Taking pleasure in ordinary experiences

MuirWannabe said:
Not to steal REWahoo's personal crusade to dissuade folks from the terrors of Texas, but the thought of lying in the grass today brings pictures of fire ant mounds and not so peaceful moments scraping those buggers off of your body. :)

Muir


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
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Add in some ticks along with the fire ants and you won't be lying in the grass for a while...:LOL:
 
A "friend" at work told me "you know what your problem is? you are easily amused"
 
Excellent thread! The Air Force has given me the opportunity to see much of the world (probably much more than what the average American will get to see), but I always loved coming home. Today, I'm tired of travel and don't think I'll be traveling by air for a very long time.

I get a lot of satisfaction being at home and in the local area. There are so many things to do here and most are free or low cost.

Even with all the local stuff to do, I'm usually very content to spend the morning on the deck with my coffee, Kindle and the birds. After that, I will 'retire' to my hammock to enjoy the sky view and my eyelids.

Oh yes, 45 days until my last day...I can't wait!

Sent from my mobile device so please excuse grammatical errors. :)
 
We appreciate all the nice parks, gardens and museum we can visit locally. I think our best day was taking a sack lunch into San Francisco and visiting the Asian Art Museum with a free library pass. They had a traveling exhibit of treasures of India. It was way cool. We knew then that ER was going to work out and that we didn't have to spend a ton of money to have a fun time.

This past month or so we went to the Academy of Science, took a mine tour, went hiking in the Redwoods, visited the State Railroad Museum and saw a Cal Shakes play. Besides gas all we paid for was a cookie at the museum and split a beer at the Cal Shakes play. Combining good fun with bargains and free activities - that is my hobby these days.

Coming up is another Cal Shakespeare play, the Exploratorium, the Oakland Zoo and a planetarium visit. The planning and free cost is half the fun.
 
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I love to sit outside in my screened porch. Living out in the country, I can sit and watch the hawks soaring on the breezes, watch the hummingbirds at the feeder, enjoy the summer wind. Sometimes I try to read out there but get distracted by nature's sights and sounds. It's very restful......
 
If I rise early enough, it's fairly quiet on my patio, with only a slight amount of distant traffic noise, and I can watch the bats swoop around, and I can enjoy as much of the sunrise as the neighbor's trees allow me to see. But sometime around 7:00-7:30, the lawn movers, weed whackers, and leaf blowers awaken...
 
HFWR said:
If I rise early enough, it's fairly quiet on my patio, with only a slight amount of distant traffic noise, and I can watch the bats swoop around, and I can enjoy as much of the sunrise as the neighbor's trees allow me to see. But sometime around 7:00-7:30, the lawn movers, weed whackers, and leaf blowers awaken...
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BAT TIME ! I have two favorite times to sit outside. "PRETTY COLOR TIME" (early dusk when the sky turns the most amazing colors) and "BAT TIME" (shortly after that when the bats come out and start their hunt).

Now if I could drag myself out of bed earlier I could see both of those twice a day. Alas, I love the feel of my bed and usually spend 90 minutes each morning going in and out of sleep. Another great, yet simple, pleasure.
 
aja8888 said:
Add in some ticks along with the fire ants and you won't be lying in the grass for a while...:LOL:
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+1. Asked DD to find me a new chair hammock so I can enjoy the backyard once it gets below 90, hopefully within a month or so. My original one rotted away after 10+ years and the replacement that I got from BradsDeals was barely worth the $19 I paid for it. POC.

I especially enjoy lying out there at dusk and looking up into the trees to the evening sky - we have some really nice live oaks in our backyard as do our neighbors. Lovely way to spend an evening (with glass of wine in hand of course):cool:
 
It's not only old age that heightens the pleasure of simple everyday experiences. Years of 100+hr work weeks (plus 24/7 phone calls) has a way of doing the same thing ;)
 
HFWR said:
If I rise early enough, it's fairly quiet on my patio, with only a slight amount of distant traffic noise, and I can watch the bats swoop around, and I can enjoy as much of the sunrise as the neighbor's trees allow me to see. But sometime around 7:00-7:30, the lawn movers, weed whackers, and leaf blowers awaken...
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Neighbors who fired up lawn equipment prior to 8:30 am would find themselves face to face with one "fired up" neighbor. :mad: Not acceptable!
 
BTravlin said:
Neighbors who fired up lawn equipment prior to 8:30 am would find themselves face to face with one "fired up" neighbor. :mad: Not acceptable!
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My own personal rule is 10AM to 5PM. I'm a neighbor too and get get noise from others.

What gets me are the 6 to 8PM noise blowers on Saturday evening. Totally ruins dinner on the porch.
 
joewras said:
my own personal rule is 10am to 5pm. I'm a neighbor too and get get noise from others.

What gets me are the 6 to 8pm noise blowers on saturday evening. Totally ruins dinner on the porch.
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No kidding! The guy next door is one of these. Last weekend he was trying to start one of his many pieces of power equipment. 20 minutes of turning it over without ignition starting at 7:30 PM. What was he going to do once it started? It was too dark to mow.

Although there is another guy up the street who I have noticed out with his power edger at 9:00 PM in the pitch dark Apparently he has hooked up some light source to it. I mean really!?:mad:
 
We are blessed with a neighbor couple who have.....MATCHING LEAF BLOWERS! I can mow my similarly sized yard in 20 minutes. They take ~ 3 hours with mowing, edging, blowing, vacuuming. Drives all us other neighbors nuts. After about three hours of miscellaneous leaves falling, there yard looks not much better than mine. Just nuts.
 
I knew I was going to spend the summer getting ready to move so I hired a service to do the lawn work (mowing, pruning, edging, etc)

Those guys are like SEALs, they swoop in during the afternoon and get it done. Way better than I ever did myself.
 
steelyman said:
I knew I was going to spend the summer getting ready to move so I hired a service to do the lawn work (mowing, pruning, edging, etc)

Those guys are like SEALs, they swoop in during the afternoon and get it done. Way better than I ever did myself.
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OK, last comment on the lawn, I promise:angel:. My goal with the lawn is to try to minimize both time and money spent on the lawn. At the same I do try to exceed Minimum Acceptable Community Standards (a term I just made up) by a sufficient margin that I don't draw attention to the lawn. In fact, I figure that if people notice my lawn, one of two things is wrong, either I've spent too much time and/or money on it and it looks too nice or I haven't spent enough on it and it looks crappy. So, the effect I'm aiming for is "immediately forgettable". ;)
 
California lawn. Stop watering it and it grows much slower. Apply green paint as needed.
 
I asked the SEALs to trim a bush. They said, "that's not a bush, it's a tree". They were right, and it's looking good (now).
 
On the other hand, having grown up in the midst of a city where sirens, traffic noises, and blasting music were common sounds all of the time, lawn maintenance noises are actually pleasant sounds for us. :)
 
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