Wednesday 18 July 2012

#296: Beat the Heat Like a Retiree

Remember the summer holidays when you were a kid and it so HOT outside that keeping cool was a  job unto itself?

Living in Calgary in the 50's I had no leafy parks to visit and there were no nearby beaches.  We cycled to the swimming pool, walked to the store for popsicles, played in the basement, ran through the sprinkler and hung out at the library (no AC, but cooler than my little stucco house). I had no agenda -- I was pretty much left to my own devices, and no one complained if I listened to the radio for the entire afternoon in the cool of my bedroom, or if I propped myself up on the shady side of the house and read my book for hours on end. 

That's what the summer is like for retirees.  If it is super hot (like it is in Ontario right now), you can watch DVDs in the air conditioned family room for the whole day and wear nothing more than your skivvies. Who cares?  Just remember to get dressed before you answer the door.

The problem is that workaholic retirees (that would be me) need to feel they are accomplishing something regardless of the weather.  I go to the cool basement, but I clean it.  I don't run through the sprinkler, I move it around the yard (on the days we are permitted water our parched gardens).  And as for library visits.... in the middle of the day, I go to the retirement home library and label books and move collections.

But I'm cool....

  

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