had much in the way of errands to run lately which is fine by me.  I do find I'm having more and more difficulty leaving the house these days.  I could easily become a hermit, I think, except my friends and my next door neighbors probably wouldn't allow it.  I don't know why I say this since this week I had to leave the house four out of the seven days last week and actually converse with people.  But, you know what I mean.

 

Friday I picked up DVDs from the public library so a friend and I could enjoy a no cost dinner and a movie that evening.  I cooked from items I already had on hand and we had a delicious salad and split a sirloin I pulled out of my freezer.  There may have been a bottle of wine provided by my guest.  For dessert I baked some cookies using homemade dough balls I had in the freezer.  Saturday I attended a wake and I took a fruit salad, again made with things I already had on hand.

 

The meals I prepped have been working out really well.  I started the week off by finishing up leftovers and enjoying one of my freezer meals.  I also pan fried a couple burger patties and steamed some cauliflower in the microwave, made a Cobb salad using up some leftover lunchmeat and cheese, and then did the steak and salads on Friday.  Saturday I ate at the wake and didn’t need to prepare myself anything at all that day.

 

It was an oddly busy week as it turned out and it went by awfully fast too.  I got a lot done, but not everything I had planned because I was simply too busy.  I asked a friend the other night, she is also retired, "How did we have time to work?", LOL.  Anyone do anything exciting last week?