Lamar Thames

Sorry I haven’t a lot written lately, but I just have been too busy. I hope you will forgive me.

I know; I know. How can a supposedly “retired” person be too busy to write a column at least once a week? Let me count the ways.

1. At least two days a week, my wife and I are the designated sitters for three of our grandchildren as our daughter works at night. Since I am not currently working that means I cook dinner for all five of us. Of course, I am in charge of dinner for my wife and I two or three other days of the week, too, but the meals for the grandchildren are extra challenging trying to find the proper combination of healthy foods that all of us will eat. Since I am still not very good at meal preparation, it takes me longer  (A LOT LONGER) than most people to, a. choose a menu; b. buy the groceries; and  c. actually do the cooking. Time allotment: four hours, or one day a week. (Retirees don’t work eight-hour days, remember.)

2. With all of the rain we had in recent weeks, the yard and landscape demands attention every five days. I was so excited when we bought the biggest corner lot in the neighborhood until I realized why nobody else wanted the lot. It takes an hour and a half just to mow the darn thing. It takes longer now that my neighbor advised me to bag the clippings rather than just mulch them because mulching helps spread weeds. Add the edging, trimming and blowing and I have a lot of work cut out for me. Thank goodness we had a brief respite from the energy-sapping global warming syndrome normally experienced this time of year. Time allotment: five hours, another day of the week.

3. Exercise. Believe it or not, I do exercise at least four days a week. I know from the looks of the bulge around my midriff it may not appear so but I do workout. Half an hour on the treadmill and half an hour taking Rusty the Wonder Dog for his daily constitutional. I need to incorporate some weight training into the regimen but so far I have not. Maybe that is why opening those jar lids for my wife is getting more difficult. Still, I think mowing the lawn and playing golf constitute some form of weight training, don’t you? Especially golf since I am always trying to hit the ball a long way. Total time — 5 hours a week.

4. Cleaning house. I make up the bed daily, clean the kitchen and bathrooms, vacuum and mop the floors at least twice a week (OK, maybe once a week usually.) Total time — 4 hours a week.

5. Write blogs on both of my web sites. (If you have not seen the other one, it is called www.wanderingtourist.com. It is a different perspective on travel in Florida. Check it out and let me know what you think.) Total time — 15 hours. (OK, most of that is probably surfing the web, but I do have to do research, you know.)

6. Helping my wife with her classroom. I really hate to mention this because the amount of time I spend helping her pales in comparison to the time she spends. She usually leaves the house at 6:30 a.m. and doesn’t return until 12 hours later. Then you have to throw in the two hours she works at night on lesson plans, plus 3 to 4 hours on weekends. Whew, I don’t know how she does it. Returning to the classroom this year after spending two years in the district office as a curriculum specialist seemed like a good idea at the time, but so far it isn’t working out that well. Part of the problem is that she gave away most of her resources when she quit teaching two years ago and is now trying to catch up on all of it. Plus, she is in a brand new school (Plantation Oaks Elementary) and there are a lot of new procedures that need to be learned. My total time on helping her? A piddling two hours a week.

7 Assorted other things. Church, 2 hours; watching sports (I am too embarrassed to put a total on it; just say ‘too’ much); golf, 2 hours (one round every other week, if you must know. The rest of the time is either sleeping, reading or watching summer TV reruns.

So, there you have it. A week in the life of a retiree. If I wasn’t so busy, I could probably be more productive. But it would not be near as much fun.