Graceful Transition

Almost five years ago, I started taking yoga classes, and one of the first classes I enrolled in was an early morning class on Wednesdays taught by Pat Blum.  I continued to go to the class, even as I completed teacher training and began to teach - with the added benefit that, as a teacher, I didn't have to pay to take the class.  Over time, the relationships with Pat, her husband Charlie, and several other students that were in the class for years, became more important than the yoga poses.  After class most weeks, we'd stop by Starbucks and spend some time socializing, sharing about work and family events.

This morning was the last class.  Pat and Charlie are moving to Arizona, and the class won't be on the schedule for the summer.  Perhaps fittingly, only the core group was at class today. The class itself was entirely normal, there was no reason for it not to be.  We all accepted the reality of the transition, and seemed ready to move on.  We gave Pat some parting gifts, went to Starbucks one last time, and arranged to get together for one last practice at Pat and Charlie's house in about a month, before they pack up and head west.

I'm glad that I continued to get up early on Wednesday morning and walk over to a 6:30 am yoga class, even when I was tired and, in superficial terms, had moved beyond the level of the class.  It was the sense of community, the shared experience and interest in each other as people, that became the real reason to go.

The Spring I was Hoping For

May has been very wet and rainy, including another round of light rain and then heavier thunderstorms yesterday.  I was out on a shopping expedition and hadn't expected the front that moved in, so I was lucky to be in the car when the thunder and lightning started and the rain was heaviest.

This morning is pretty - mostly clear skies and a light breeze.  Very springlike - the kind of weather I was looking forward to enjoying in my first month of retirement.  I went out to plant a couple of basil plants in the garden, and the morning was perfect.  The plants are installed now, and I'm hoping they'll do well.  The last ones that I put out, which were smaller, were attacked by some insect and didn't survive.  The strawberry plants are gigantic this year - I've been trying to figure out how the strange spring weather accounts for that.  They bloomed and bore fruit several weeks earlier than normal as well.

When I'm out running errands - or more accurately, walking errands - I've begun taking different routes home, walking streets that I've never been on before.  Often I'll end up down at Sligo Creek, and then take the trail back home.  It's a treat to have the time to do that, and not be in a hurry all the time.

Two Weeks Retired, Seems Like Forever!

My second week was less scattered than my first, and by the end of the week I was thinking it felt like longer than two weeks since I left work behind.  It is fading rapidly in the rear-view mirror.  I don't miss it, which seems like strong confirmation that it was time to go.

Today, I had nothing that I had to do.  Shopping is now during the week, I mowed the yard yesterday, and had no yoga classes to teach.  So I got to choose my day with more freedom than usual.  The morning was nice - sunny and in the 70s - the first really nice day in quite a while.  More rain was forecast for the afternoon, so I went down to the park a little before 10, cut down a patch of bamboo, and then went to sit by the creek for an hour.  Later, I did some yoga planning, some cooking, some music, and went through my closet, throwing a few things away and setting a few more aside for donation.  There's more ridding out to do - retirement wardrobe will be different than that for work.

Tomorrow, on the other hand, will be a busy day.  Four yoga classes, the first at 9:30 am, and the last ending at 8:30 pm.  In the early afternoon gap, Pam and I will be going to a birthday party for my 2nd cousin Susan Braden.  Then, I float into week 3 of retirement, figuring it out as I go.

Stressless Plumbing, Dripless Faucets

I didn't have a firm plan for this morning, but thought I'd read for a bit after breakfast - that seems to be a good time for me to study.  Then I went into the bathroom, and the dripping faucet seemed to say, "You have time, you could fix me."

The faucet has been dripping for months, and as these things to, has been gradually worsening.  There were some repair parts from a previous project, so I got those and set to work.  This could be a 15 minute project - so why wait months to do it?  Because it could also not be a 15 minute project.  What could go wrong?  It's plumbing - pretty much anything could go wrong - and then I'm out of time and have a mess on my hands.  So, the rational decision often seems to just let it drip.

Over-scheduling, over-busyness, creates stressful situations like that.   But this morning, I had time to fix the faucet.  15 minutes?  All morning?  Whatever.

I turned off the hot water supply line and the drip stopped.  Good - just one side to fix.  I took the faucet stem apart and realized my leftover parts were incomplete.  That's OK, I can make a quick trip to the hardware store.  Then Pam came in and said, "The faucet upstairs is dripping too, can you fix that?"  Sure.

I took advantage of the trip to also stop at the grocery store for the granola they had been out of yesterday, and picked up some basil and mozzarella, because a caprese salad seemed like a good idea today.

Back home, I set to work on the faucet, replaced the washers, and reassembled.  Oops, handle rotates backwards - but the drip is fixed.  A quick reassembly, and faucet one is done.  Upstairs, the drip was also on the hot water side.  The handle was corroded on, but eventually succumbed to my efforts, and the rest of the job went smoothly.  This time, I knew the right orientation for the reassembly.  There's still one moment of anxiety, when the faucet is put back together and I turn the water back on, worried that there will be a drip, or worse, water will be shooting out of the faucet.  But all is well.  Water is on, and the seals are working as they should.

Simply having the time to work, knowing that if something went awry I could take the time to deal with it and not feel pressured by other tasks or commitments, felt really good.

So Much To Do!

You might think that retirement would mean empty time and not much to do.  But my first few days have revealed how much there is to do - accumulated over the past several years of being too busy.  The house is full of unfinished business - and now I have time to finish it.  Each day I do at least a little - of course I'm doing the easy things first, like shredding a pile of paper that had sat by the shredder for months - or moving a few boxes into the back room.  But it's a start, helping me internalize the amount of time to do each thing, so my expectations are better calibrated.  

Also helpful are breaking the bigger tasks down into smaller pieces, and being committed to finish things once they're begun.  I may try focusing for a week just on one room, and see how that works.

Wish me luck!

Retired!

Today was the first "work day" after my retirement.  I still had to get up early to teach yoga at the NOAA gym, but then, instead of going upstairs to work, I walked home.  It feels a little odd to suddenly not have any of the work that has been part of my life for the past 25 years, and to wonder what emails have come into my work address that will never be read or answered.

But mostly, I enjoyed the day - feeling my way through it - dealing with having to make more decisions about what to do and when, now that the routine and structure of work is absent.

I went grocery shopping in the morning - a pleasant experience compared with the weekend shopping of the past.  In the afternoon, I recorded another meditation for my yoga website.  That took 2 hours to complete and post on the website, and print a copy to use in my classes this week.  When I finished, it was 4 pm and very nice out, so I went for a run.  After that I vacuumed part of the house, practiced some yoga, took a shower, and helped with dinner, before my evening yoga class.

So, a busy day, quite different from a pre-retirement Monday.   Tomorrow will be similar, I expect - with a couple of yoga classes and more shopping - this time the periodic Target/Petsmart trip.  I have a lot of things to get to - just less pressure on exactly when they get done.  I'm thinking I'll set goals for the week, for the major things, and then go with the flow.