This week has been a preview of what our lives will be like when we retire.
I wake up first, as I need less sleep than anyone else. If we are shift workers, I'm always first shift. I fix my coffee, then drink it while I read a chapter or 2 of the book I'm reading. This week has been the Midnight Library which is an actual, physical book that D got me for Xmas. My Kindle book right now is Mind Bullet, by Jeremy Robinson. For
@jShort I am reasonably sure you will enjoy that one, though I need to caveat this by saying I'm only 25% of the way through. My coffee doesn't last as long as I like, and after it's done I get off the couch and move to the next phase of the morning. Note that if it's not Xmas week, I skip this step and go right to the computer.
At this point I do whatever it is I "need" to do for work, which at most was a 10 minute meeting this week. I have sent maybe 3 emails and gone to 3 meetings, something along those lines. When we retire, this step will obviously not be here, but I suspect I will always have some project going on. I don't know what form that will take, but some creative venture is likely. I imagine at some point, I will try to write more focused content. I don't have enough time right now to bother. But early-mid morning we are here.
I make a 2nd coffee now, as well as tea for D and the usual breakfast of oatmeal. This block of time uses up some portion of my morning this week. I talked to some coworkers a little, but by & large this has been a pretty low-key week, to say the least. Around 10:00 I will decide if there is anything else I need to do.
Late morning I exercise. Right now I'm just catching up on TV and riding inside. Could I ride outside? Sure. Well maybe. The road is of minimal appeal these days and CR is probably off the grid for a bit because it's just been a mess out there. But in reality, I am enjoying my usual winter TV right now. Succession, Game of Thrones, True Detective, Fleabag, Bordertown, and so on.
Then I shower & eat lunch. Figure it's around 1-1:30 by the time this is done.
Here we place a firm wildcard in the day. Maybe go shopping, or run errands, or take the dog for a longer walk, or work on some project inside or outside. I have about 12 small projects mid-flight right now. This is not ideal, which I fully know. But it's how I operate. I suppose this block and the morning block may swap in time, or depending on the weather. But it's sort of "free play" if you will. Or, as was the case yesterday, driving to pick up my potentially Covid-exposed daughter, then driving to get all 5 of us tested, again. We are up to 16 Covid tests since last Monday. Somewhat insane, but it is a sign of the times. I suspect this will fade in 2-3 weeks when literally every human in the country has been infected.
Maybe late afternoon we decide what to make for dinner, which is something we have been doing this week instead of opening the fridge at 5 or 6 and hoping there's food in there. We've tried to make something a little different for dinner the past week, which has been nice. Then we come home and make dinner.
After dinner we've been watching movies. We started on Xmas day and have watched something for 6 straight days. Today we used the afternoon block to go to the theater to see Spiderman, so this evening is actually free for me to sit down and write. I'm sure this is going to be the last blog post of the year.
We wind down the night upstairs. I stretch, then read some combination of books. plus text JManic or whoever else I have conversations going on with. D will fall asleep first, and I will follow either shortly after or a bit longer depending on the book I'm reading. I have had some trouble lately finding a book that really grabs me, but against all odds I have found 2 that are doing this right now. I actually stayed up until 1:00 the other night because I was this into it.
Of course, this goes out the window when any sort of trip is involved. But in total, this seems like an ok way to approach every day. While I can't imagine we'll be retiring any time soon, when we do get there I suspect this is what it will look like, more or less. That said, this party train will be pulling into the station shortly, and 2022 will start much the same way 2021 ended before the holidays put the brakes on things.