Recreation

Next to my desk chair I keep a green canvas Eddie Bauer case.  It once served as my briefcase during my working years, toted from car to office most days, rarely used.  In retirement, it has been repurposed, still infrequently used.  I call it my Recreation Case.  It contains a leather portfolio, a cheap cardboard folder with loose-leaf papers, and various things that make marks on papers.  These include colored pencils and a calligraphy kit in the main case, with pastels and a watercolor tin in the subordinate compartment, along with a tape recorder that does not reliably allow the microcassettes to function.  I have other sources of recreation, including two harmonicas with an instruction manual for beginners.  My living room contains fishing rods, with two kept in the trunk of my car.  That trunk also holds a good putter and driver, along with some golf balls.  I keep the yard sale complete set of clubs in the garage, along with some functional bicycles.  In a corner of my bedroom lies a once restored violin that could use a new bow.  I have a variety of cameras, used primarily for travel, and like many others, made subordinate to my ever present picture-taking capacity of a smartphone.  My living room grows herbs as do pots by my front door.  Vegetables and a few flowers grow in my backyard.  All of these would classify as personal recreation, though none vigorously or even reliably pursued.  Instead, I seem more drawn to my kitchen, the challenges of preparing special event dinners.  I also engage in various forms of personal expression, now mostly on my computer, with writing and a weekly YouTube recording serving partly a recreational need but also a means of keeping my mind agile when the mental challenges of my career have been set aside.

Recreation serves many purposes, which may be why it takes so many forms.  People have needs to escape from their rat races.  Many have a means of keeping score, such as golf or tennis.  Many have tangible production whether my elegant dinners planned and executed over two weeks or vegetables harvested towards the end of each summer.  Some people immerse, creating expertise.  I tend to dabble, maybe even flit.

While hobbies are often pursued alone, as I tend to do, there are also direct and indirect creations of community.  Cyclists ride together, musicians play in ensembles, golfers create foursomes.  Even solitary pursuits can immerse with similar enthusiasts who have made FoodTV or Cooking Channel widely watched or get tips on fishing from sources that support anglers, art instruction via classes or media.  All function alone when engaged in these hobbies, but all know that people unknown to them share their interests.

And all have the opportunity to excel, even though few do.  Some people make a living as artists, musicians, athletes, and photographers.  Acquisition of skill really has no upper limit.  Irrespective of proficiency obtained, the endpoint usually seems to be some combination of joy, thrill, or accomplishment.  What people do with time that is not externally imposed upon them frames how they prioritize themselves.

Recreation Case

Productive amusement.  I have things I like to do, for sure.  Every day I make an effort to express myself, to learn something.  I am the dominant person of my kitchen, assembling supper most nights and periodically creating an elegant dinner.  I like to read.  I like to drive to destinations, admiring the scenery en route.  And I read something that requires attention most days. 

What I've not done is pursue recreation as I should.  I have cameras, fishing rods, and golf clubs but I rarely venture out to photograph, catch fish, or use the putting green.  I have two harmonicas, watercolors, pastels, drawing pencils, adult coloring books with colored pencils, even a comprehensive art kit in a wooden case.  I've made a small kit to improve my fishing proficiency.  All scattered in various parts of my desk.  

About two weeks ago, decided to gather my recreational items, art, harmonica, and knot tying into a single place.  My once daily canvas briefcase has been dormant since retirement.  Into it went one harmonica, pastels, colored pencils, sketching pencils, and a back to school watercolor tin.  My fishing knots training equipment went in as well.  And that's where they've been for two weeks, just to the left of my swivel chair.  Cameras on my desk.  Putting iron and golf balls in trunk along with a few fishing rods and the lures.  Need to reach into that attache for something each day.

Some Kitchen Adventures

Despite some accumulation of fishing tackle a couple years back, I haven't gone fishing lately.  My art supplies remain ample but no meaningful drawing, watercolor, or adult pencil coloring have been performed.  My two harmonicas remain unused despite being kept within arms reach. Garden post-season.  All desire for recreation that never materialized.   Even my self-expressive writing seems in a lull.

All partially replaced by my attraction to the kitchen as my recreational outlet.  It could be more orderly, maybe neater.  Yet its utensils, appliances, ingredients, and final results keep me energized.  Even the cleanup offers a welcome challenge and misadventures a learning opportunity.

My shopping amid higher prices seems to reflect this.  When I buy something I think about what I will do with this as it goes into the cart.  Chicken breasts for shabbos, frozen fish or garden burgers for supper, whipping cream with the ice cream.  Apple walnut pie soon, as apples, walnuts, sour cream, sugar all on the week's sale items at Shop-Rite this week.

And then the big two:  Thanksgiving and wife's birthday.  Menu planning, sorting procedures to sequence use of stove, oven and electric appliances needed for multiple courses.  All with an elegant end in mind.  But apple walnut pie first.

Recreationally Challenged

My weekly task list contains a series of recreational items that I'm really not committed to.  There's the outdoors of fishing and gardening.  There's the indoors of arts and literature.  None other than writing  has any desire on my part for acquiring proficiency.  They are more means of transient pleasure, perhaps escape.  All can be done alone, indeed, most need to be done alone.  They get propagated from week to week on my weekly plan, then to my daily task list.  Rarely if ever done.  Focus on the writing.  Schedule the others.

Poor Weather Forecast

All set to go for a day at Dorney Park/ Wildwater Kingdom.  All packed.  Checked the forecast for Allentown right before purchasing non-refundable tickets for about $55.  Looking forward to the outing, make a day of it.  Raining here.  Checked Allentown on Weather Channel.  Raining there too with some clearing in mid-afternoon.  So a day of it becomes a third day of it.  And my alternative of going tomorrow looks like it will have ideal weather.  

Loss of money annoys me, though I lose more than that in a few minutes in the mutual funds sometimes.  And I have the challenge of making a different day of it.  IKEA in Conshohocken on the way can get a visit.  Maybe see if there are any wineries or breweries in driving distance.  Could use a morning at my keyboard, treadmill, and kitchen.  An annoyance more than a disappointment, but see what I can do with the circumstances.

Recreationally Challenged

Been planning some minor travel with outdoor activities for about a month.  Urgencies like my car malfunction and the need to replace a sink disposal unit get in the way.  Some other things are more timed like a podcast and a civic meeting and agreeing to do something in synagogue.  Nearing the end of those.  And then there are things that other people want me to do that I don't.  Not going to synagogue's annual meeting.  Reconsider if they offer me a promotion from consumer to contributor but don't expect that to happen.  So by mid-week, I expect unscheduled time to enable some minor adventures suitable to summer,

Some things I do alone, others better as a couple, though more are pursued solo.  Beaches, wineries, anything overnight done for two.  Special dinners at home prepared by one, eaten by two or maybe more. Fishing needs part solitude and part random interaction with other anglers.  I visit my ancestral resting places as a sole descendant.  Haven't been to a ball game in a long time, another solo effort.  Bus to NYC myself, though it would be better if I were able to get together with an old friend while there.  Despite some inflationary expense, there are still things that elevate my spirit which I've neglected for too long.  Time to recapture some of them.

Get Outside More

Ready to move summer clothing from storage to bedroom in exchange for winter clothing spending dormant time until the fall.  While I want to get another pair of khaki cargo pants which are rather versatile, and need to get some chinos hemmed, I have pretty much what I need, once my new boat shoes arrive.  Clothing has a purpose.  Short sleeves and short pants are to primarily get me into the sunshine or reduce some of the recreational deprivation that I've experienced.  Maybe fishing.  Maybe drawing outside.  The beach. Visiting places. Helping the gardens thrive.  Someplace other than My Space, while an alluring destination, has become too dominant.

Recreational Day

Cannot remember the last day I've allocated my recreation as the principal activity.  I'm not even sure what really constitutes recreation.  There are many things that result in satisfaction or relaxation or some combination.  I like doing dishes by hand, almost always do despite having a pretty good dishwasher.  I find expressing myself satisfying but not engaging in feedback of what I have expressed.  Sometimes my camera goes where I go.  I like petting and playing with other people's dogs but don't really want to be saddled with the care of my own.

And then there are the more classical hobbies, pursued and might like to pursue.  Creations in the kitchen usually afford a fair amount of pleasure.  I like drinking coffee and beer.  More recently I've been introduced to bourbon and still like to sample wine.  It is the variety that attracts me more than the excellence of any single sampling.  

I usually find visiting someplace away from home refreshing.  Doesn't have to be far.  New preferred, not essential.  And often getting there becomes a greater source of satisfaction than being there.

And the classics.  Gardening, fishing, creating pictures with pencils or pigments, going to the putting green, my mostly dormant harmonica.  Not good at any of them, not planning to get good at any of them.  Yet readily available and mostly a welcome diversion from what I might be doing instead.  This could use some more focus.  Maybe even some designated time, as in a recreational day.

Focus on Recreation

Now into day 3 of no FB or twitter, I find myself not experiencing any withdrawal as some have suggested, nor any craving to resume that activity.  In its place, I planted my outdoor herb garden and completed the front container planting.  I extricated my Schwinn from amid garage clutter and unsuccessfully searched for golf balls to take to the local putting green.

Pandemic restrictions leaves me a bit recreationally deprived so it's time to direct some attention there. What do I like to do?  Made a list:

1. Crosswords
2. Take pictures
3. Bicycle
4. Cooking
5. Baking
6. Petty Golf
7. Harmonica
8. Violin
9. Watercolor
10. Writing
11. Fishing
12. Gardening
13. Beach
14. Deck

There really are no barriers to doing any of these.  Some have been ongoing, some long dormant.  I will need a few things, golf balls, tees, an air pump, a new or rehaired bow perhaps which I can get with the remaining stash of 5-dollar bills that I keep as change.  Wonder how many I can do this summer, and with what intensity.