So, what do you do all day?

I just completed year seven of my retirement.  I had hoped by now that I would no longer be asked the question, So what do you do all day?  I seem to be running out of answers.

My pat answer when people ask about retired life has always required a big grin and a reply like this, "Great!  I can do whatever I want when I want."  However, the truth of the matter is that I have been retired for seven years now and I am running out of ideas for what I want when I want.  Ideas that don't involve a lot of money, that is.

I have spent many hours reading.  A good book can keep me tied to a recliner for hours.  I have read many good books in seven years.  But, I'm hitting a dry patch. Too much of what I've read lately is mediocre or repetitive.  I don't even finish the downright awful stuff.  My book club's latest choice has received rave reviews, so I'm hopeful.  But, then what??

I could do chores around the house, I guess.  I'm trying to downsize my possessions so that when I die my nieces don't have to spend months swimming through my junk.  Every time I attack my office, I don't get very far.  I hate throwing away something I might need.  And trust me, if I throw it away, I will need it.  A recent example involved stories I wrote as a kid.  My friend Joan Nobile and I wrote mini-books about people who interested us, those people specifically being Julie Andrews and Thomas Grugen, our handsome gym teacher who lived with his mother in a home a few blocks away from the school.  I threw them away one day while cleaning out a filing cabinet. About six months later, I was reunited with Joan through Facebook. We were reminiscing about how we had written stories together the last time we saw each other some forty-five years ago.  She flipped out and was so excited when I told her I still had them!  Well, I had had them up until six months ago.  Damn.

Gardening exhausts me.  I think it's because I am so short.  I was trimming the bushes in front of my house with the electric trimmer I bought for $8 at a yardsale.  It's a great tool, but my arms ached the next day from holding it so high and tight.  I need to cut back the lilac bush, but I'd have to stand on a ladder to do that.  And I'd need my chain saw which is even heavier to hold and control.  Can you visualize the potential disaster as bloodily as I can? Bending to plant bulbs?  Oh, my knees and back ache just thinking about it. I may be short, but I'm not that close to the ground. I had nice petunias this summer, as long as I replaced the hanging pot every month.  Who can't grow petunias?  Me! A friend from the pool confessed that she had artificial flowers scattered throughout her garden.  From the road they look good.  And, for those of us on fixed incomes, they are a lot cheaper than hanging gardens.

Volunteering!  All organizations are looking for volunteers, right?  No they're not.  They are looking to regularly schedule people who are willing to work a parttime job for no pay.  I tried that this summer when I volunteered at my church to run the office while the regular secretary was on vacation.  I enjoyed the job, and I love helping my church, but I ran into some problems trying to schedule the rest of my life around my "work" days.  That's not quite doing what I want when I want, is it?  I will continue to volunteer at my church.  Grace Place is a wonderful thing for me to do.  So is the Food Bank.  But, I'm not so sure I want to go to all the meetings involved with being a volunteer. I hate meetings; they give me a form of  PTSD  directly related to all the faculty/in-service meetings that traumatized me during my thirty years as a teacher. I shudder at the mere mention of meetings. Meetings are the reason I won't consider any kind of a club, no matter how much I like red hats.

Walking is free.  I could walk.  I would lose weight.  It would take up a lot of my time because I walk a sloooooow mile.  Yep, walking!  That's what I can do.  Did I mention my aching knees and back?  I think I will take a walk tomorrow.  It's too dark right now.  Guess I'll take Trixie with me for some Mommy and dog-ter time. Oh wait, not tomorrow.  Trixie will be having dental work.  Maybe I'll go without her.  No, that's cheating.  She would love to walk with me.  Oh ok, I'll walk tomorrow, with or without her. That's one hour down.....or maybe just a half hour.  Unless it rains.

I really should start doing what I had planned to do when I retired seven years ago.  I promised myself I would take day trips.  But, I haven't done much of that because those day trips can add up. Gas is expensive. If I'm parking in the city,  that's a chunk of change.  Then there's the expense of lunch.  Perhaps there's an admission cost.  Day trips can cost a lot.  I spent one afternoon taking a day trip to see the sunflowers in Harford County.  They were breathtaking!!  And free!  I took lots of pictures.  I'd love to do more things like that, so I am asking for your ideas.

What are some interesting ways to spend a day?  I don't know how many of them I have left, and I'd sure like to live each one to the fullest.