A
couple of days ago my husband noted that I seem to have fallen down on
my blogging duties. And I am well aware that a blog that looks abandoned
will die. But retirement, moving, and a major holiday don't mix well!
There were looming holiday deadlines, such as e-mail subject lines
proclaiming "LAST day to order for arrival by Christmas!" Some of those
gifts had to be created first. A marathon eight-hour session ending in
the wee hours resulted in an iPhoto gift book which I hope will bring
pleasure; there were photos to be toned and cropped and either ordered
or assembled into a collage, just so.
In between projects I made more trips to the apartment to load up the car yet again with boxes and book shelves and bulky wire carts and more boxes. The apartment was only 850 square feet; how could it have held all that STUFF?
And in between holiday projects and moving trips there were a few final work obligations, such as baking the expected blueberry pie for the departmental post-graduation dinner and attending a final committee meeting.
There wasn't much retirement leisure in there, and there wasn't any blogging either.
Fortunately, my husband, who is partially retired, put up the Christmas tree and bought and wrapped packages to put under it. That is a very good thing, because two of the grandkids were here last weekend and they checked under the tree to see if there was anything for them. Thanks to hubby, there was.
A bit of advice I can pass on: Don't move at holiday time if you can help it. Either you will move or celebrate the holiday but it's hard to do both. A close colleague at the university just finished moving to a city three states away. She was offered a great new job and asked if she would start just as soon as the fall semester was over. The moving van left their house Dec. 9 and delivered their goods to the house in the new city on Dec. 19. Their holiday goal, she told me, was quite limited: They wanted to have a tree up, however small it might be. Yesterday she sent me a cellphone shot of a tiny but gaily lit tree AND a poinsettia in their living room. They are having Christmas despite the hubbub, and we will too.
Today I ignored all responsibilities, even my three weeks' overdue car safety inspection. A favorite word of retirees, I have been told, is MANANA. It has a nice ring to it.
In between projects I made more trips to the apartment to load up the car yet again with boxes and book shelves and bulky wire carts and more boxes. The apartment was only 850 square feet; how could it have held all that STUFF?
And in between holiday projects and moving trips there were a few final work obligations, such as baking the expected blueberry pie for the departmental post-graduation dinner and attending a final committee meeting.
There wasn't much retirement leisure in there, and there wasn't any blogging either.
Fortunately, my husband, who is partially retired, put up the Christmas tree and bought and wrapped packages to put under it. That is a very good thing, because two of the grandkids were here last weekend and they checked under the tree to see if there was anything for them. Thanks to hubby, there was.
A bit of advice I can pass on: Don't move at holiday time if you can help it. Either you will move or celebrate the holiday but it's hard to do both. A close colleague at the university just finished moving to a city three states away. She was offered a great new job and asked if she would start just as soon as the fall semester was over. The moving van left their house Dec. 9 and delivered their goods to the house in the new city on Dec. 19. Their holiday goal, she told me, was quite limited: They wanted to have a tree up, however small it might be. Yesterday she sent me a cellphone shot of a tiny but gaily lit tree AND a poinsettia in their living room. They are having Christmas despite the hubbub, and we will too.
Today I ignored all responsibilities, even my three weeks' overdue car safety inspection. A favorite word of retirees, I have been told, is MANANA. It has a nice ring to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment