Of course, in retirement weekends aren’t supposed to be all that different from weekdays. But Saturday I did some heavy yardwork, continuing to clear brush and downed trees from the lot south of us, making it look a little more attractive. That was after I had updated the checkbook, updated the budget spreadsheet, and filed receipts, etc.
After this work I got to read a while in the sun room. I may have napped in my chair a little. But soon it was back into the main house to get supper ready. Then the evening was consumed with preparing for Life Group on Sunday while watching television and doing crosswords. I think I had a little time to read in an e-book.
Sunday was up at 6:00 a.m. to do my main study for Life Group teaching. We began in my book yesterday, Acts Of Faith. The class went well, but I expended a lot of energy in teaching it. I felt washed out by the time we got to worship. After that it was to Wendy’s to get lunch to bring home, then to Braum’s for milk, then to Wal-Mart for prescriptions that weren’t called in for my normal trip on Thursday.
After eating I unloaded clean dishes from the dishwasher, added dirty dishes to it, and washed dishes that don’t go in it. Then fix a side dish to take to Life Group party. I sat a little while during the cooking, but not much. Around 3:30 p.m. I left for the party, was there until 7:30 p.m. It was a good time, except I ate way too much and felt sluggish afterward. I brought a plate home for Lynda.
I sat in my reading chair and promptly fell asleep, whatever on TV being totally uninteresting.
So, I did no writing and no reading yesterday. I guess that’s fitting for a “day of rest”. Hopefully it will take only a day or two to recover.
Mal and Penny, with the two pastors (and their wives) he’s most recently served under.
Yesterday was a special day at church, as our long-time minister of worship, Mal McCawley, retired from full-time ministry. Mal’s been at our church eighteen years—this time. He was here in the late 1980s, then came back in 2001, making for over twenty years in all. Including other churches he served at it’s over 30 years of ministry.
To say Mal was our minister of worship is an understatement. He’s fulfilled many roles as an associate pastor. He did whatever needed doing, in a proactive way, but also understanding that he served at the pleasure of the lead pastor. In tributes made yesterday, he was described as demonstrating perfectly “how to lead from the second chair.” Look around, see what needs doing, and do it. Do your assigned tasks, but realize the One who you really serve may have more for you to do.
Mal, God bless you as you move into this next phase of your life. I hope you enjoy your retirement as much as I’m enjoying mine.
It doesn’t look like the tree caused damage to the house, but I guess I won’t know until I get it down.
My last blog post discussed what was happening with my book Documenting America: Making The Constitution. On Monday, after writing my blog post, I made major progress on publishing tasks. I won’t list what I did. Suffice to say by the end of the day I was further along on all three versions (Kindle, Smashwords, and print) than I expected to be.
The Monday evening happened. A short but intense thunderstorm hit, with winds of 70 mph. Power went out at 10:30 p.m. and was off for just short of 48 hours. A large tree blew over from the wooded lot next to us on the north and is resting on the house. a second, larger tree also blew over but rested against another tree that kept it from hitting the house. Neither one seems to have damaged the house, but I’m going to need a professional service to clear the trees away. So, I’m dealing with all of that and have not doing anything more on Documenting America.
It’s hard to see in this photo, but it shows the two leaning trees. Both are pretty big, at least 12 and maybe 16 inches diameter.
What I did instead was more intensive editing of my Bible study, Acts Of Faith. When the power went out, I was through Chapter 5 with the second round of edits and also with the Leader’s Guide. Reading and editing the printed manuscript was something I could do during the day, even without power. So I stretched out on the floor, the notebook between me and the glass doors to the deck, and read and marked with red pen. I set aside work on the Leader’s Guide as I need to have the Bible study published by September 15. The Leader’s Guide can follow it by a month or so.
My first view of it didn’t look so bad. This is looking up from below it. The main problem will be how to control it as you cut it out. That’s why I need a pro.
By the end of yesterday I had edited all but one chapter. I will finish it today and be ready to type. In fact, I may type those edits before I go back to Documenting America. Acts Of Faith is out with two beta readers, one of whom I’m sure will give me comments. I’m going to send one more chapter to my critique group for comments between meetings.
Then I’ll be enmeshed in dealing with trees and insurance and other aspects of Monday’s storm. I’m not sure yet what my new publishing schedule will be.
