Retired 1 Week

Well I've been retired one week and it still doesn't seem real.  I wake up every morning thinking I need to hurry up and get ready for work, then realize I don't work any more.  My days are mine.  It's pretty nice.  A couple of friends from work took my out to eat to celebrate my retirement, and they gave me the neatest gift.  It's a collapsible basket for working in the yard, and they had a rope with all kinds of gardening things attached with clothes pins.  There were packs of seeds, gardening gloves, ties for tying flowers up, gardening spikes, and lots of little things I would not have bought myself.  I always give a clothesline of baby clothes at showers, so they took my idea and made a line of gardening supplies.

We had a pleasant fourth of July.  I know I mentioned last year that our neighbors get together all day long on the fourth.  We just participated in the breakfast and dinner, and a few of our grand kids perform in the talent show at night.  It was kind of funny because there were lots of new, young people who have moved in down the street in the past couple of years, so we were one of the oldest couples there.  It was good meeting new neighbors.  When we told them who were were and where we live, they all started calling us the porch people, because of our addition.  Most didn't realize it was a whole addition; they thought we were just adding a porch.  They said we need to have an open house when it is completed.  We'll see.

I've been trying to work in the yard, transplanting flowers, but it has been so hot and humid here.  I usually work outside for about 45 minutes then come inside.  When I get overheated my blood pressure drops really low and I get nauseated, so I've figured my limit is 45 minutes.  Oure driveway flower bed is getting overgrown with tiger lilies, so I'm digging those up and throwing them away.  They're like weeds around here.  I still have flowers left from the church garden, where our addition is being built, so I'm transferring them.  Lots of my perenials needed to be thinned out, too, so I'm doing that as well.  Lots of my perennials needed to be thinned out, too, so I'm doing that as well.