Now What Do I Do?

Well, I finished the last of my "end of summer" chores yesterday. I have tried to create a low maintenance, low impact lifestyle for my self, these last few years. As a result, I haven't stopped working since I retired.

I wrote a blog last spring about all of the spring time chores required to "open up" our tiki themed deck; the deck staining, the yard work, and various maintenance items. Throughout the summer, when I should have been lazing around the pool, I worked on a variety of "tinker" projects. Now, well into the fall season, I believe I have finally exhausted my list.

The deck furniture is safely stored away in the garage, I rebuilt a section of my tiki bar that was warped by the summer heat and rains, polyurethaned the tiki bar prior to winter storage, replaced a cracked o-ring in the hot tub, maintenanced and covered the golf cart and the ATV, re-painted the trim on the garage, and remodeled our living room, bedrooms and my garage office.

At one point, the list of things to do became so long I bought two white boards to keep track of things. In other words, I had to organize my list.

I have mentioned on these pages that I believe retirement is a myth. I have one of my favorite comic strips framed in my office. It is from The Neighborhood by Jerry Van Amerongen. It depicts a guy standing on his front porch, looking expansively at his yard and house, both hands planted firmly on the front rail, and the caption says, "Ahh, Saturday morning and not a chore in sight!" The next panel shows him just after the rail collapses and he is face down in the dirt, surrounded by splinter railing and a sagging porch roof.

Things aren't quite that bad around here but it does seem like it never ends. There will always be a list. Which reminds me of another of my soon-to-be-famous quotes:

"If we can't laugh at ourselves . . . that still leaves a pretty long list."