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Re-entry to Blog Duties

Aug24
mother's gift of birds

Recliner chair with AirDesk and laptop computer (“Mother’s gift of birds” Photo credit: Rusty Clark)

 

It’s been a while since we last posted here.

Regaining our ability to sit at the computer took nearly eight weeks.  Blogging doesn’t go well in 8-minute bursts, and that was what our sore back allowed.  Exploring the world from a semi-supine position in the good Starship Recliner-Chair did not allow computer use.  We were effectively silenced for the duration.

It feels good to return, but there’s not much going on.  Would you like to hear about our exercises?  We didn’t think so…  It’s been an interesting two months, though.

Encounters from the Starship’s bridge:

  • Discovered some EXCELLENT TV dramas and caught up on the back seasons for Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Borgias, and Damages.

Damages, a Glenn Close drama about power and high-stakes litigation, is particularly good and I was crushed to find that the new season, #5, is available only on CurrentTV.  You can’t even purchase the episodes on iTunes!  Yes, CurrentTV will sell a 2-year contract for $59.95 per month so one can watch Damages.  No, we are not going to do business with them, because their service is overpriced and withholding the 5th season of a serial drama is unconscionable.  It will be interesting to see how many new viewers they garner with this tactic.  Prior seasons are available on Imdb.  Why didn’t they just sell season #5 to iTunes?  They could certainly have gotten a premium price for that series!

  • Sampled some other series and chose Sons of Anarchy and Bleak House as the next projects.
  • Our 4-year-old HP All-in-One printer died and was replaced by its newer cousin, an HP Photosmart 7510.  Only installed it this morning, but now we should be able to print wirelessly from our Droid smartphone and our Kindle Fire e-reader tablet.
  • Chloe, our new granddaughter, became an American citizen on her way here from China three weeks ago.  She is 22 months old and has a smile that makes hearts go pitter-pat.  Our son and his wife are embracing the new-parent role,  complete with all-nighters on somebody else’s schedule and not being able to speak Mandarin or English, depending on whether you’re the parent or the kidlet.  Hugs and smiles go a long way, as does mutual respect.
  • Tried to sew Chloe’s fancy Minkey baby blanket, but cannot bend down to the cutting surface yet.  All in due time…
  • Tangled up our WordPress usernames and passwords among our several layouts and managed to get locked out of The Time Is Come (this blog

Word to the wise:  once your blog is hosted outside WordPress.org (see earlier posts about migration out: one really is on one’s own without technical support!  A timid or inexperienced techie can be intimidated by the need to FTP into one’s domain, especially after one has been told, “Stay Out, Stay Alive!”  We regained control of our blog by sneaking in through one of its testbed sisters and selecting it from a drop-down list we had never seen before.

There are rules about how to structure one’s arrays of administrative information.  We did not know about them and so set things up in such a way as to make lock-outs probable.  That has been resolved with a more informed set of choices for the blogs.  The Time Is Come is our only blog that’s published;  the others are test beds.

  • Purchased a great computer work surface for the recliner.  It’s called an AirDesk, and it consists of a vertical steel shaft on a large, flat base.  Steel arms extend horizontally from it to support clear Lexan rectangular table surfaces.  The tables seem to float above the chair.  The engineering genius is in the adjustability of the arms that support the tables.  They are held in place by friction (with tightened fasteners) and can be swung in and out, adjusted in height, and tilted.  It’s really nice to position a keyboard EXACTLY where one wants it, even if pain got in the way of productivity.
  • Watched many hours of Congressional hearings and county Board of Supervisors’ meetings.  Some of those Representatives can be savage and relentless, particularly if the agency in question really messed up.  To get the flavor of it, use CSPAN’s video library to watch the General Services Administration testimony about their overly luxurious conferences. Truly a blood sport!
  • Enjoyed the Olympics, to the extent that NBC’s lackluster programming provided access.  The highlights schedule printed in our daily newspaper was wrong more often than correct.  The information screens accompanying the Guide listings for our Cable service were incomplete, prone to providing snippets of events not mentioned, and  overloaded with interviews of Michael Phelps.

