Quick Notes about Being Retired ..... Comfort is Queen

Smokey Rose helps me knit non-fashionable things

Did you happen to hear the NPR interview with Tim Gunn or maybe read the newspaper article on which it was based? It's all about how the fashion industry has abandoned plus sized women, which Mr. Gunn called disgraceful. Thank you, Mr. Gunn for saying it so eloquently.

I do recognize that whether I want it or not, the fashion industry does effect my clothing life in many ways. Like how the Meryl Streep character explained in the film "The Devil Wears Prada"..... for example, I can only buy certain colors at any given time because the powers that be have decided something or another about colors.

I Really AM Retired Now

Photo by my friend Marian K.

One thing I have learned about retirement is that I no longer have much of a schedule that matters. Most things can be done tomorrow, or another tomorrow, or when I get around to it. Like writing a new blog post. It's been on the list of things to do one day soon, But, as you can see, soon did not come around real quickly.

The other thing I have found is that retirement is looking to be good for my health. One thing that tended to keep me from doing things like exercising and eating well while I was working, was time.  Time that I either did not have at all or that I did not want to spend on doing things like exercising or eating well.

Changed My Mind

Outside Apt 3C. Notice the new, modern decor in the hallway.

Remember how I said I wasn't going to move from my present apartment? Never mind.

Really, I had no intention of moving, but one day, not too long ago, I asked our super super, Adrian, what the newly remodeled lobby was going to look like. The whole lobby has been off limits for some time because it's been torn all to pieces, but it was difficult to see the plan for the end product because for the longest time they focused (as they should) on things like electric wires, roughed in plumbing, new walls, especially load bearing ones. Adrian said it was going to be an open lobby, a big open space with only a bathroom walled off and then a remodel job in old Apt 1B to the northeast AND a newly built studio apartment where the old hair salon used to be, a totally new apartment 1A to the south east.

The World is Looking Better

The weather is getting better every day. Soon it will be hot, hot, hot, but right now things are just about perfect. I am feeling much better too. I no longer have cold symptoms, although I am still a bit low on energy. I've been driving around town for short errands more than I really should primarily because I just don't have the energy to do a lot of walking. I still take a nap nearly every day with Smokey Rose.

School has almost finished up for the year. I have just one student taking an incomplete, and I was given no summer school assignment this year (yeah!) so I'm pretty much free to do whatever the heck I want right now. I'll be leaving for the summer home in a couple of weeks. I'm staying in town in order to get in some hours working at Red Butte and to take part in a couple of taiko performances.

I am back to planning for the future. The next myth of retirement to consider is the one that says "your money will last as long as you need it."

What I Eat These Days

Our heat wave broke last week with a big rain overnight on Thursday followed by all day fog on Friday. I'm feeling so much better.

As I said before I have been eating a lot of salads, fruits and other things that require no or almost no cooking. This has been going pretty well, and I'm thinking this is not a bad way of eating overall. I've also been reading some books that have to do with good and bad ways to eat, and of course, even NPR has stories and news items and whatnot about what we all should be eating, and not eating, to keep us as healthy as possible.

I've decided on some general principles for myself that I think, overall, are good ideas, but that don't make me an obsessive nut about what should be an overall pleasurable part of living. Most importantly, it's a plan that I know I can actually live with.

Simple Pleasures: Toast

I love toast. It's so simple and so delicious. I imagine it has been with us ever since someone invented bread. It's one of those things, like socks, that is just the exact right thing. I trust that toast will be with us forever.

I gave myself a gift this month of this fine new toaster. Before that I was using my toaster oven to make toast. This was part of my effort to simplify my kitchen. I use the toaster oven all the time as a little oven. Unless I decide to bake a full size cake or something similar, the little oven meets all my baking needs.

