Thursday, October 07, 2010

These perfect days

We're having absolutely perfect autumn weather around here.  Well, perhaps not quite perfect:  The pasture Cliff seeded last month could use a drink.  At least those little seeds got up and growing before this dry spell hit.  
Temperature highs are around 80 and morning lows hover around 50.  This means that when I go to bed, the windows are open, with a gentle, welcome breeze coming in.  Somewhere in the wee hours of the morning I wake up freezing, and close the windows.  
When I get out of bed, I put on a sweatshirt and sweat pants, and that keeps me quite comfy in the house.  If I go out to the garden, though, I need an added jacket.  By nine o'clock, I've ditched the jacket and I'm switching the sweatshirt for a T-shirt; when Cliff and I head out for our daily walk at 11 A.M., I'm wearing shorts, and that's usually what I wear the rest of the day.  
I change clothes a lot, this time of year.    
It amazes me that I can still go to the garden every day and come back with peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, beets, okra, or eggplant.  It's October!  I've never had garden produce this time of year.  


I've been thinking lately about Cliff's retirement and the ways it will affect me positively.  
It will be nice to get our walk taken earlier in the day: In the hot summertime, we'll be able to get out there and get it done while the temperatures are cool.  In winter, we can wait until mid-afternoon, and walk when it's warmest.   
It will be nice for the two of us to go to bed around the same time at night.   
I'll enjoy Cliff getting up at a decent time in the morning, so I won't have to worry about waking him up when I'm clattering around in the kitchen.  I'll be able to vacuum earlier in the day, because he won't be in there trying to sleep.
We'll be able to hop on the motorcycle when the weather's right, without having to get back home in time for Cliff to go to work.  He will feel better about going for a ride on the spur of the moment because he'll have more time for his chores and hobby activities, so he won't be fretting about what he should be doing at home.  
I've had several women warn me that he'll be underfoot all the time.  I doubt it.  Cliff spends whole days in his shop, puttering about.  He spends hours every month mowing yards and pasture, patching fences, trimming trees and cutting down the "old snags" as he calls dead or ugly trees, in the pasture.  In order to keep a place up to his standards, there's a lot of time and energy required.  
He was off work for three months after the heart bypass surgery, and as soon as he was able to do anything at all, he was not underfoot.  
We'll have a lot less money.  I doubt we'll be taking long road trips.  But I've lived this long without seeing Wyoming and Montana.  There's a lot of beauty to enjoy in Missouri and the surrounding states.  We'll probably be taking advantage of that free bed-and-breakfast in St. Louis frequently.    
There is that one little problem of my wanting a little time to myself in the morning before I talk to anybody, but we'll work around that.  We managed when he was convalescing, four years ago. 
Yes.  I'm ready for Cliff's retirement.

2 comments:

  1. I am glad you are looking forward to his retirement. It took me a while to adjust but I did. I am just glad I have the computer to"get away and have some me time."

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  2. You are so going to enjoy his retirement. Having the choice to spend your days the way you like to is worth having less money. At least I've found that to be very true. Every day seems like the weekend. We are to get some of that perfect weather here for a few days and I'm going to the camper to enjoy it all. We had about 5 days of rain off and on so we'll be mowing our grass.
    Hope you have many more perfect days!

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