Often, I’ve looked at my daily routine and thought boring. Now, I’m happily saying, “Welcome back.”
While I was caring for Linda, our developmentally different daughter, I instituted a writing schedule. At 9 a.m., we walked a total of six blocks to get our mail from the post office box. Then, she was content for the rest of the morning and I could sit at my computer. At that time, the fire whistle blew at noon alerting villagers that it was lunch time. I quickly found a stopping place because Linda was ready to eat. After her death 15 years ago, I have continued that routine.
My disruption began Valentine’s Day when the computer died. Our son ordered a new one on line and I prepared to wait about three weeks for the replacement.
At first, I cleaned by file cabinet. Two Thursday evenings, Ken had a recycle bin full of used paper that he carried to the curb. That was the end of my industry. I tried doing some pencil and paper jotting during that down time so I wouldn’t lose my thoughts, but it didn’t work very well.
About a week later, the ice storm brought down a tree limb in our front yard, which caught the line attaching our house to the electric power. So much wasn’t working from the heated water bed to the pencil sharpener. We have a generator so we had necessities such as heat, frig, freezer and sump pump needed to keep our basement water free. There was also a place to charge our phones and our hearing aids. The coffee maker and toaster could be plugged in for breakfast. Cold lunches and supper from Cimino’s kept us fed. Forty-eight hours passed before the lights came back on.
I’m not good without my usual rut. I got tired of reading and doing crosswords or sudokus. I even found a deck of cards and played some solitaire, which I haven’t done in years.
How do you cope when your days are disrupted?
I have run into older women in particular, who seem to practice the art of drifting through their days without a plan, but that is not me. When I awake, I say to myself, what am I going to accomplish today. The older I get, the smaller my goals, but I still have goals that give me a feeling of satisfaction if I get them accomplished by the end of the day.
This kind of an attitude has been the reason I have accomplished so much with my hobby of genealogy. I have to admit that this way of operating often is thwarted, & I get cranky & snippy when it occurs. Husband may need my help; I may get an unwanted phone call when I am in the middle of some research; or I get tired & my brain just won’t absorb any more new facts. I have to quit & take a nap. I cope by complaining, but doing what has to be done.
You do accomplish a lot.