Several months ago my old little oven began to act up. For example, it had a fan, and the fan kind of broke which made it make a lot of noise. A toaster oven should not be noisy enough to drown out the radio at normal volume, but my old oven did just that. I put up with it, though, because I couldn't justify replacing it just because of the noisy fan. Then finally the control knob broke off and was unfixable. Hooray! The old oven was in the trash. I was completely toasterless, but I was free from that horrid old thing.

I went to Target.com and checked out all kinds of models of toaster ovens and toasters. I read a lot of reviews. I selected the new oven based on reviews. Two features that I like about my new little oven are that the settings are made with push buttons not a turning dial knob and that it happens to be made in America. It was moderately priced, neither cheap nor expensive. Now that I have it, I am pleased. It works just fine.

However, as you can see above I also decided to indulge myself. In addition to the little oven I bought an official toaster. I had come to decide after years of not having an official toaster that the oven was good as an oven, but not really the best thing for actual toast.

Toast (a noun) has to be made from sliced bread. You can toast (a verb) other things like bagels, English muffins, pita bread, but if it's toast you want, then bread is required.  And the official toaster machine makes toast just right.

(To my mind the best toast is made from some kind of white bread. As with bagels, you can toast rye or whole wheat bread, but a sublime piece of toast requires white bread. But this is my opinion. I won't argue about this if you disagree. And the best made toast has real butter on BOTH sides. Jam / jelly or cinnamon sugar are optional but always nice.)

I never say that a thing make me happy, but I will say that my new official toaster pleases me very much. First of all, it's colorful and well designed. Bodum, part of their new line of small kitchen appliances. Can you see how the cord happens to touch the outside? No problem with that because the green cover stays cool. The settings are simple and work well. And it has this warming rack feature that I didn't think would matter, but which has proved to be useful for warming up single rolls. I smile when I look at this corner of my kitchen now. I think that buying this new toaster was a good decision.

So now I eat toast a lot more than I used to. It's so easy to make some. I love toast.

Deciding What to Keep

I'm now in my permanent home, a beautiful converted school room in an old school building. I only live here part of the year now. It's my intention that I will keep this place for a long time. It's only 700 square feet which is plenty. I keep things here that I intend to hang onto for a long time.

I think of this place as being a simple living space, but it is not minimal. It would make a minimalist blanche. I wouldn't say you were wrong if you said it was all cluttered.

Every time I arrive here for awhile I go at it, moving things around, cleaning out spaces, deciding about things to keep and things to give away. Today I went crazy with the books.

I have a lot of books. Hundreds. I love books. But I have been constantly acquiring and getting rid of books ever since I was a kid. If I still had all the books I have ever owned, I would need a whole library building for them.

I am buying a whole lot fewer physical books now since I got my iPad. This is a miracle for me. I can still have tons of books, but they take up no space.

I decided, however, that as long as I do have the shelf space for them, I can keep as many books as I have room for. I still have some books in Salt Lake, most of which will probably end up here, so I was keeping this in mind today. I know I will have to do this task again, probably more than once. That's ok. I got a pretty good start today.

I also selected out several other things to give away too. I have the biggest problem with gifts. I hate to get rid of gifts because they were gifts. But I decided that I just can't let myself be burdened long term with gifts. Everything I'm giving away now I have kept for a respectable amount of time. People probably don't even remember they gave me these things. So I am lightening my burden a bit. Here's my pile of stuff to giveaway ... so far. I will keep going all summer with the assessment of what to keep.

Today I had to catch up with reading my favorite blogs. One writer, a radical minimalist, wrote about how giving up art is a good way to go which made me wonder about my attachment to art. But then two others said things like

"If you look to the lives of others, you will always find yourself lacking. Look instead at what you have and be grateful. Reduce your needs and be content." Leo Babauta: http://zenhabits.net/

"I realize it's not about having as little as possible, at least not for me, it's more about owing the things that truly matter." Henri: http://www.thesimplerlife.net/

I know I am content here, in my cluttered place. It's full of things I find beautiful and useful. I'm just not a minimal kind of gal.