I have now been retired for just over 12.5 years. I still get asked regularly how I spend my time. The easy answer is we like to travel and I spend time planning and going on trips, but of course, that's only partially correct, and for several years with COVID-19, we did not travel.
I know some retired friends who like to spend their time building things, fixing things or spending countless hours walking or doing other activities, including joining community clubs. I am afraid I am not so physically creative or inclined to hang out with strangers. And yet, I am never bored for lack of things to do and the hours fill quite nicely, thank you very much.
Travel is one of the things we enjoy very much and in the past year and one half alone, we have had trips to Bonaire and Aruba, Costa Rica and Africa for the third time. But to me travel is a package. First comes the planning and exploring the possibilities. Then booking and seeing if that lines up. After the trip, especially a longer trip, we usually come home with thousands of digital pictures. I am particularly into wildlife photography. Weeks after the trip there are the many hours of sorting the photos, eliminating the ones that didn't turn out, selecting the best wildlife which I then copy into another folder for possible use in a wildlife album, and finally creating an expensive photo album to send to the printers. Not having an album of the trip for me is like buying an old car to fix up, doing work on it while it sits in a garage somewhere and then just letting it sit there. I suspect people who enjoy this want to someday start it up and hear the engine purr. If it's a convertible, they want to drive around and feel the wind in their hair on a sunny day. To have it sit somewhere where no one will ever see it or use it is a bit like only half completing a jigsaw puzzle. That album is an important part of the trip so that I can relive the trip through the photos and bring back memories later. I once thought part of it was sharing it with others to see. I would see or learn something on a trip and look forward to sharing this with my friends and family. Over the years I have learned that people don't really care. After asking about whether it was a good trip and how the weather was, they are ready to move on and tell you about some mundane ordinary thing that happened here. No, the album now is for my enjoyment. Even my own children show only limited interest in any travel they are not a part of.
In addition to this, I think my creativity, if I even have any, would be in the field of writing. This too is not so much for others but for myself. When you see some of the things I have written in social media posts you may wonder about my creativity or use of the English language, but I blame "autocorrect", which changes my words without my knowledge to make me look stupid. Elon Musk is probably out to get me.
I have many projects on the go with so little time to actually complete them. Having gone to Africa three times, and having had significantly different experiences on safaris on each trip, I am in the process of writing a book, describing and comparing each trip from the point of view of helping someone who may be wanting to know what to consider when planning a safari trip. This book is again something I do for myself. Whether or not I ever print it is questionable, and I don't think anyone besides myself will ever look at it after it is done but that's not the point. It gives me pleasure to create it and I hope to look back on in the future.
I am in the process of creating three photo albums, one for animals, one for birds and one for sea life, each showing every different species I have photographed. I was concerned about when to start putting this together since photographing wildlife is an ongoing thing. If I started to create the animal book last year and our on our Africa trip I got a photo of an aardvark, it would throw off the organization of the book because it would need to be inserted right on page one. At the present time I have 285 animals and 945 birds plus 265 assorted fish and other sea life on my list. These will be coffee table editions. I will have to buy a coffee table and find a place in the garage to put it though.
Another ongoing work in progress is a book of memoirs, covering my life through photos and personal recollections. I figure if I ever get dementia, as my mother did, this may help me at least read about the past.
I am working on a family genealogy. I try to include photos where possible of family members. I have so far traced my father's family line down to the early 1700's. I keep getting notifications from My Heritage with info from people who have created family trees with names that match names I posted. I probably have a hundred piled up that I have not gotten to reviewing yet.
Finally, I guess this blog is just a fun way for me to share thoughts, rant a little or just document my major trips. I have no idea how many people read it, although I do know one friend who faithfully follows it. Hi W.O. I suppose if I knew for sure than no one ever reads my blogs I could say anything I wanted without filters, trying to be sensitive or politically correct. That might not be healthy though.
I am sorry to say that much of what I create will never see the light of day or be of interest to anyone. However, like the photo albums, I consider them therapeutic. So while I have spent a lot of time creating things no one will see or appreciate, I have work that keeps me sane and gives me an outlet for my thoughts. Oh the anecdotes I used to create in my head while mowing lawns, but those days are over. I have some boat cruises to think about and an Africa photo album to complete.
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