Congratulations to the Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremony Planners in GB!!!!!  The opening and closing ceremonies were almost all elegant, professional, and lots of fun.  (We do wish that all of the vocalists in the closing show paid enough attention to staying in tune.  Some of their music was pretty far off.)

  • Read a half-dozen books:  mostly novels, but a few nonfiction ones.  Look for book reports in following posts, as some of the books were great!

Summary:

Recuperating in the Starship hasn’t been boring, although there have been frustrations.  The pain was foremost, until the exercises and the “tincture of time” (an orthopedic surgeon’s phrase) took care of it.  We have been driving for short trips for over a week.  Getting back into shape after all this lying around is Job One!

 

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Retirement has Uninteresting Stretches

May26
Fall in Yosemite National Park

Fall in Yosemite National Park (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Retirement seems pretty boring now: is this temporary or might it drag on too long?

Life has its ups and downs; this is as true in retirement as at any other time.

Over the years, we have found strategies (“tools”) that can pump excitement back into a slowed life cycle.

The first thing to do is to take stock:

  • Is our health good?
  • How are things going with family and/or people we care about?
  • Does this slow stretch follow a time of intense activity? Are we just tired and needing to recoup?
  • Can we tie our current blahs to something external, such as lousy weather, an unpleasant anniversary of some sort, frustration, or loss?
  • Have we allowed our love of solitude to take over? Have we become lazy and isolated from our friends?

Once we have a handle on why things have slowed down, it’s time to consider taking action. If there’s a problem that can be fixed, work on it.

Do we want to get out of the current state now, or should we let it ride a little while more?

The next step is to relax into our slowed state and dwell in the moment. Then, after a reasonable (relatively short) time, use approaches to help us exit this stall and become active again.

  • If life is slow for a while, let’s let it wash over us and allow it to run its course (within reason…)
  • It’s o.k. periodically to take some mental health time, to stay in one’s robe all day, to putter around for a while, and to relax.
  • This could be a time to dabble with something we haven’t tried for a while, such as crocheting, daytime television, or origami.
  • How about breaking the inactivity with a phone call to a friend or with dinner out with Spouser?
  • Times like these are good for raising our self-awareness with writing, driving to a pretty place, or prayer.
  • Increase our daily allotment of mandatory pleasure points, like gazing at a sunrise, admiring a blossom, listening to favorite music, or enjoying a nice dessert. Calendar them if necessary!

Wait a while for these tools to work, but be vigilant for signs that they might fail. Mankind is supposed to rest from time to time, but know that unhealthy indulgence might need treatment.

Having decided to get our retired career going again, what next?

We have ruled out problems and experienced this quiet time as much as we want to. Now it’s time to get going!

  • No, it isn’t easy to begin exercising again when coming out of a down phase, but find a way to Do It! Ask Spouser or a friend to remind you of what you stand to gain. Nagging won’t work.
  • Get outside help, such as by purchasing a few sessions with a personal trainer or a yoga instructor.
  • Go to a regular meeting of an organization you once were part of—but arrange for somebody to pick you up and maybe even go to lunch with afterwards.
  • This is not the best time to begin something vastly more demanding than your activities before this down spell. Beginning an enormous quilt is more likely to overwhelm you than to reward you quickly enough. Also, forego the ice climbing lessons for a while and don’t marry (or re-marry) anytime soon.
  • Test the waters for a new activity, but don’t rush in. Go to an orientation meeting for prospective volunteers for (a) the public library; (b) a food bank; (c) the American Red Cross; (d) a hospital; (e) an environmental quality advocacy group. The need for volunteers, especially in today’s economy, is enormous. Be careful to try on the new role before committing to it.
  • Go to a concert or a play. Go by yourself if it’s too soon to spend much time with a companion.
  • Enroll in a short, general-interest class in something interesting. Perhaps you’d like to do your own weather forecast, or learn Photoshop, or become a barbeque master. The psychological payoff from this kind of entertainment can be fabulous!
  • Some folks swear by retail therapy. If you need and can afford a new outfit or hairdo or table lamp, consider going shopping.
  • If you are feeling blocked by an overflowing To Do list–made longer by your vacation from it–reframe it! Remind yourself that if you could list something, you have permission to reschedule it or even to delete it!

