Nothing to do. Let the Day Come to You.

 

Another Monday with nothing to do. Up at sunrise 800.  Dog chores and coffee.  Read the fake news feed.  Two below zero with four inches of snow but I take my daily pause out on the deck chair in my thick bathrobe to feel the cold and let the day come to me, unfettered.  My guilty pleasure to set the tone, tempo, ground my thoughts and acclimate for winter.  No phone, no booze, no pets.   We make French toast for breakfast.  Shower shave and clean the bath.  Minor instant gratification, indoor fix-it chores, laundry, yoga with the howling down-dog and I work for a just a little bit. 

Morning Reading in the new winter sun, since the leaves are gone, in my favorite living room chair.  Einstein’s theory on Coriolis effects on river right meanders; magnified by the equivalent to the sine of your latitude.  Negative in the Southern Hemisphere where they favor left.  Of course.  His son Hans became a Civil Engineer and Geomorphologist. The Newtonian apple does not fall far from the tree, relatively.  Then I get sucked into a new JK Rowling mystery novel a young friend gave me.  Not bad but not my style.  

This time of year I switch to morning reading with Mountain Bike and Moto riding in the afternoon to allow it to warm up.  In the summer it is the opposite where we are out in the morning cool and hunker down after lunch to avoid the afternoon heat.  This winter timing takes some getting used to since it is counter to my natural Mediterranean biorhythm’s that want me to take a Siesta in the afternoon.  Its not bad but not my style

Leftover enchilada lunch and then minor motorcycle, hot tub, and outdoor sprinkler maintenance and off to Home Depot where I spend two hours mostly talking to some other irrelevant retired friends. Then some indoor Pickle ball and chatting up the Mexican workers swarming in the neighborhood, scrambling to finish in the cold. 

Home I catch up on work and correspondence, run the dog, start a fire, and take a nap with Tracey. PBS news and Jeopardy while we cook pizza dinner, finish Giuliani with Borat, and the great new Sorkin Chicago 7 film and a Pink Floyd documentary and it is time for bed.  Read and write more, scratch the dog’s belly and sleep. Mind, body, and soul.

The point is it is so nice to let the day come you in its own time, space, and tempo, have the time to think and enjoy the little things and the details.  No messages or voice mail, commute, Windows, rushing, worrying, priorities or people who do not get your jokes, where I have to be at noon, what to leave in or what to leave out.  It is a skill that is not for everyone, but I think you might like it.