My Tireless Retirement – Week 178

 

Hello my friends.  I hope everyone is doing well as our summer is quickly winding down.  Last week was the final full week of August and we are swiftly heading into September and only a few weeks away from a new season - Fall!  Any last minute plans for your summer?  I, myself, am looking forward to taking some downtime and enjoying a little relaxation in the next few months.  Let’s see how well I do with that (wink, wink).

 

Last Friday was a bumpy day at the senior center where I worked all day.  I can tell the mood has shifted with our patrons who seem to toggle between sadness and uncertainty to downright edginess.  I know people are scared.  We even had a pair of gentleman get into a bit of a row with each other (one thought the other was disrespecting him) and the need for intervention.  Unfortunately I took the brunt of that altercation, but nothing too serious.  Later in the day as we were closing up, one of those men came back, apologized (sort of) for the earlier event and then proceeded to go off  again shouting at the pair of us until he stormed out declaring she and I were going to Hell!  I can say I was never happier to clock out and climb into my car to head home as I was on that evening.  Sheesh!

 

In relaying the day’s events to my BFF he was less than pleased with how my day had gone which led to a bigger conversation about my place of employment and then about our planned vacation to Washington DC next spring.  I have been so excited to go there, see The Mall, our nation’s capitol, but even more so to visit as many Smithsonian Museums as possible while we are there.  Ultimately we have decided to put that plan on hold because it just doesn’t feel right. We are shifting  gears and are now in the process of coming up with a different vacation entirely.  I know whatever we decide to do, it will be great!

 

Now what are you doing! 😂

Saturday morning I woke up in a funk.  I had loads of things I could do and all I really wanted to do was stay home and take refuge.  I didn’t even want to go outside and check the mail, although eventually I did.  The chickens and the kitties kept me company and got me laughing, which is always a good thing.  I puttered about the house throughout the weekend, baked four mini loaves of applesauce zucchini bread which I shared with others, reorganized the freezer in the kitchen, did a load of laundry, did a lot of writing and watered my flowers.  I also picked up all the fallen fruit around the pear tree and gave it to the chickens.  They were happy about that.

 

By Monday morning I was ready to take on the world once again.  I strapped on my invisible armor and headed out.  I worked Monday and Tuesday, a few hours each afternoon and was off Wednesday and Thursday.  The atmosphere was some better, but when you get right down to it our seniors are scared and on edge with fears of losing their social security, health insurance as well as many other concerns like paying their bills, housing and the rising cost of groceries.  I wish I could tell them it is going to be fine, but I can’t and I share these same concerns.  I just keep praying and hoping that better days are ahead for all of us.

 

This shelf was sagging in the back corner

Wednesday was an awesome day for me because I finally got a really good night of sleep and even slept in some, which I never do.  I began the day slowly with coffee and my journal and it went from there.  I puttered about the house and this time it really amounted to something.  One of the items on my “to-do” list was to fix a broken shelf in the garage.  I had jimmy rigged it when it happened, but to be honest, that was years ago.  Now, with the garage thinned out, it seemed like an easy task, and it was!  Items removed from shelf, shelf fixed, items put back on shelf minus a few things I decluttered.  Yes!

 

I love that I am able to spread my things
out more so they are easier to see and get to

I pulled down the Fall and Halloween bins, went through them and decluttered enough stuff for donation to combine and consolidate everything into one bin.  I made the monumental decision to let go of my electric jack-o-lanterns because they just make me miss my kids and they don’t want them.  Last year I thought about getting rid of them and this year I did.  My BFF was very proud of me because he knows how they tug at my heart strings.  I am such a sensitive girl!

 

Wednesday afternoon and well into Thursday we worked on “future planning” and some alternate plans of what I or we can do in the next few years.  I’m getting more and more excited the more we talk about stuff.  I will be sharing some of our ideas in some upcoming posts.

 

I am down to one bin now!

The week started out warm and then steadily cooled off until Tuesday evening when we finally got a good rain.  It rained all night until late into Wednesday morning thoroughly saturating everything.  We even had flash flood warnings.  It was so nice to get a good drenching which cleared the smoke from the air and watered everything so I didn’t have to.  The deck project remains on hold, but I’m just fine with that.  It is not that high of a priority to me right now anyway.

 

Things are getting a little bit thin around here

Have any of you had rain or been given a reprieve from the summer heat?  Are you ready for Fall?  It’s right around my friends!