My retirement includes COVID vaccine, cleaning dishwasher filter, battling thermostat
One of the things that an editor suggested when I retired and started this every other week column was that one of the things I could write about was retirement. I didn’t think back then times would come when that was all there was to write about.
Don’t get me wrong. Retirement is great but as one of the people authorities keep telling to stay home and out of the way, I am stuck inside by the cold and snow as well as social distancing. Not that I was going out a bunch any way. The occasional masked drive through a fast food place, ordering food to go from a restaurant, watching for packages on the porch and picking up various online orders from stores in town pretty much covered what I did.
That was one of the reasons why it was such a joy to drive through the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds last week and get a COVID-19 shot. It got me out of the house, it gave me some immunity and it was a pleasure to see how smooth the whole thing went.
The hardy volunteers working in the cold had the lines moving quickly. The most time I spent was the 15 minutes waiting to see if the shot was going to have any negative effects. In typical fashion I forgot to check the clock and see exactly when I got the shot so I’m not sure how long I was there.
I ended up sitting in a line in my car for a while. Every few minutes the line would move and so would I. When I got to the head of my line I sat and waited until the car in the line next to me left and so did I. I am hopeful I will do better in a couple of weeks when I go for my second shot. Pretty exciting.
But such is life on enforced isolation. It makes even ordinary chores seem to be entertaining diversions. The other day I found myself fascinated by cleaning the filter at the bottom of the dishwasher. Ordinarily I don’t even think about it. I found myself looking forward to paying bills via the computer. Then after a few keystrokes I was done and looking for something else to do.
The heat, the cold, the heat, the cold
But when most of your day consists of a losing battle to reset the programmable thermostat, it doesn’t take much to divert you. I did venture outside for a few minutes the other day to fill some bird feeders but I didn’t last long in the cold.
It always amazes me that it can be so cold for so long and then in a few weeks we are warmer and trying to forget winter. I mean, already I have forgotten how hot it was last summer. And when that heat rolls around, as it always does, I will be unable to remember this cold.
I hope it is soon.
