Retirement Is Great But It's Making Me Tired

Seriously. I love retirement but I think I am busier now than I was when I was working. Of course, I am in summertime mode which means I must frantically clean my house from top to bottom and this even includes such once a week once a month OK once every six months jobs as mopping all the floors. Thank God I bought that lovely kitchen linoleum that hides the dirt so well. Who knew it was TOTALLY a different color when it was clean. Huh.

Tom was lying on the couch the other day as I dusted the downstairs (changing the dust rag often because they were getting so filthy - God, who cleans this house? Oh. That would be me.) and I said "I bet you think I'm going nuts cleaning so much" and he managed to drag his attention away from Jerry Springer long enough to nod. What he doesn't realize is that I do this every summer - he is just usually at work. Now that we are both home, he can truly witness my obsessive cleanliness.

It's this way every summer. I never have time to clean the whole house at one time during the school year. It's the bathrooms/laundry one Saturday and dusting/vacuuming/laundry the next Saturday and if I skip a Saturday because of a social event or shoe shopping, it's almost impossible to catch up. And I can't imagine how I got anything at all done when I had kids to take care of. It's a wonder mothers ever get anything done.

So. My house is pretty clean now. But I have been taking my little Moose to swim lessons in the morning and I'm not sure how a 1/2 hour swim lesson can consume the entire day but it seems to do just that. Of course, the afternoon naps consume part of my day. But I am not willing to negotiate on that. Summer naps are absolutely fabulous. Turn on the fan, get a light quilt to put over you, no set time to get up or to get anything done, and just sleep. FABULOUS.

And then there's reading. I finally have time to go to the library, check out books and sit and read them. I am loving this. I devour one book, throw it down and begin another. I'm like a person who has staggered out of the desert after being lost for days and you just handed me a pitcher of clear, cool water.

I got an email from my replacement the other day, asking about some techie stuff and how to do this and that and I thought "She is probably sending this from my desk. In my library. On my computer". Huh. I felt a little pang of sadness. A tiny little pang.

And then I took a nap.

And felt much better.