Redundancy?

This has been a great week. My ear and jaw have been painful for several weeks and the ear especially has been very sensitive to cold weather. My niece, the ear doc, looked in it last weekend and said that it looked good.

So this week I was able to get out and ride the bicycle the previous three days. The main criteria for me was that it not rain. The weather was cool at times and even foggy, but most afternoons the sun came out. As long as I kept the ear covered with a headband, it seemed to do well and not cause any problems. I put on quite a few miles this week.

So, I reported my activities on the great social networking site, Facebook. The response was interesting. One Facebook friend commented on each day as "liking" what I posted. I appreciated that. But one day, a FB friend said: "is everyday like groundhog day for you? Get up, check the weather, go for a bike ride? Retirement must really suck.". I was kind of taken aback by this comment so I replied : "So what is your day like: get up, go to work, come home, eat, go to bed, repeat day after day?" He conceded after that. Afterall, he has many years of work before he will be eligible to retire.

But it got me thinking. First, I really don't care what someone thinks of my activities. It was that way when I worked too, most people had no interest in what I did and were usually critical of my activities. Second: work was probably a lot more redundant than my life is now. When I worked, so often I did the same work over and over again on the same ships in the class. We would shipcheck to the same places repeatably. On board it was often a case of "well this pipe run will work if we move it a couple of inches" or "this equipment will go in the same place". And the drawings all started looking the same. The excitement of solving an emergent problem that a ship was having usually broke up the boredom. Just getting up and going to work day after day could be redundant.

So, now my life is differant. There is still a bit of redundancy, but I can go ride the bicycle during the middle of the day if I want. there is less traffic than in the afternoon and I don't have to try to cram a ride in between work and evening. I feel good when I ride a lot. I can keep my weight down, my blood pressure and heart rate stay down and there is just the "fun" of smoothly riding down the road at a high rate of speed "in the zone". Kind of like being a kid again. And I can use the bicycle for trips to the boat or store, saving gas and expense. Other activities like sailing, motorcycle riding, camping, hiking all have places in my life too. Will I work again? Maybe, but my choice of jobs may surprise people. And there is volunteer work to consider too.

So, what did I do today? Well, I got up at 6 AM, something I do everyday, ate a light breakfast, read the newspaper and went to Group Health for my H1N1 vaccination and tetanus booster. Then to my parents for some more breakfast. Since it was payday, I went to Costco for groceries. Finally in the afternoon, I rode the mountain bike to the Illahee Preserve Park and rode on the singletrack trails. I almost cleaned (ride without putting down a foot) a couple of steep technical sections that have frustrated me. I hope to be able to ride those sections soon. I rode hard for about an hour and burned quite a few calories.

What's next? Tomorrow I am planning on going to Mt Ranier to xcountry ski. Monday will probably be the Seattle Boat Show. And then the following week, I will return to Seattle to spend my tax refund on maintenance items for the boat and then install the equipment on the boat. And then take the boat to Olympia for a race. And I am working on a plan to use up some of my frequent flier miles. Where do I find the time.....?