How is your day Today, plans and achievements 2024....

Ah collective shopping day in our little 'club' with the delightful and chirpy R- much younger than us all ; she will chat if encouraged or if not just turn on some 'pop' channel. All my companions are of course Indigenous - First Nation peoples - who accept me and nourish we so well. but if we stay together too long I will have to share all that I own!!! hahahaha - true! We stagger out of the van with walking sticks ; zimmer frames etc etc and all shop separately and then meet 40 mins later back in the bus! It's a good fun run around town ; a town I know well with 4,400 souls or thereabout?

Bank to visit; PO to visit ; sometimes the hospital - anything we need on a Thursday. My pc has just warned me we will be getting high winds - it often gets it wrong or is aiming at some other state!! R announced today she will be legally changing her name because she dislikes and doesn't get on with most of her family?? - OK - we await the choices and she wants a male first name too??

ps: woolworths has stopped selling Asprins which I keep handy for immediate first aid of heart pains - so had to go to visit our chemist [thank god we have one] to buy a packet. works on painful indigestion too?? I purchased a 4 pack of custard tarts which I haven't had for years and ate the whole pack - delighful. and I don't have time to tell you what I did before i went shopping! maybe next time?
 
This morning, my neighbor was making a bunch of noise in his yard. It was so windy, it was surprising he was out there. That woke me up and started out the day grumpy. Then my internet crashed again. This time I decided I wasn't going to try to fix it right away. I would check to see if all my offline stuff worked.

I went off to do something. When I got back, the internet was working again without my doing anything. Later in the afternoon, Comcast called again to ask if my internet was working. I asked what prompted the call. She said that I had a tech visit, but I had canceled it, so I guess her information was 4 days old.

I'm still searching for alternatives to this internet situation and finding ways to do more stuff offline. I found a list from 2 years ago where I had written activities I'd do if I wasn't on a device. There was a bunch of stuff. I think my neighbor situation is really impacting this. I could do more quiet things like journaling and coloring when my neighbor wasn't home all the time making so much noise.
 

my word ~~!! There really is a 3am on the clock!!?!? who'd believe it!!! why am I here??!! dang I hate getting up this early./...but did it when I was a drunk !! oh no, that was what
time I got to bed after closing the bars.....sore as hell throat
woke me up, so that is that....catch u later.....:coffee::coffee::coffee:;):coffee:
 
Good morning. I swear that Maggiecat can tell time and read a calendar because she let me sleep until 5:45 on my day off.

Hugs and good thoughts for all of you with health challenges and general aches and pains today.

Whew! Hot and humid again this morning. No rain happened duriing the night, but according to the radar online, the threatened rain is more than a threat and will be here within an hour. There might be a short interval between 8:30 and 10 when I can get the rest of my plants in the ground. Or...wait until mid-afternoon when it's all supposed to clear out and turn sunny.

It'll be interesting to see if the high wind topples my new patio umbrella. Maybe I shouldn't take the chance and just "un-crank" it and tie it shut.

Right now it's time to do a bit of tidying up, have some breakfast and get dressed.

BBL
 
packleader said:
What purpose has life in retirement?

After my wife had left early for work this morning, I had for breakfast porridge with 100% Cocoa; and then I went on the usual walk with my three Boxer pups. Afterwards, I rested for an hour as usual. In the late morning, it was time for checking news on TV and the Internet, and then it was lunchtime to eat my wife's delicious concoctions.

Finally I started my real project for the day: cutting weeds on both sides of our 200 feet driveway, and raking it clean. It was something that would have taken me an hour when I was younger, but now it took much longer and exhausted me. So, time for another nap.

I already had started yesterday trying to flush out our 15 year old water heater, as it is supposed to be done annually. I probably had forgotten it for a year or two because the drainage valve was plugged up. Ouch. I just collected some different wires and other tools trying to dislodge the calcium deposits in the valve. But right now my wife came home from work, and I cannot shut off the water. So, mañana.

And all the while, I couldn’t help, my thoughts drifted off why I am doing all this. What’s the purpose of it of it all?

I was prepared to work until 75 to finance advanced degrees for my kids. Both my wife and I have higher degrees, but kids always know it better. One dropped out of her M.A. degree program but is doing fine as a teacher in China, while the other one wanted first “to live it up” although she eventually obtained a professional degree on her own and is doing now quite well.

