What do you do during the day to keep from being bored?

Packerjohn said:
I never get bored but lately I have very negative feelings about all these sheep walking around with masks on. What do I do all day? I get up around 4 am, do my stretch exercises, strum away and sing with my guitar and read until breakfast. Then I read again and walk the hallways. If I'm lucky I meet some nice lady out there and "shoot the breeze" with her. Can't tell who it is as they are all masked. I spend about 3 hours on the computer. Except for this site, I keep away from social media. Don't need it! I check some news sites when I'm finished here and then have my "beauty" rest. Get up, have some hot chocolate and read again. Then for the next 2 hours or so I spent time viewing my old TV shows on DVD. Oh yes, I also dream of traveling but not until this crappy pandemic is over and some people in power get some sense of realit
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We do some of the same things, but I still get bored, I have people that come by often, and I meet with people for coffee , two days a week, can't do book signing because of CV 19, , just starting to get back in touch with everyone, I'm 73 now , a lot of my friends have died, I got all kinds of stuff to do, but not the interest.
 
I usually have a list of chores, and pretty much schedule my day around the weather. I love to get outdoors for several hours, weather permitting, and always have some yardwork, etc., that needs attention.

Today was really nice weather, so I got my chainsaw out, and cut up another 1/2 cord of firewood for our outdoor wood furnace. Starting tomorrow, more cold weather is coming in.
 
I find that having a routine helps me. I am on my laptop in my home office in the morning, checking emails, the financial markets, the weather forecast and my accounts while I watch Good Morning America. After that, I have lunch and I head to the gym for at least an hour. If the weather is decent I walk around the lake near our house.

I try to stay out of the house until at least 4pm. I then catch up on a few episodes of Steven Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel or Seth Myers while I cook dinner. My partner comes home from work at 5:15 or 6:15 pm. We have dinner and then watch TV. I'm not bored because I'm happy with the predictability of my routine.

Occasionally I will mix it up by throwing in an indie movie one day.
 
Della said:
When I go to the store with my mask on I feel those negative vibes. I even see them when people glare at me and shake their heads. I don't think I can be called a "sheep" in this town when I'm often the only one in the place wearing a mask. Still, glares, negative feelings, or not, I'll keep wearing my mask.

Last fall I was sick for three months straight, first with the flu, then with bronchitis, then with pneumonia. I couldn't sleep for coughing, I coughed so much I broke a rib and sometimes choked and had trouble breathing. I finally got well in December and I plan to be very careful not to get sick again.




I don't have a medical degree, but I still believe germs cause illness and that one way to get germs in your body is to breath them in. Sure there are other ways. I can still get sick by touching things and then touching my face, or eating food prepared by people who are sick, but I'm going to give myself every little edge I can to stay well, so I wear a mask when I go shopping as well as washing my hands when I get home. I just don't understand why that personal choice of mine gives you negative feelings about me. How is it hurting you?
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Even though Texas is a Red state, there are so many people who wear masks here. I am one of the few at my gym, but I don't care because most are in their 20's. I am probably keeping THEM from getting sick because I've been vaxxed and boosted. The funniest thing is that my gym still has a policy of wiping down the equipment with anti-bacterial wipes when it has been proven that Covid doesn't present a threat on solid surfaces. The irony.

In the grocery stores, 90% are wearing masks. No seems to be judgmental.
 
RFW said:
I used to go to my favorite coffee shop every morning but with all the lockdown and stuff, I just don't bother these days. Before COVID, I only stayed in Canada during spring and summer but I've been here for over a year this time, trying to fix up the place and modernize it a bit, and then I broke my leg, delaying things further.
I did manage to finally finish the home theater room fitted with all new equipment. So these days I just watch a lot of movies I've missed throughout the years. I've been rewatching Star Trek: TNG, currently on Season 2.

Like some people here, I don't watch TV anymore. There's just nothing that interests me and I just can't stand commercials. I like to have complete control over how I watch something so physical media is the way to go. It's been wonderful and the new equipment really helps with the immersion. I just think it's miles better than the movie theater experience.
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That sounds great, RFdub. I wish I could do more projects around my place, but it's an apartment rental, so only so much I can do. Most recently my wife was wishing we could paint this one wall so I bought three 12ft long, 3/4" fir strips and covered the wall with fabric - the wood strips are nailed across the wall just below where it meets the ceiling, just above the floorboard, and then another one just above chair-height to keep the fabric perfectly wrinkle-free and snug against the wall. She loves it.

We're planning to buy a house this year and I can hardly wait to be out doing yardwork and getting into some home improvement projects.

When I say I watch TV, it's mostly YouTube videos on my Roku TV. And we also have Netflix, HBO Max, and Showtime on it. Oh, and Disney+ for the g-kids.
 
