More Mustard (The Catch Up)

Periodically, I find myself here intending to say something but then I remember I'm far too shallow for the deep end.  While I am prolific at creating draft entries for this blog, much of my creative energy is spent posting Instagram and Facebook photos of discarded toilets I see curb side and on their sides, an important mission to be sure.



You may ask yourself, "well...how did I get here?"  Let's see.  One of the biggest changes for me over the past few years is that neither of my parents now require greeting cards or phone calls on significant occasions.  Both are either looking down or up at me from other planes.  I hope the gates weren't locked when you got there Ma!  I jest.  It's easy enough to keep them in my thoughts as I inch ever closer to my Kominsky Method years.

 

My other great upheaval happened at the end of May 2019.  It was then that I hightailed it away from the working world for good.  Now, it's retirement that greets me with a warm embrace each day and not a freshly toasted and buttered bagel.  I happen to find myself incredibly easy to entertain and I do enjoy the look on anyone's face who asks "what do you do now?" as I reply "anything or nothing", heavy emphasis on the nothing.

  

I'd nearly forgotten how joyful it can be to pick up and read a book and then then feel that same book hit my chest, lap or the floor as I drift into an undeserved afternoon nap.  Sure, there will always be things I miss about work - the lunch hours, the leaving at the end of the day and the three or four people with the best gossip but I try not to dwell on these losses.

        

While each day, I devote some worry to the ethically challenged leadership Canada has at the moment, it isn't long before the spectral shadow cast by the United States puts things in terrifying perspective.  I did pay close attention to the first few seasons of The Walking Dead and feel adequately prepared for specific nightmare survival scenarios but the threat from down under (Canada) may yet be the ruin of us all.



In other cheery news, I realize that it's this very morning when I was to be ambling around getting my bearings in Barcelona (thanks Covid 19!).  I am comforted thinking about the many great memories of past vacations and adventures I've had and the still more I hope to have.  Until then, it's YouTube for city tours.



While I remain optimistic and grateful through these dark times, I should be in a really pissy mood as soon as the weather shifts again.



In the meantime and in case you missed it last time, there's always this to help you realize, you're probably a better singer than me and Willie Nelson put together!