Back to square one. At age 72, I retired from work and basically felt “empty" and "useless.” It was a horrible feeling. Some of you might have had the same experience. It took me maybe a year before I had mentally adjusted to my life in retirement.

OK, I still have a wife (regrettably still working full-time) and my kids who are staying in touch with me daily. Then I have my dogs to take care of, like going on daily walks. They give me responsibility. And then I discovered that “routines” like walking actually put my life on autopilot: life goes on without worrying.

I also discovered that it helps to have goals. I gave myself the imperative to stretch my life to at least 100, if not longer, to enjoy my much younger wife, my 45 years younger children, and my over 80 years younger grandchild. My pension leaves me a little bit of spare money that enables me to spoil them. Yes, that gives my life a positive purpose. It also focuses my life on extending it, mainly with daily exercise, good sleeping habits, healthy nutrition, and some nutritional supplements.

I wish I were religious and belonged to a Christian denomination. It helps to make life more worry free. I am certainly not anti-religion, and I even have some vague religious beliefs. But I don’t like to be confined to a “system.” My religious sentiments are more of a philosophical nature even though I envy my wife's strong religious beliefs. They make life easier. Religious beliefs leave no room for the “why” I am here, and “why” I should go on.

Well, somehow I have made peace with growing older. I do what I can do. Up to age 65, I lived as if life has no end to it; but at 88, I have accepted that the day will come when God calls me, and I am preparing for it. I know what to expect, and it puts my mind at ease.
Click to expand...
You've discovered the time of reflection. Embrace it!
You're eighty eight and have lived a good life. It sounds like everything is in place as it should be except for one thing.
Loneliness. I wish your wife would retire. Not my business but I sense it's what's missing.
You have us!!
 
caramel said:
This morning, my neighbor was making a bunch of noise in his yard. It was so windy, it was surprising he was out there. That woke me up and started out the day grumpy. Then my internet crashed again. This time I decided I wasn't going to try to fix it right away. I would check to see if all my offline stuff worked.

I went off to do something. When I got back, the internet was working again without my doing anything. Later in the afternoon, Comcast called again to ask if my internet was working. I asked what prompted the call. She said that I had a tech visit, but I had canceled it, so I guess her information was 4 days old.

I'm still searching for alternatives to this internet situation and finding ways to do more stuff offline. I found a list from 2 years ago where I had written activities I'd do if I wasn't on a device. There was a bunch of stuff. I think my neighbor situation is really impacting this. I could do more quiet things like journaling and coloring when my neighbor wasn't home all the time making so much noise.
Click to expand...
Do you have a lot on your computer? Did the tech try to clear some out?
 
hawkdon said:
my word ~~!! There really is a 3am on the clock!!?!? who'd believe it!!! why am I here??!! dang I hate getting up this early./...but did it when I was a drunk !! oh no, that was what
time I got to bed after closing the bars.....sore as hell throat
woke me up, so that is that....catch u later.....:coffee::coffee::coffee:;):coffee:
Click to expand...
I have a sore throat too. I think it's from allergies. Feel better.
 
Wow. I got in just in time. The rain is coming down in buckets! The Crossandra orange marmalade and kalachoe have been planted and my mess cleaned up. The patio umbrella has been let down and tied, and that's a good thing because the wind has picked up, too.

Now I'm gonna make breakfast.

ETA: And now a tornado watch. Eeek. So far not a warning, *just* a watch. Still scary.
 
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Woke up to sun but that's already ending. Rain coming so I need to run out and do the string trimming I didn't finish yesterday. Slow slide upward from the south though and it might miss us anyway, though checking the Grand Rapids radar instead of the useless Detroit shows it very likely to arrive within 2 hours or less.

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I'm staying real close to the phone today.

My hunting buddy and close friend for over 37 years (he's just shy of 60 and 14 years my junior) is going through a 5-6 hour major surgery today to have aorta valve and pulmonary artery replacement.....to say I'm anxious right now would be an understatement.
 
Walked the dog.
Tired to kill off a few more thistles.

Spend yesterday morning digging up the ones that I 'thought ' were dead.
From looks of the long roots, they were still 'active' , trying to grow new plants.

Anyhow I have 2 spots cleared.
Wondering if powered lime would help keep them down?

Now the fun will start.
I want to plant my veggies in those cleared areas.

Planing on fencing them to keep the deer out.

Hubby wants them in the planting box we made out an old shower stall.
He's a tad too busy now so,, I think my plan can slip through. ;)
 

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