In my last post, I told about the de cluttering effort my wife and I are in. I spoke specifically about the multiple stamp collections I’m dealing with, as well as a few other de-cluttering activities.
The stock book I worked on. I still have a few stragglers to add to it (which fell out before my work commenced), plus perhaps some re-distribution.
This weekend, while de-cluttering is still high on the priority list, so is what I call simply “getting things done.” It began on Friday, where I worked in The Dungeon for a good part of the day, doing my normal writing and stock trading tasks. In the evening I finally finished putting loose stamps into that stock book I mentioned in the last post, and on Saturday I gathered all the stamps in one place, while on Saturday and Sunday I put them all in a larger box and into their designated place in the storeroom. Check one item off the to-do list.
Our newer minivan was overdue for servicing. I finally called on that on Friday afternoon, learned they had appointments on Saturday, and took an early one. I learned of a sensor that’s gone bad; it will be replaced later this week under warranty. I also took that van to a nearby body shop for an estimate on fixing the rear tailgate after the fender-bender I caused in June. Ah, me. Much money to be spend fixing that small folly.
Friday and Saturday remained productive for the whole days. Let’s see what I checked off the list.
Elliptical and walking for Friday and Saturday.
Work on Acts of Faith each day.
Work on Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition each day.
Clean up in the front yard, along with weekend weeding and deadfall pick up in the back yard on Saturday.
Seeing about accommodations for a trip we will soon be taking.
Making a haircut appointment. (I hate using the phone for things like that and always put off making such appointments, so when I do it it feels like a major accomplishment.)
Helping the wife make an omelet Saturday noon.
Household budgeting on Friday; balancing the checkbook on Saturday; catch up on trading accounting on Saturday.
Dusting the high corners near the ceilings.
Preparing to teach Life Group on Sunday.
Working on organizing the stamp collections, in place for better storage or, perhaps, selling within a couple of years.
I found time each day to just sit and read in the sunroom, and nap there one day.
I could probably add a few more things to the list, but I’d be getting into minutia if I did. Suffice to say the weekend was full, productive, enjoyable, and, if you can believe it, restful. Yes, I had time to watch TV (while working on the stamps and crossword puzzles), to sit in the sunroom and read, to get full nights’ sleep, and to gather with God’s people in worship and study on Sunday.
Whether every weekend will be so enjoyable and productive remains to be seen. This one was, and I thank God for it.
This is less than half of the total volume of stamp collections I’m dealing with.
About a year ago Lynda and I came to the realization that we had to begin decluttering. Maybe that realization came longer ago than that, but it wasn’t strong enough to begin taking actions toward making it happen.
Then, in May of this year, when we had to move a bunch of stuff to make way for workers to do a certain task, we saw the stuff being moved was the fruit of over-accumulation and un-noticed hanging on. De-cluttering was suddenly real. We couldn’t just talk about it and think that no longer accumulating meant we were de-cluttering. We had to actually get rid of stuff.
The stamp boxes Dad made. When the collection goes these will stay, and be repurposed.
So, since then, we’ve actually been getting rid of some stuff. Perhaps not fast enough and not enough, but we are actually getting rid of stuff. We put out an old exercise bike for a special trash pick-up this week. It’s a bike that worked but which we never used as we have a better one. Wednesday I took a load of electronic items to the County solid waste center. I also took the old microwave that died back in April. That felt good.
About two weeks ago I started tackling the stamp collection. Or rather, collections, for I have three here. I’ve written before about how stamp collecting was a big part of our growing up. From the time I was 8, for the next ten years barely a day went by that we didn’t work on stamps. Our albums grew large. Dad built stamp boxes out of old TV cabinets from Uncle Kenny’s shop. Before long these overflowed, as did our large Harris Citation albums.
I continued collecting into adulthood, but not in a very organized way. We bought the new stamps as they came out and “sort of” filed them. We bought used stamps from dealers and put them in albums. We saved all stamps that came into the house. We soaked stamps off paper and put them in shoe boxes. In short, we did everything we had done when I was growing up.
Mom used to sit by the hour and bundle stamps by the hundreds, which she used for trading with dealers for stamps we needed.
