Who knew retirement could be this hard?

Today was my first Monday apres-Google and a miracle occurred. I slept un-interrupted by work related dreams, did not even think about work in the morning, I read through the papers and shared commentary about Trump with my wife (who was reading the same articles in the #amazon WP and #failing NYT), did some planning on the next place to consider moving to, and then headed off for my project-for-the-day - thinning the front yard jungle.

I have always enjoyed landscaping for some unknown reason. It makes no sense  since I grew up in Brooklyn, NY where everything has been paved over for the past 100 years. All of the greenery in the apartments I grew up in was plastic - horticulture should not be in my genes at all. But, as we moved from house to house over the years, I started to enjoy digging holes and planting things...not all of these lived for very long, especially in Colorado where plants rarely survive the long winters (...winter is coming has a different meaning then on Game of Thrones). Owning an Irish Setter that enjoyed destroying trees and plants also did not help. Richmond Virginia was a great place for cultivating poison oak and for tall trees that spewed clouds sticky yellow pollen - most other plants were a challenge.

California has been the exact opposite of my previous gardening experiences - here, everything not only grows, but seems to double in size every 6 months. Rosemary for example, never grows more than a few inches in Colorado. Here, it is used as a hedge plant.  When the drought kicked into full gear a few years ago, we pulled up our lawns and planted some nice, small, drought tolerant plants….all of which are now giants. It's really hard to kill a plant here.  One section of the yard looks like a rain forest. We had planted a few Cordilyn’s, not knowing that they can grow under the right conditions, to 8 feet high. And that they also spawn other plants. Who knew? My task for the day was to thin out one in front that had what appeared to be three ‘children’ into something more manageable.

Upon crawling under the plant (no mean feat), there were 5 plants grown out of the original - a very prolific little devil. The surgery that ensued was not difficult, but definitely chewed up a chunk of my day, since I had other yard related tasks on my list. I realized that much like working at Google, this is not exactly what I want to be doing on a regular basis. I was hoping retirement would not be like work.

Fortunately, the rest of the day was much better - a long walk, workout, swimming, and my first attempt at baking something other than loaves of white bread (no, not like Wonder Bread). Making French bread requires the right recipe. I did not have one this time around. Came out sort of like a ciabatta roll. But, it was fun trying

Tuesday update - I think I am getting to understand this retirement thing a little better now after the first week. One friend said you will have the shakes for a bit, but they let up after ten years. Thanks for the support. The best advice is to not panic, and just find out what you enjoy doing the most - between fun things, hobbies, athletic related activities and chores, it is pretty amazing how quickly the day fills up.

Oddly enough, I have noticed that there are viewers of my blog. I’m not advertising to any of my friends or acquaintances, but I’m guessing there are a few die-hards on G+ that picked up on my latest blatherings. Thanks - although I'm guess this is a lot like all the documents I've been generating at work this past year, where most of what I wrote was opened by mistake. But I’ll keep on posting whenever I have some noteworthy adventure …. no more gardening or bread baking going forward. I