So What Do You Do All Day?

At Llano Grande RV Resort, Mercedes, Texas...

We're often asked that question. The answer, of course, is "anything we want." That may seem a bit flippant, but it is still true. The marvelous gift retirement gives us is time--time to spend doing those things we enjoy and ignoring those things we don't particularly like to do. Take housekeeping chores, for example: I don't think most people realize just how much time they devote to maintaining their residence and grounds (unless, of course, you have staff to do it for you, which I would guess most of us don't). I'm not going to replay all the whining I did about this while leading up to the house sale, but the older I have gotten, the more I have resented its thievery of my time--precious time that inexorably grows shorter each day. 

Now that the house is gone, an enormous amount of time and money have been freed up to use for things we enjoy. That could be something as simple as watching a sunset or sunrise (we don't see many of the latter). Or reading a book. Or watching a movie. Or taking a walk. We certainly don't devote much time to housekeeping. Daily chores in Phannie take maybe 15 minutes; the rest of the day is ours.

When we arrive at a new destination, we may go out for a meal or eat something in Phannie.  Then we relax until the following day, when we may venture out in the car to see things that interest us or to find a good restaurant.  We've spent the last couple of afternoons showing Steve and Jackie around the Rio Grande Valley area. We stopped in at Retama Village and Bentsen Palms (upscale RV communities) for short visits with Mike and Marian, Ginger and Jesse and Bob and Janet. We've also tried out several local restaurants, among them Salazar's Hamburgers and Nana's Tacos, both of which are always good. We also stopped by the Don-Wes flea market to look around and picked up some fresh pineapple and, oh yes, the obligatory freshly popped kettle corn and mini-donuts, both of which disappeared in fairly short order. I'm not sure what happened to them. 

Javier scoops up a bag of kettle corn, freshly popped in the big cast iron cauldron to the left. Smells so good!

Jackie tried on a pair of sunglasses but didn't buy them. "A little too understated," she said.

Sandy found a plastic snake which I shamed her into touching. Since she is deathly afraid of snakes, it wasn't very gentlemanly of me, I admit. She doesn't look very happy, does she?

One of the cardinal rules for fulltimers seems to be that nothing should be rushed. For the purpose of this discussion, something is rushed when 1) more than one activity of any kind is planned or 2) the event planned contains no provision for a nap. If this rule is not followed for some reason, then it is essential that a day of rest is observed immediately after the transgression.

Don't roll your eyes at me; I don't make the rules!

Okay, maybe a day like this seems a little tame. But you should know that there is no shortage of laughter and no shortage of appreciation for our good fortune to help occupy our time.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.