We couldn’t get our kids interested in it. I eventually lost interest when the pull of career and other interests came on. Two periods of overseas living, with the stamps in storage in the USA and us wondering if they would survive their boxed exile, helped to lessen the desire. By the mid-1990s the collection was in boxes, in closets or the garage, unseen and untouched.
Then, when Dad died in 1997 we had all the stamps in his house to deal with. I was the one designated by the will to handle the collections, so we packed them into our van and brought them to Arkansas, to rest beside their cousins in other boxes. Then, in 2001, my brother made a visit here and brought his stamp collection with him, asking me to sell it when I sold the others.
The stock book I worked on last night. I still have a few stragglers to add to it (which fell out before my work commenced), plus perhaps some re-distribution.
We’ve known since then that the collections would some day be sold, but sitting down to organize everything seemed to be so big a job that I didn’t want to devote the time to it. Every now and then I did some internet searches about selling stamps, but that was it as far as actually working on them. The stamps continued to sit. I decided there was no point in trying to interest the grandchildren it stamp collecting.
Fast forward now to May of this year. Stamps were pulled from different places. I realized the time had come to do something. The first task was to bring them all together. I did this, and found the work massive. But slowly I’ve been doing more on it. Over the last two weeks I:
Separated the catalogues and how-to books from the 1960s out and put them in a separate pile. I think it’s unlikely any dealer or individual who might buy them (if, indeed, I find there’s any market for stamp collections, which I’m questioning).
Separated out what are really nothing but recyclable materials, such as sheets of cardboard, old envelopes, plastic bins from old cookie boxes used for sorting stamps, etc. I have a pile of these that I’ll get rid of before long.
Putting all the sheets of new stamps together and then into a mint-sheet notebook or a small box. I got that done last week, realized the notebook was bulging and something else was needed. On Wednesday I came up with a better solution and completed that on Thursday.
Organizing a stock book of duplicates. I’m not sure why, some years ago, I put this book together. But now it’s over-stuffed and bulging. Yet, it had empty pages. Yesterday I tackled it and found that the bulging was due to a poor distribution of stamps in the book. Yesterday afternoon and evening I put all my time into reworking that book, and found the stamps all fit with only minor bulging—and I still have some empty space in it. I may be able to eliminate that bulging if I spend all my time this evening on it.
So, where does this leave me? I should have all the stamps organized and stored in one place by this time next week, maybe sooner. I’ll discard/place for recycling those things that are no longer needed. I’ll check with one person who I think might want my brother’s collection. Then, I’ll break off to do some other things. I have two books in progress that I’m doing a little on simultaneously, but a little more concentrated effort and I’ll be able to finish and publish them.
It was easy to accumulate over 45 years of adulthood and 43 years of marriage. De-cluttering, which really means de-accumulating, is proving hard. I’m sure I’ll shed a few tears when the stamps leave my possession, not to storage, but for the last time. At that time I’ll tell myself “Better with someone else than put in my coffin with me.”
This post marks the 1,200th post on this blog. I guess that’s somewhat of a mini-milestone. That’s not actually how many blog posts I’ve written, however.
I hope someday The Dungeon will be a neater place than this. The best I can say it was messier on Saturday before I cleaned up a bit.
I started blogging in December 2007 on the Blogger [a.k.a. blogspot] platform, naming that blog “An Arrow Through the Air”, a phrase used by John Wesley that I really liked. I posted there until June 2011 when, with the help of my son, I set up this website with a blog. I ported over from AATTA all the posts there, however many it was at the time.
I kept blogging at both places for a while. This one was to be about my writing life, the other more general or personal in subject. It wasn’t terribly long that I discovered keeping up two blogs and writing and working full time didn’t make sense and wasn’t really achievable for me. So I stopped posting at AATTA and focused on this blog. I never did port over here the posts I added at AATTA after the original porting. So, I have some number of posts there that are, technically speaking, in addition to the 1,200 here. How many? I ought to go over there and count, but will do that at another time.
Eventually I realized I could use that name here too, and renamed this blog “An Arrow Through the Air”. That was sometime last year, or maybe it was the year before.
