Did Instead

Like the majority of citizens, I am not an essential worker, though I once was.  That leaves me largely confined to home with a brief respite each day to enjoy the mobility of my car and maybe keep my distance while I cast my fishing line which invariably stays more than six feet away from any bass.  There was an era when my life went from one beep to the next.  I probably would have craved the large open blocks of time then, though the times I had these opportunities, I rarely took best advantage of them.

Now everything is a big block of unscheduled time.  Unfortunately I've never developed any passions which I would pursue in any spare moment.  I am left instead with a list of semi-annual goals, weekly subsets of activity that bring me to those goals and a daily task list, some purposeful, some not.  This becomes the surrogate for focus, which I've never been able to generate unassisted. 

This week marks the midpoint of my half-year's efforts.  I have engaged in some Democratic activity though not in the sustained useful way I had hoped.  I read my Jewish book and listened to a novel on cd's.  I am reading a classing by e-book.  My audio nonfiction book from the library had defective discs but when the library resumes business I can get another.  Garden ready to plant this week.  Treadmill intensity improving.  I am at the distance goal, doing OK with the speed goal.  I am also creating set times to be on the treamill and keeping these appointments with myself.  I fell a little better, though legs a little sore.  I've been on one road trip.  This was the scheduled OLLI break when I would have gone on the second trip.  The pandemic caused a delay, though I hope not an outright cancellation lasting another three months.  I've dabbled with friends but not really nurtured any new ones.  I don't want to settle for e-friends.

The storage areas of my house could be further along.  Key advancement in making the basement functional on tap for this week.  No excuse for not doing this.  Dabbled with cleaning service.  I want the house vacuumed and scrubbed down periodically but I am not willing to pay $2500 a year to have somebody do this and I do not find this a high enough priority to do it myself.   This one probably will not reach resolution.

My original interest in learning about physician burnout has waned.  I have resources that I've not pursued but no serious mentor.  I'll give it some attention later.

Wedding getting iffy, at least the grand celebration.  I can drive to St. Louis if air travel becomes unrealistic.  I had planned to schedule a major trip but not take it this half-year.  I could still do that.  And my enthusiasm for getting my expense report for the past year on an Excel table has petered out a bit.  Have more than enough time, not enough motivation.

So I could have done more than I have so far.  But what did I do instead?  I've slept more.  I've expanded social media a little too much, maybe having to put the brakes on this.  I've thought about myself and what I'd like my legacy to be.  And I choose a few items each day to pursue and have done reasonably well pursuing them.