Retirement - Day 1

I set a good many goals for my retirement. So today - my first official day of being retired since the weekend really didn't count - I jumped in with both feet. And now I'm exhausted! I can't remember when I last worked this hard.

After I got up I had a couple cups of coffee while I read my email and caught up on some blogs. Then I headed upstairs to the exercise cycle for some riding. I lasted 10 minutes - what a wimp! I need to work into a half hour at least as quickly as I can. Then I came down to the kitchen for breakfast - cereal and fat free half and half. I logged into my online Weight Watchers account and dutifully logged what I ate - haven't done that in months. (And the scale certainly verifies that fact!)

I stripped the bed and tackled laundry next - right now the third load is in the dryer.

Next I went to the garage to the freezer to take something out for dinner. Cleaned out the freezer while I was there. Tossed several plastic bags of questionable contents. I think two or three of them were turkey carcasses, plus a ham bone or two. All suffering badly from freezer burn. I think they've probably been in there for years and years. Then I tossed the rest of the ice cream bars that had melted and refrozen when the door got left open a tad. I sorted all the frozen vegetables into like kinds and lined them up in the basket drawers. Then I arranged the rest. Not much there - that's for sure! Time to plan some menus and get to the store.

Next I attacked the closet in the computer room. That's where I keep the clothes I'm currently wearing. This house is almost 40 years old and has VERY small closets. My clothes are spread throughout all the closets except for the one in our bedroom - that's Fred's. I pulled out all of my work clothes, folded them and started packing them in garbage bags. After the computer room closet came the longarm closet for all my off season work clothes. Many of these things are hardly worn, since I replaced my entire work wardrobe three years ago and then gained so much weight that I wore them all only one season. By the time I was finished I'd filled ten kitchen size garbage bags! As you can see I've packed them all into the back of the CRV, ready to take to the YWCA for women who need clothes and can't afford to buy them. I saved a few things - blouses I might wear once I slim down and some wool suits that I'll shrink and felt for quilting. Now all my clothes fit in one closet and my dresser in the bedroom. Isn't it nice to know I'll spend most of the rest of my life in jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts and shorts!

But what in the world will I do with this pile of hangers!