Transition

 It's gray outside yet still mild enough to have our windows and balcony door open as fall places a stronger hold on the city. Summer to fall is a slow, gentle transition. Many claim fall as their favorite season. 

I am transitioning with the season, learning to understand and embrace my new world of semi retirement. Pre pandemic I worked, often under extreme pressure, full time. During my younger days, when I was in retail management, this sometimes meant 6o hour weeks. In my 20's, living life as what would now be called a gig worker, I was sometimes putting in 50 hour weeks. It was what I needed to do financially, but that is another story. 

We came out of the worst of the pandemic in fairly good financial shape, for which I am grateful. I got a job, after being laid off, where I work with a great product and am well respected. Since our expenses are low I realized that we could cover the costs of all our needs, and most of our serious desires, with me working only 3 days a week. This leaves me with the luxury of an excess of time. I, during my adult life, have had to keep life going, outside of work, with a minimum of this luxury. I have always rushed to cook, clean or grocery shop. There never seemed be enough time and wasting it, or whiling it away, was never an option. Now I'm working to slow myself down. To realize that, though it may be Monday and I return to work tomorrow, it is only for 2 days, and then there is more time after that. 

During the summer I was distracted, by afternoons at the beach, lakefront bike rides and free symphonies in the park. Now, for the next several months, these distractions will be gone and I must realign my time. I am trying to write more, you are thanked for your patience in advance. I cook, am delving further into our extensive music collection of cds and vinyl, which I care for with some amount of pride, than I ever have before and with the recent gift from a coworker of a Kindle he wasn't using, will begin to read as I have always wanted to, but had trouble finding the time. I want to explore classics, the "good stuff". I am looking forward to becoming acquainted with Hemingway and renewing my romance with Mark Twain. I want to experience more of the bare, raw masculinity of Jack London and the lyricism of Toni Morrison, although finding something by her I haven't already read will be a challenge. On occasion, at the gym, my workouts are less strenuous and lighter as my visits are a little more frequent. I am learning the comfort of staying in bed till 7 or 7:30, sleeping in for me, I am transitioning

It is an interesting journey, I thought of retirement, but when confronting it I found I don't understand it at all. I am learning to transition.