That gets us down to today. As I look through the blinds on The Dungeon windows, I see a cloudy day outside. We are right on the edge of the remnants of Hurricane Barry, with a 50 percent chance of showers this morning. It’s 7:46 a.m. and my first cup of coffee is almost finished. I’ve been at the computer since 6:50 a.m., right after I finished scripture reading (currently in Proverbs) and prayer. After checking book sales (none) and a writing website I follow, I typed edits in three chapters in Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. I’ll now shift to writing the eleventh chapter (out of seventeen) in the Bible study I’m writing, Acts of Faith—after I tend to my stock trading duties, that is. I guess breakfast will be in there somewhere.
The amount of wild blueberries in the woods across from our house is massive. It’s no where near being fully picked, no where near all being ripe. And, blackberry season is about to begin.
The blackberry bushes in the area still have both ripe and ripening berries on them, but I’m all picked out for this year. I got enough to make several cobblers, and freeze close to two quarts. I’ve done my free food gathering for this year. Time to think about some inside projects, some decluttering tasks and some home repairs to hire done.
This morning I woke about 6:15 a.m. and was able to say the prayer I’ve recently tried to make a morning theme, “I will awaken the dawn.” [Psalm 57:8] Looking forward to a full and rewarding day.
I don’t know how others feel, but I’m new enough to baking that it still seems creative to me.
After writing last week about what to write next, I made my decision and did it. I worked on Acts Of Faith Bible study on both Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t spend a lot of time on them, but found the words flowed quickly and easily. Research went well. By the time Sunday was over I was about halfway through Chapter 5. This morning, before getting to other activities, I came close to completing Chapter 5. Not really, because I plan on re-reading and editing it later today. But, as it sits right now, completing Chapter 5 today should be an easy thing.
What else? I began reading Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition aloud to my wife, scratching edits as I go. I read four chapters (out of 32) last night, seeing a fair number of places where it will benefit from editing. I hope to type some of those edits today. The Introduction especially needs both tightening and expansion.
The cooking prep for my experiment. I actually haven’t had one yet. Reports are that they were good. I’ll have one tomorrow.
What else? I wrote a letter to one of my grand-nephews. That may not seem like a creative thing, but it is/was. I also baked, a blackberry cobbler—from blackberries I picked—and some banana bread. They turned out well. Then, Sunday morning, I fixed English muffin omelet sandwiches to take to Life Group for our fellowship breakfast. I don’t know that they turned out so well and may not fix them again. It was an experiment, trying something my own mind conceived, so I count that and the baking as creative endeavors.
I spent a good amount of time outside, listening to the birds as I worked. Didn’t see this little guy around however.
While being creative, I didn’t neglect other things. As the first activities on Saturday I updated the checkbook and budget. On Sunday I took care of some miscellaneous receipts, the type that seem to defy even a comprehensive filing system. I weeded in our back yard and did other light yard work. I cleaned a matt of bugs off the front of our newer van, bugs that had decided to join us on our last two road trips. Both vans need washing, but that will be a task for another day. Sunday, Lynda and I went for a walk after the heat of the day passed. Not a long walk, but enough to get the juices and sweat flowing.
I kept up with my reading in three books, now having one more to review. Reading I see as sort of a creative activity. As I read my mind is usually thinking about writing, either the writing I’m reading or the writing I could do from the subject I’m reading about.
So, all in all I’m pleased at how the weekend went. If I can be that creative for the full week ahead of me, I will be on Cloud 9.
For today’s blog post, I had originally planned on a book review. I’m not sure which. I recently finished two books and will review both. I’ve been debating which would be first. As late as Wednesday I was still debating that, unsure. This isn’t a critical decision, but I just wanted to let you all know what’s going on with me.
Caught this little guy on camera this week. It’s always so nice to see the blue color on the deck.
Then came Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Actually, I could lump Monday in with that. All four days were days of incredible accomplishment. I got a lot of stuff done. Not only me: Lynda accomplished much decluttering, sorting through piles of children’s books to find duplicates, the unused/unread, and prepare to give away many and organize the rest. That’s on-going. The house is a mess, but it won’t be long before it looks much, much better.
As for me, each day I kept up with my routine things. I did my devotions first thing. I kept up with writing and publishing news. I did my stock trading, entering into a number of trades on Monday and seeing some success. And, I resumed my workouts on the elliptical—nothing major, but after a month layoff, it felt good to get back to that routine.