Having tried some of these tricks, evaluate and choose the two or three with the best results. Use your energy to build on successes and you can find yourself in a virtuous circle. Something worthwhile is likely to come from your efforts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Remembrance of Volunteer Friends Past

May15

Volunteer and Manager at Condor Refuge in California with wild condors sitting on a flight cage holding captive condors inside.  Photo:  N.T. Ryan

Volunteers are precious! Working beside a good one can be fun and satisfying, but it’s easy to drift apart when the job is done. This week some of them returned to our life:

  • One who had been seriously ill is feeling better now, and she phoned.
  • We chatted with an official who oversaw a charitable organization while we had served on its board of directors.
  • We got another phone call, this one from a fellow member of another charitable organization.
  • We visited the agency where we most recently volunteered.

In our case, volunteering has paid off in friendships, in learning interesting new things, and in the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile. We have been active in school and church music programs over the years; have served on boards of directors; and even had a Girl Scout troop.

Phase I of retirement began suddenly with our surprise arrival at the hospital.

We fell ill while at work and never returned. The subsequent year was devoted to regaining health and to retraining as a Computer Network Administrator. We also returned to church.

We worked part time for a publisher and we learned to play duplicate bridge. Our Dad was fading in competence; we became his caregiver. One of our sisters did the same for our Mom. Caring for an ageing parent who lives 135 miles away is quite a challenge!

Phase II was catch-up time for recreation and personal growth.

We and Spouser traveled a bit and took some cruises, remodeled the house and yard, went camping, read lots of books and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! We also took up quilting, which is challenging and full of beauty.

Phase III opened the volunteer-intensive time of life.

We joined the local Woman’s Club. These clubs have been around for over 100 years. There is even a display about them in the Smithsonian Institution! Ours helped establish our county’s first public library many years ago. There were many ways to serve the Woman’s Club: Study Section Leader; banquet table decorator; bridge player; Board member; newsletter publisher; refreshments contributor. The list goes on…

Phase IV sprang from Woman’s Club friendships.

We joined the retirement chapter of a business women’s service club and the local chapter of a national charity. The service club did very little except raise money for a scholarship and meet for lunch. The charity, on the other hand, was very rewarding and time consuming for a while. We helped in the thrift shop, preparing home appliances for sale and helping customers. We also worked on the accounting system and with several annual fund raising events. This period was when we opened a non-profit duplicate bridge club. The club failed financially, but it was great fun while it lasted. We also served as a Medicare counselor for the Department of Ageing and as a member of the County Grand Jury.

Retirement Phase V was the last phase of active volunteer work.

The nearby office of a Federal agency had an active volunteer program. Not all of their slots were of the “guiding wildflower walks” variety:

  • We started by making file folder labels and filing documents in 3-ring binders;
  • Got computer access and did the layout for an annual newsletter;
  • Helped with the accounting system of a charitable organization associated with one of the agency’s properties;
  • Put an illustrated herbarium on the Web and joined Web page team;
  • Learned enough mapping software skills to prepare several maps for the Web; and
  • We prepared and entered data from original documents into a computer database.

There were many other ways to help out, and we did a lot of them. It was fascinating to learn about the agency’s mission and see how they fulfilled it.

Phase VI wasn’t supposed to happen yet, but last year’s knee surgery did not go well.

We tried unsuccessfully to return to the agency a couple of times, but could not keep up the pace. We can return when ready, and probably will.

This phase is quite different, so far. We have focused on sedentary activities that work well with limited mobility. Newer interests include this blog and learning to draw.

Our volunteer friends reappeared at just the right time!

