There are 40 actual work days left in my “career”. When there are no days left, my part of the world will be the same distance from the vernal equinox as we are now from the winter solstice. There will be two ski trips immediately after, and when I return from them there will be more birdsong in the neighborhood and the fish will swim a little faster. For the last year I have cut back to part time -- transitioning -- and now is the time that concerned friends ask me, “what will you do?” Their brows furrow and they watch me closely. It feels to me like a test question posed to determine whether or not I’m ready to take on all that time, as though I might end up smacking my head against the walls out of boredom or something. Frankly, I haven’t a clue and I’m tired of trying to think up answers. Seems funny that on Thursdays they aren’t interested in what I will do from Friday through Monday. There are no long stretches of unfilled moments in my life since cutting back to three days. Instead where there were two, now there are four days of rushing around trying to get the things done that I want to do, with very few moments to watch the birds and sit on the bench next to the pond, no less to get that spare room fixed up or separate and move plants in the gardens, maybe take a course, or read a book cover to cover, or take long walks in the woods. I am not feeling obligated to run around trying to fill my hours.
We have raccoons, or at least one raccoon. Same one or ones that snacked on my trap door snails this summer. My bird feeders, pole and all, have been on the ground for three days in a row. The lid on the tube feeder was obviously toyed with and the suet feeder was pried open, both the suet and seeds gone. Hubby reminds me that the suet is “a buck and a quarter a cake”, as though I can really do anything about it other than stop feeding the birds. (Not an option). Today I found a plan for making a bird feeder pole out of galvanized pipe sunk into cement, complete with a guaranteed to work raccoon baffle. A new project to fill all that time.
