Beginnings, Endings and Returnings...
Happy Holidailies!
Here we are, back again at the beginning of the holiday season and the end of a calendar year. And a return to Holidailies.
We are in a lull between holidays. Autumn has given way to short, gray days filled with routine--the chores that must be done and the preparations for the big, mid-December holidays.
What's new with us this year? Dennis and I are both retired now. I retired in June. Denny is only a month into retirement and I don't think it has really sunk in for him on a to-the-bone level that he will never have to leave home to work again. I know it took me a few months to lose the "I'm on vacation" feeling and embrace the "school's out forever" feeling.
I am trying to rediscover the concept of leisure, but without the structure of a schedule, time is fluids and escapes me. I find myself busy with puttering around the house all day. I marvel that I ever found time to work forty hours a week and maintain the household.
Of course, when your household contains twenty-one cats--in varying states of domestication and/or decrepitude--life can be pretty full. More on that in future entries.
Denny has been working on finally finishing his shop addition--an extention on the side of our existing building that has been in progress for about a decade. This past week, he finally got wood heat in the area and the insulation in place, ready to hang sheetrock. This will give him an area large enough to park four vehicles out of the cold and weather. I know he is happy to finally have the time to finish the project.
I have projects, too, but most days I am distracted by photo-blogging or reading or playing a computer game. That concept of leisure, again.
And although the pre-lit Christmas tree has been up for nearly two weeks, I haven't actually put any decoations on it yet. Perhaps in the next few days. I am curious if--since Lola is now spending most of her time in the main house--we will have a return of the dreaded "Tree Wraith" again after several years of peace. I noticed a disconcerting amount of cat hair in the tree this morning as I was fluffing the branches....
We shall see.
Our life has changed quite a bit since last year but we are happy, healthy and doing fine. I am looking forward to reading the daily Holidailies posts and see how everyone else is doing this year.
Here we are, back again at the beginning of the holiday season and the end of a calendar year. And a return to Holidailies.
We are in a lull between holidays. Autumn has given way to short, gray days filled with routine--the chores that must be done and the preparations for the big, mid-December holidays.
What's new with us this year? Dennis and I are both retired now. I retired in June. Denny is only a month into retirement and I don't think it has really sunk in for him on a to-the-bone level that he will never have to leave home to work again. I know it took me a few months to lose the "I'm on vacation" feeling and embrace the "school's out forever" feeling.
I am trying to rediscover the concept of leisure, but without the structure of a schedule, time is fluids and escapes me. I find myself busy with puttering around the house all day. I marvel that I ever found time to work forty hours a week and maintain the household.
Of course, when your household contains twenty-one cats--in varying states of domestication and/or decrepitude--life can be pretty full. More on that in future entries.
Denny has been working on finally finishing his shop addition--an extention on the side of our existing building that has been in progress for about a decade. This past week, he finally got wood heat in the area and the insulation in place, ready to hang sheetrock. This will give him an area large enough to park four vehicles out of the cold and weather. I know he is happy to finally have the time to finish the project.
I have projects, too, but most days I am distracted by photo-blogging or reading or playing a computer game. That concept of leisure, again.
And although the pre-lit Christmas tree has been up for nearly two weeks, I haven't actually put any decoations on it yet. Perhaps in the next few days. I am curious if--since Lola is now spending most of her time in the main house--we will have a return of the dreaded "Tree Wraith" again after several years of peace. I noticed a disconcerting amount of cat hair in the tree this morning as I was fluffing the branches....
We shall see.
Our life has changed quite a bit since last year but we are happy, healthy and doing fine. I am looking forward to reading the daily Holidailies posts and see how everyone else is doing this year.
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