We can now go out for lunch, or to a movie or a play. These ladies will fill out our circle of friends to be invited!

 

 

Fabric Arts Excursion

May7
Original Description: Fabric merchant. Samarka...
Original Description: Fabric merchant. Samarkand. Merchant’s display includes silk, cotton, and wool fabrics as well as a few carpets. A framed page of the Koran hangs at the top of the stall. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The last few weeks have been an intense rush into blogging.  The Guided Transfer package includes two weeks of support to get everything going outside WordPress.com.  That injected time pressure into the project.  We used our two weeks well, and the Happiness Engineer answered many, many questions. Now the time pressure is over.  We still have a way to go before becoming expert in WordPress, and we’re comfortable with that.  So we took a break from the blog with a fabric arts excursion.

Our son, K., and his wife, E., are adopting a toddler from China.  She’s a beautiful child and we can hardly wait to meet her in person. Everybody mentioned here gets a blogname; hers is C. The kids will go to China to pick her up when the process is ready, probably in a couple of months.

Our tradition is to welcome a child, or children, with nice gifts that are also practical.  It’s hard enough to be a toddler without having a harsh environment on top of it!  C. knows some Chinese words, but she’s coming into an English-speaking family and will have some catching up to do. The gifts will add beautiful things to C.’s new environment, which we hope will take some of the edge off the change.  The family’s enormous love for her will help a lot with her big adapting job.

Our gift will be handmade baby blankets.  We sat with E. at the computer and surfed Minky© fabrics.  Minky© has selections of different pile lengths and many colors and patterns.  Its texture feels very luxurious, soft and cuddly.  E. decided on a fabric that’s deep cranberry pink with pale pink polka dots.

We spent more glorious hours last week exploring sumptuous satin backing fabrics.   E. saw them last night, and she chose a medium watermelon pink satin with abstract white lilies(?) on it.  The combination looks wonderful on the screen and pretty darned good on printouts, given the age of the printer. (We cleaned the print heads and installed fresh cartridges. This helped, but printouts and computer screen images still don’t match perfectly.  Looks like there’s a computer equipment calibration chore ahead.  Sigh…)

We wish we could publish the images, but getting copyright permissions from at least two different stores is too big a hassle.  Please click on the links, above, to see the fabrics.  Our next job is to decide on the blanket binding, but that will wait until the fabrics arrive.  Any leftovers just might turn into a cuddly bear…

Grandma is such a great role when there’s retirement time for hobbies, arts and crafts!

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Ordinary Retirement Life has Moments of Joy

Apr20
Congressional Hearing
Congressional Hearing (Photo credit: cali.org)

Retirement life can be pretty ordinary at times.  On the whole, this is a good thing.

It’s nice spring weather, and Spouser is pouring concrete sections for our fence.

Tax time came and went.

There were a couple of birthdays, including mine, but the celebrations were deferred until everyone feels well again.

We put the last touches on new décor for the project room, which used to be our gym.

Reading some computer-diagnostic logs pointed to an overloaded video card.  We adjusted screen resolution and the computer crashes less now. Yes, the new router is still on The List of things to do.

We vanquished the backlog of catalog orders in waiting; now packages arrive almost daily, most of the clothes fit, and the other stuff has worked out pretty well.

Our friend Z. visited yesterday in honor of his third birthday.

Our granddaughter-to-be saw her adoption paperwork pass a big milestone. It looks like the kids will go to China to get her in July!

We watched some dramatic hearings as aggressive Congress members went after the GSA officials who partied in Las Vegas on the taxpayers’ dime!

Some good-looking pastel painting webinars are coming up.

What brings pressure into this ordinary life?  The first priority is getting this blog fully stable in its new domain.  WordPress’ Guided Transfer includes only two weeks of paid support right after they move the files, and there are quite a few things that we don’t understand yet. Everything else on The List can wait.

There’s also a big temptation in the house:  a friend lent us her copy of The Hunger Games and we started reading it.  Big mistake to give in to the temptation…

 

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