Irwin said:
What you posted is the ideal situation. When you get to earn a living doing what you love, you have it made. Another ideal situation would be to inherit a lot of money or win the lottery, but the odds of that happening aren't good.
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That's most perceptive of you. Fact is I do not roll out bed every morning thinking whoopy-doo I'm off to work again. What motivates me is that work has a structure, my day is filled and as you rightly perceived I enjoy a salary, on top of my pension and other old folks perks.
 
Bored is one thing I never am. I think there is never enough hours in the day for me to do what I have to do. I make a list every night and attempt to do it all the next day. My apartment is small so you wouldn't think there is that much work to taking care of it, but I have plenty.

Other than household chores, I read a lot. Have been moving photos from an old external hard drive that I am afraid will die one day to the new one. Write my blog, edit photos, fake book (especially my groups there), YouTube, Ancestry, adult coloring, those find the word books (while watching television), in good weather I go to the parks nearby on my mobility chair, food preps and cooking. Just within the last year I started having friends (who live here) drop in to talk. I never had many friends like that before so I like that and welcome them.
 
I read, do a few chores, make most of my meals, try to accomplish my to-do list every day, spend time with my dog, Aidan, watch tv 2 or 3 times a week, write in my journal every so often, keep in touch with my friends and relatives, play Mahjong Solitaire on my computer, and catch up on all the paperwork I haven't been able to do until recently. As soon as I am done with the paperwork, I will keep up with it, and add exercise and studying the subjects I don't know much about. Physics is likely to be the first subject. All I know about that is that hot air rises.

Luckily, I don't get bored very often, thanks to my mother. If we kids ever said we were bored, she always had a few chores for us to do, if we didn't get unbored pretty quickly. Now, the idea of doing chores sparks within me the great desire to do something more enjoyable.
 
Judycat said:
When I see someone with a mask I just figure they're immune compromised or have a health condition and want to avoid pneumonia. People glare whether I wear a mask or not. I used to ask myself what I did wrong, but now I just consider it odd behavior. People are weird.
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I know there are some people here who don't wear masks for whatever reason.. but otoh the other half who do never get any kind of strange looks, I think everyone just takes it all for granted now ...
 
WheatenLover said:
I read, do a few chores, make most of my meals, try to accomplish my to-do list every day, spend time with my dog, Aidan, watch tv 2 or 3 times a week, write in my journal every so often, keep in touch with my friends and relatives, play Mahjong Solitaire on my computer, and catch up on all the paperwork I haven't been able to do until recently. As soon as I am done with the paperwork, I will keep up with it, and add exercise and studying the subjects I don't know much about. Physics is likely to be the first subject. All I know about that is that hot air rises.

Luckily, I don't get bored very often, thanks to my mother. If we kids ever said we were bored, she always had a few chores for us to do, if we didn't get unbored pretty quickly. Now, the idea of doing chores sparks within me the great desire to do something more enjoyable.
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LOL.. with all due respect to your health, bless you I don't think you have enough energy to get bored yet.. šŸ¤—
 
I think the only times in my life I've ever been bored was in school classes or in redundant, unnecessary staff meetings at jobs. When i'm in control of my activities it is never a problem always something to do: chores are endless tho I'm not as diligent about them as when i was younger-- i'd rather be walking around outside, reading, conversing online, tslking with DD or watching something interesting.
 
This question is far different to we seniors that have endless free time versus years when we were on a m-f 8-5 work week grind. Obviously it can be a challenge for many seniors that during careers just expected each work week evening to make/eat dinner, read a wee bit of newspaper/magazine, grab a beer, watch the boob tube...zzzzz. And then on weekends, some chores like mowing the lawn etc, making friend phone calls, getting out into the public shopping, watching tv sports, enjoying some special meals.

For those in the minority that developed active interests, reading, crafts, art, sports, the senior life could be more easily filled. In any case, even the most active senior will go through moods when they feel unmotivated, just wanting to relax occupying their time with something simple. More often personally, that is in evenings after eventful tiring days like when I return home after hours driving highways. And yeah TV can work for me then too.

But otherwise we seniors are living during the most exceptional time in human history for easily occupying our days with worthwhile activity though only a minority have developed such. Yes we in this science and technology age have computers, and on these computers have the Internet World Wide Web that opens up an endless vast amount of possibilities for those that make an effort to find what is there both the good and bad. Although our smartphones are amazingly useful tools, at home, laptops or desktops offers far more for filling one's time. However this new technology world does require some education and skill to enter that may be an impossible wall to climb for those just now taking notice. If nothing more, even the unskilled can play a broad range of video games that corps will be happy to hook you on playing.
 
I'm never bored, but I booked a trip to the Caribbean in early February and I'm looking forward to it. My partner is working, so I'm meeting a friend that I used to work with. Hubby told me I should go because when he comes home from work and asks how my day was I seem unenthusiastic. I told him it's not really that, it's just that what I did during the day wouldn't interest him. It's always the gym, the lake, the grocery store and sometimes a movie. Same thing, but I enjoy the predictability and the routine.

My life isn't very interesting to other people since I've retired, but it is still interesting to me!
 
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