Working at Living

 One of the benefits of retirement is how much I appreciate the cadence of our days. I am also learning to appreciate the excitement of daily tasks that felt cumbersome while I was working. Now the days feel richer than I had anticipated and I feel an appreciation for our accomplishments.

As we plan our cross-country  drive to visit people and see sites, I am preparing the interior of our home for a renter. We had a cleaning company for most of our married years and I cancelled the service last August. Joe and I agreed we would pick up the cleaning of our own home to save money toward our move to Minnesota. Yesterday one of my big chores was to deep clean the bathroom.

The bathroom sparkled. Last night after showering, Joe said, “The shower looks impressive. Better than new. Even better than the professional cleaning company ever did. You are hired.”

Me: “I’m retired.” (Meaning (1) I had time to do it thoroughly and, (2) I am not going to be deep cleaning bathrooms on a regular basis).

This morning at 8:30am Joe and I drove to the Natomas area of Sacramento so we could complete our TSA applications, stop at Home Depot (right next door to the Staples where we finished up our TSA apps), and another stop in the same center to offload some older model iPhones. Then we drove to Winters to pick up our final wine and cheese club selections at Turkovich Family Wines.

Then home for a lunch of crackers, cheese, olives, and dried and fresh fruits.

We began the afternoon with a few more chores. Then while I finished up our 2022 taxes, Joe grocery shopped.

Here’s the thing – we both find ourselves enjoying what we used to call ‘chores’ and feeling satisfaction from our accomplishments.  Joe is no longer building sensors for space research and I am not trying to solve workplace issues and help to build a positive culture for seventy people. We are instead finding delight in running errands and finishing home projects. Who knew?

I think Chio Chao knew! Chio and the department he works in at Hygieia gave me the desk plaque below. The ‘terrifying’ part has a history between Chio and me. When the people at work filmed a retirement video gift for me, they asked people to share one word they thought described me. Chio selected ‘terrifying’ and then continued with “…terrifyingly one of the hardest workers I know.” Chio has a sense of humor I appreciate to the depths of my soul. He is definitely a point of light in so many folks’ lives, including mine. And now I discover he is also an oracle.