Staying Upright

Having retired three months ago, my days are now unstructured and I can largely do what I like when I like.  And I've been productive, submitting articles, cleaning the house, indulging in my fondness for cooking and pursuing a thus far unsuccessful quest to catch a fish in a nearby pond.  I can also head off to one of our two sofas or to bed and lie down pretty much any time I want.  This has gotten out of hand with zero days avoiding the horizontal posture.  I can be productive when supine.  Reading goes well.  Screen time with a hand held tablet can add to some projects while destroying others.  I have a Torah read coming up that needs polishing.  Easy to work on that with the photocopied portion while lying down.  However, there are also things I should be working on, my twelve personal initiatives for the second half of 2018 set a few months back, that would proceed better if I did not have the supine at will option. 

Yesterday, for the first time since retiring, I committed myself to not lying down from the time I first arose until 9PM, and kept that pledge to myself.  Indeed, I did a lot of things during those waking hours.  I also had to force myself out of the house even if to go to a store, in order to escape the lure of the couch.  Milchig dishes done.  I made brownies.  Got some more bagels from Trader Joe's.  Surfed some other people's blogs for inspiration in further developing my own.  Read some newspaper.  Rid the study of papers.  Cleared the surface of my downstairs desk.  Read some more Bowling Alone.  Responded to some Facebook postings.  Responded in a substantial way to a KevinMD article.  Did a load of laundry.  Made supper.   Many are chores that eventually would have been done anyway, but a few get me ahead.

This took a little physical demand, as it is not what I am used to.  I didn't tire but could tell that I would rather not be walking around an outdoor shopping center in the drizzle in mid-afternoon.  And I kept entirely to myself. 

Stay upright again today, though a little sleep deprived surfing through last night's election returns.  And make some effort to not be quite as solitary, the other feature of my retirement.