My Tireless Retirement – Week 175

 

Hello my friends!  How was your first week of August?  I started by hitting the ground running with a very busy full day at work.  It was a good day, but very busy.  Right after work I met up with a friend for dinner at a restaurant near my home and we ended up yakking for nearly three and a half hours.  By the time I made it home and got my chickens and kitties fed and loved on I was kaput.  It had been a long day and also very good.  It reminded me to be grateful for all the fun and friends I am blessed to be able to have.

 

Our temperatures have cooled down and that has made it much nicer and more enjoyable to be outside.  We’ve been having a lot of windy dust storms lately and that has meant regularly picking up plenty of tree debris and using my leaf blower to clean up the mess these storms leave behind so that has kept me busy.

 

To celebrate the completion of all of the hard work I have put into my Subaru I hurried and got all of my Saturday morning chores done, including a one hour meal prep, and then jumped in the car for a little excursion.  My destination was to drive to Idaho City, an old mining town with a lot of history and our original capital city, for the sole purpose of procuring a huckleberry ice cream cone.  I enjoyed the windy drive to get there, it was such a beautiful day and the car handled it with ease.  Even more impressive was that much anticipated ice cream cone.  It was huge and so good!

 

This is their single scoop cone!

I walked the entire town, then drove up to the old cemetery and did the walking tour.  It is a lovely old cemetery and quite a hike.  It sits on the side of the mountain and, as my mom would say, is steeper than a cows face.  This was my third time visiting and this time, because I was there by myself, I made sure to see it all.  Previously, I wasn’t able to due to mobility issues plaguing the people I was there with so I never made it all the way up to the top until now and I’m really glad I did because there are a lot of veterans buried there as well as several historical figures.

 

It felt good to be outdoors, breathe fresh air and smell the pines.  It was seriously good for my soul.  By the time I got back in the car and headed for home my legs were feeling it and ready for a break.  I felt amazing!  The whole day was such a great experience, especially that ice cream.

 

It was a busy work week and next week will be too because I’m covering for people on vacation.  I worked Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and that is going to be my schedule next week as well.  Then I’ll be back to working only three days a week – two half days and one full day.  Having meal prepped on Sunday morning definitely set me up well for my dinners after I got home from work.

 

This past week I took a group of seniors out to an orchard to pick peaches and blackberries.  I also took another group on a lunch outing in the city next to us.  The rest of the time I worked at the center and I can tell just in the nearly two years I have been there that we are growing leaps and bounds in the number of attendees that come on a daily basis.  It keeps me very busy and I definitely get my steps in each day that is for sure.  And again, I find myself marveling that I am actually paid to do this job!  I am so lucky.

 

It was another blessed week and I hope yours was as well.  I also hope my little Saturday outing has inspired you to go on one yourself.  What has been keeping you busy?