I then shifted to working on Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition. One day I edited the final three source documents. One day I wrote my part of a chapter, then next day on two chapters, and then yesterday did the last chapter. So, the first draft is now done, excepting whatever I choose to do for an Introduction. This is a very good feeling.
In the afternoons I worked on a construction specification for my former employer. This was the first major work I had for them. It’s major not because it will require a lot of hours (it’s a small construction project), but because it’s something other than random site inspections and correspondence. I had to remember again how to put a spec together. Strange how much you forget in not quite six months of retirement.
The spec was also good because the work of the project is unusual, the widening of a ditch, which requires a farm pond to be moved, both of which require some heavy-duty erosion control (temporary and permanent). I had to write one new spec section and significantly modify another. It’s always good to create something.
The amount of wild blueberries in the woods across from our house is massive. It’s no where near being fully picked, no where near all being ripe. And, blackberry season is about to begin.
Despite this busyness, I was able to do some things for enjoyment. I picked blueberries one day. Started reading two new books on consecutive days, and they both look like good ones that I’ll read through to completion.
In the evenings, I began work on a Bible study. I’m planning on it being part of our Life Group curriculum at church, probably this fall. I had the outline done for over a month, but hadn’t started work on it. On Tuesday evening I tweaked the outline and wrote it out anew. On Wednesday evening I began putting a Word document together, only to end the night finding the file had major corruption issues, about the strangest I’ve ever seen. On Thursday evening (actually some during the day) I started the document over and made major progress with it.
Now it’s Friday. I plan on writing the Introduction to Documenting America. I might pick some more blueberries. I’ll read some more in the two books. I’ll begin one book review for Monday’s blog post. I’ll do some decluttering work of my own, perhaps split between my closet, the garage, and my writing papers. Hopefully, four days of great accomplishment will become five.
Depending on where I sit I can see birds at the feeders from the sunroom.
I’ve written a little about writing in retirement. That was just a few days into my new situation, however, so I hadn’t had much time to establish a habit. Then, afterwards, I wrote moreabout what retirement was like for me. Again, that was somewhat early on in my “leisure” years—less than two months in to be precise.
As of today I’ve been retired for almost four months. A new normal has finally settled in. Yesterday was somewhat typical. I rose at 6:45 a.m. without an alarm, got up and said my new prayer, “I will awaken the dawn.” Weighed, took my blood sugar, made coffee, and headed to The Dungeon for my work, er, I mean leisure. I check on book sales (so far this year only four); I read two writing related blogs; I check e-mail, weather, and new additions to my 23andMe DNA relatives.
They bloom any time of year they have a mind to.
That doesn’t take long, and I move on to a combination of writing and stock trading. I’m quite active in both, working on several writing projects. Every hour from 8 till 12 I spend four or more minutes on the elliptical, trying to keep active while being sedentary. I typically do around 1 to 1.25 miles. Occasionally I start a sequence of rock and roll oldies on YouTube. I don’t do that much, however, for I find it distracting rather than helpful.
I go upstairs for breakfast at 9:00 and for lunch at 1:00 p.m. Then my routine varies. Depending on how my morning went, I will either go back to The Dungeon to continue my morning pursuits, or I go outside to work in the yard, or I go for my afternoon walk. I’ve been doing between 2 and 3 miles as many days as weather and strength permit. Whichever I do, the time is filled.
It’s a little cool in winter, but I still enjoy it.
That brings me up to somewhere around 4:00 p.m. At this stage I’m done typing, done with the stock market, done with exercise. At this point I take a mug of coffee and retreat to the sunroom. This is a fairly large room, filled with chairs and plants. We have a table in it with a lamp. For the winter months we run a space heater and I try to keep the temperature around 60 degrees. For summer, we have a window fan but no air conditioner. It does get hot, but with a chair placed strategically to the fan it’s bearable.
In past years, while working full time, I’ve used the sunroom some, typically on Sunday afternoons when I’m taking rest. Now, I use it almost every day. We have a table out there that came from my mother-in-law’s kitchen, a small, drop-leaf table. It’s a little high for the easy chair, but it works.
The too-tall table, plants, and an open window.
