Time To ???

It's either been a little under four weeks since they moved out, or three months. Something like that.

One of the things I've had trouble with since retiring is the way time refuses to settle into a steady rhythm. The weeks fly, they drag; they skip along, they trudge in deep snow. Morning is gone in a blink, the afternoon lasts for at least nine hours - the next day, it switches up. No, staying away from everyone in the world because of covid doesn't help.

These past weeks have been of the fly by variety (which, now I think about it, isn't typical for me these dark weeks of January). 

Kate had to travel to the east coast for business last week, and wasn't sure what to do with Lexi - her usual sources of alternate care are unavailable because of covid. I didn't think twice before letting her know Lexi was welcome to stay here; I figured Kate could drop her off on the way. Amazingly enough, it all came together, and time last week flew as I reveled in the unexpected pleasure of having Lexi's company, masks and all. She spent the weekdays in school; I was in charge of making sure there was something to eat at snack time. There's something both wonderful and terrible in the way she was able to jump onto her classes remotely without missing a beat. (Is this really a skill we need our fourth graders to have mastered? Given the givens, I guess so...)

We had just one day free, and used it to go to the Toy and Miniatures Museum just down the street. We marveled together at the tiny dishes, houses, furniture. She took about a thousand pictures. I'll admit I spent more time looking at her than I did at the miniature marvels before us - seeing her face as she worked to grasp the details of scale was fascinating.

I was sorry to see her and her energy go home on Sunday morning.

Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. That whole, 'what's next?' thing. I've added a little structure to my week. I've signed up for a couple of zoom classes which will run until spring - one, a group of women who gather to do art, the other a yoga class I'll be able to take with Kate. For both groups, being able to gather remotely means being able to gather at all, one of the silver linings I've seen arise from sheltering in place. That's two days where someone beside me will know if I've gotten out of bed. I figure that's a good start.

I've kind of fallen into vacation mode. My head is pretty convinced I'm going to have a lovely few weeks off here, then I'll need to head back to work. I think it's going to be kind of fun when I convince me that's not the case; that this freedom to choose how to spend my days will be mine for... a while.

Baby steps. I'll get there.