Monday, July 31, 2006

Today

I am new to blogging and I don't know if any of you are out there?
Certainly, these are the dog days of summer. Walking around the pastures and even up the road to the mailbox takes our breath away. The vegetable garden is sleeping under a blanket of straw, thinking about the salad garden to come in September..
Tomorrow my two oldest grandchildern arrive for two weeks. Diego is thirteen and now old enough to learn to drive the stick shift farm truck. He and his brother Pablo, eleven, will both learn the essentials of handling a 22 rifle, (not to kill any living thing!). They'll both help their grandparents to run this ranch and maybe get a sense of how much satisfactory work there is to be done. Right now we are getting rid of the invasive soda apples in the pastures by pulling and spraying. I think I will offer to pay the boys to bring wheelbarrow loads of mulch and compost to where I need it.
The cows are being very frisky these nights. For some reason they come into the space between the woodshop and my art studio and party. They eat the flowers in the bathtub planter, turn over every piece of furniture, and go into the barn. They poop everywhere. We have been parking the truck and my Honda in front of the buildings to deflect the cows.

Friday, July 28, 2006

FLORIDA GRANDMA

From time to time I want to write down my thoughts on what it means and what it is to be retired from a working life. This is, of course, a huge ball of stuff: there is not only the loss of one's usual function, but what to do with that whole wonderful world of prospects out there. How do we make it work for us? We have learned a lot about how to do our jobs and we have raised families and made our way in our various communities. We have incredible expertise. We hope we have developed networks and connections and interests that will take us into old age.
We are not yet really old but we feel like adolescents flopping around trying to decide what to do next. It is harder than adolescence because we already have a heavy load of baggage already collected that we must haul around. Some call this wisdom. I don't know about that yet. I do know that we have definite tastes and opinions. Retirement is way past that old joke about having your spouse home for lunch.
In this blog I'll write about the maniacal glee of release from lock-step schedules and the limitless possibility of new days full of time. Grandchildren, gardening, volunteering, friendship, the artistic life and whatever else comes to mind or through you.