I keep a couple of books on that table, which I read only there. One is the letters of Arthur Conan Doyle. I’m going through that very slowly, as in I’ve been at it off and on for over two years. I have a couple of printouts for research purposes that I sometimes pick up and read. One is the Didache, which I have selected as the source document for my next church history novel. Another is one of the source documents for Documenting America: Making The Constitution Edition, my intent being to pull some blog posts from that document.
The woodpeckers are fun to watch.
Much of the time I sit in the easy chair, open the window right behind it, and read. Often I fall asleep. It’s not hard. With a little breeze coming at the back of my head, even if it’s hot in the room, I lay my head back whenever tiredness comes upon me, and I’m asleep almost instantly. Fifteen or thirty minutes later I awake and realize what’s happened. I read some more, sipping coffee. Perhaps I sleep some more.
Around 5:30 to 6:00 p.m., I leave this oasis and go back to the main part of the house to work on supper. I’m not a gourmet by any means, and cook simple things most of the time. Our microwave over went out about a week ago, but getting the two of us out to a store to find a replacement is difficult. So right now, even with leftovers, fixing supper is taking a little extra time.
Once in a while I go back to the sunroom in the evening. I like it after dark. I turn on a lamp on that too-high table, which gives just enough light for comfortable reading in a book. I read something, maybe even on my cell phone. I recently re-awakened my Nook and I may start reading on that in the sunroom.
We have six Christmas cacti out there. Four of them bloomed in March, one still having a few blooms. I enjoy looking up from my reading and seeing them. Other plants in the room don’t bloom, but they make the room more pleasant.
I hope to spend much time in this room in my retirement. Hopefully I’ll get much reading done there, both for research and pleasure.
I imagine just about everyone who has a blog and who at some time has visited Notre Dame will be making a post about it. I’ll join that army.
We visited Notre Dame in July 1982 while touring Europe en route to the USA from Saudi Arabia. We had just finished our first year in Saudi. Charles was 2 1/2, Sara a little over a year. Perhaps we were foolish taking two youngins’ on such a trip. We were young ourselves back then—and probably foolish.
Hard to get close enough to see people and much of the structure.
Lynda’s must-see city in Europe was Rome and mine was Paris. So we started our 28-day tour in Rome and ended it in Paris. It was a magical time, a once in a lifetime experience. Lynda and I have lots of good memories of that trip.
And a few photos. I think it was our last full day in Paris that we went to see Notre Dame. We had five nights and four days there. The day we arrived we learned the Louvre was closed due to a labor dispute. Bummer. We did other things, and I think the third day we were to go to Notre Dame, but the Louvre opened so we went there, leaving the famous cathedral for the last day in Europe.
Wish I were a better photographer.
We were at Notre Dame somewhat late in the afternoon. After relaxing and taking photos around the outside we went to go inside. A worker stopped us, saying mass was just starting. Not being Catholic that didn’t lure us in, but they would let you in if you wanted to attend mass. Lynda did that while I kept the kids outside, then, maybe ten or fifteen minutes later we switched. I felt a little guilty telling the worker I wanted to attend mass when I didn’t really, but, sometimes we do what we have to do. This was our last opportunity on the trip.
The interior had many beautiful views.
I remember inside as dark but beautiful. I made a quick pass around the inside perimeter, admiring all that I saw. I don’t have specific memories of this or that piece of artwork, but no matter. I went, we went, and that’s what was important.
While inside I snapped some photos. We had a good camera, a Nikon SLR with a telephoto lens, but I wasn’t much of photographer I’m afraid. You can see them on this post, not quite in focus, looking like they were taken in haste instead of with care. Alas.
The cathedral dominated the entire area.
I don’t remember which of us took the outside photos, but it was probably me as I’m not in any of them but Lynda and the kids are. They might be a little better than the inside ones.
We didn’t keep a trip diary then, so have no notes of what we saw, only the photos and perhaps a postcard or letter mailed home, which parents saved and gave to us years later. If time allows, I’ll find them in a file and see if I have anything to add. Given that this was our last day and we were then to head home to see parents, I don’t think I’ll find anything in there.
The fire was, of course, devastating. It’s a shame, though we look forward to rebuilding. I suspect I won’t ever get back there again, as there are too many places in the world to see should I ever again make an overseas trip.
