A New Normal

This retirement thing.  It is a bit weird.  Really, I've been partially retired for a long time now, but this duo retirement is a whole new ball of wax.  Every morning for years and years and YEARS the alarm clock has gone off at 5 am.  I roll over, tap the shut off button, and we are off an running for the day.  Mostly he was off and running, but I was still up.  There are still times I roll over and look at the clock dial to see what time it is and it's 4 or 5 am but we don't get up.  I still do occasionally, especially at the cabin in the spring and summer.  I LOVE to wake up and sit on the screened porch and listen to the birds start to wake up, now I can hear them through the windows but I don't get up. 

Now we are trying to renegotiate a new normal in our lives.  He sleeps in, I sleep in.  Before retirement I would hit the stop alarm, turn the TV on the the news and we would get up.  He would fix his bowl of cereal and coffee, and I my coffee and protein bar.  He would sit in the living room eating and watching the news.  I would go to my chair in the bedroom and turn the TV to Charmed, something I've watched every morning for over 20 years.  After a bit it was the bathroom stuff, get dressed, brush teeth, etc.  Now it's cockeyed a bit.  We get up with no alarm, just a normal gradual wake up.  Now it's me with no Charmed, him watching his recorded stuff or on his phone.  It's like 8 maybe 9 am and we are still trudging around.  He still has stuff to do at the shop, mainly getting the units ready to rent, paint the fence, fix a leak in the roof, stuff like that.  I might go and paint, do a little book work, pay some bills, IF I WANT TOO!  

It's also awkward moving around each other in the kitchen, the bathroom.  We had a rhythm, but now it's a bit broken and we bump into each other, are in each others way.  It will take some time but we will work it out, I'm sure.  We need to create a new normal.

I have been hoping to spend more time at the cabin but that has not happen with watching kiddos and stuff, but it will, soon.  Summer will help with that.