It has been a few weeks between posts. I have been incredibly, (not really) busy. It seems that when you are home you see all the things you have been neglecting when you were working. Things like, the leaky toilet, the need to replace weather stripping. Or how about the number of dings and nicks in the walls you always meant to repair. I have now discovered that it is amazing what you can do with a couple of Youtube videos and Google.
These things now appear HUGE and need to be dealt with. And if you are like me and have a very un-handy husband , then most of this falls to you. What about the broken light switch? An easy fix. Next came the leaky water line? Just google it. Then there was the damaged downspout outside? Check a couple of Youtube videos, and you can be Bob The Builder. (dating myself here and lucky you if you remember the animated show!).
Small Satifsfactions
Care to know the other thing I have discovered? I love these home repairs. Silly I know. But it seems that the challenge of trying to figure out what is wrong, finding the solution and fixing the problem is very satisifying. Maybe it’s because you get immediate results. Or because you can say , “hey I did that”. What used to appear daunting and costly is actually not.
And this satisfaction doesn’t just come with minor home repairs. Retirement has allowed me to expand my cooking skills as well. Trying new recipes has become a second past time. Wondering what you can do with plain old ground beef? Once again, google it. Need to do something with left over chicken? Dig into the stack of cookbooks, and find that perfect dinner recipe. I even tried making Pulled Pork for the first time. Needless to say, it was a hit. And again, these little things bring great satisfaction.
Definitely time to slow down
Perhaps that is because they offer immediate satisfaction. In this age of instant gratification, it goes without saying that slowing down is great. Because it offers you a different view of the world. Not everything in life is on the screen. The age old tradition of being hands on and creating for yourself offers more than you can imagine. I used to be caught up in the “everything has to be fast” world. Where there was no time to waste. Now I find I enjoy having “time to waste”. There is no deadline, no “I only have an hour”.
Someone asked me the other day, how I am enjoying retirement. My answer? I love having no schedule.
