How was your weekend?

Cats do not know what the word
'work' means... we should follow
their example of living. (This is
Maksim, the Russian Blue.*)

Today my friend Carol called and her first question was "How was your weekend?"

I had to stop for a second and think... 'Weekend? What is that?' and then I replied, "Carol, all my weekends run together since I don't have any week days in between anymore. My life is great, I'm loving what I'm doing - or not doing. It's all very good."

For example, this morning I was up with the birds, literally. They tuned up about 4:30 a.m., I got up and looked out the window. "Hmmm, gonna be a nice clear day. I might want to water the berries later." Then I went and made some oatmeal (with blueberries from the store) and a cup of tea.

Back to bed to eat the oatmeal and read a story on my Kindle. Now the sun is really coming up and I'm feeling sleepy again. So I pull the covers over my head and take a nap.

Mallard duck watercolor on 9x9
paper, finished today.

Around 8 a.m. I decide to get up and get ready for my art class. I putter about and grab a jar of jam I made a few days ago to give to my teacher. She likes me already, so I'm not buttering her up or anything. I just appreciate her taking time to give us her knowledge.

Class goes until noon, so I head home again and read some mail, make a nice salad for lunch, but in the process I was reminded that I had four boxes of strawberries that needed to be hulled and frozen.

After a leisurely lunch watching the news (Twitter feed, Facebook and other postings) about the R2AK unpowered race to Alaska up the inland passage, I decide to cut the berries up, eating a few and then getting them into the freezer.

First crop of raspberries from my bushes... easy to grow here.

A trip outside to the freezer reminds me I have raspberries about to be picked and they also need some watering.

So I go and pick two pints of berries, then water them. Now it's 4 p.m. and time for tea. I answer some texts from my daughter about a visit and go for a walk.

Cleopurrtra looking up at the birds
that woke us up earlier today.

In a few hours it will be dark and I'll get my Kindle and another cup of tea, go and sit with a cat as a pillow and my day will be nearly over.

No stress, no loud voices, no demands... following my bliss.

This is what it means to be Retired For Good... and it is good.

* NOTE: Maksim and Cleopurrtra are rescue cats. When I first adopted Max, he was looking for the KGB around every corner, scared of everything. Today he is a relaxed, normal, still-a-bit-shy guy, but very different from the cat I brought home. And some of the credit goes to Cleo who was a 6-month old kitten and still loves to play. She forces Max to join her in her nightly entertainments from time to time and he's learned to love the window seat, too.

These two fur-iners in my life keep me on track so everybody wins.

Temporarily Out of Full Retirement

Late afternoon light on Sequim Bay beaches...

I used to joke with my other retired friends that if we ever needed - or wanted - a job, we could go and become greeters at the local Whereyoufindeverything Store... but that really is not something I enjoy, where writing and editing truly is.

Since May I have been caring, on a part-time basis, for an elderly lady who has become a dear friend. Cooking and keeping up with her household affairs was an enjoyable duty and starting a routine for the two of us to have tea at 4 p.m. was something we both came to enjoy. Sadly, several weeks ago her family decided to place her in an assisted living facility. Although I was paid to spend afternoons with her during a transitional time, it is clear that her level of awareness and ability to move around has been degrading daily.

Last cutting for the fall hay season is done.

The joy of conversation and laughter is disappearing as well. She sleeps a lot, is in a tremendous amount of pain from spinal stenosis and arthritis, and her motivation to get up dwindles like the afternoon sunshine in fall. She mused aloud recently, "I wonder when I will get out of this place." What could I say? At 92, with her ailments, she doesn't have the motivation or physical resources to do necessary therapies to maintain muscle tone and strength. The inevitable slide downward is hard to watch.

As we age, it becomes more and more important to stay active, and to drink water that is 'good,' not just  processed. One month of not doing certain physical exercises will have a negative effect. Strength training, walking, and eating fresh foods are essential. I tried to get Mrs. R to walk with me, but every step was painful. I encouraged her to do some weight lifting but she soon tired of the effort. I cooked fresh foods every day, but with less and less activity there was less and less appetite. Clearly everything NOT done was affecting everything else. And when I had to leave for several weeks to close out my affairs in Colombia, I was pretty certain no one else would push her to make some effort. When I returned, I could see that I had been right.

I'm not a mushroom specialist, but the shape of this one
was intriguing. The Elks Lodge had a show this weekend.

Someone piled up stones on Rialto
Beach, like the Tibetans prayer piles.

While this end-of-life process is sad, there is a certain hopefulness in my friend's eyes as she tells me she is looking forward to being reunited with her beloved husband.

And as her cognitive life wanes, she cares less and less about the world around her, resulting in a sort of peaceful place where napping means no pain and no concerns. She awoke from just such a nap the other day and said to me, "It gives me such pleasure to wake up and see you sitting there, being here for me." I am grateful I can do that much for her now.

But I recently learned of a part-time job on a newspaper, and like the aging dalmatian fire dog who is accustomed to jumping up at the ringing of the fire bell, I was drawn to apply.

My part-time job will still allow me to have some time with Mrs. R, but more importantly I will be continuing to keep my own mind active as well as affording time for the gym and weekend journeys. If I have a couple of decades ahead of me, I certainly want them to be healthy ones.

In Training

Discovery Bay: there's an eagle on the pilings; look closely!

I have shared with a few close friends my plans for this next phase of my life, but it seems like when you put energy in a new direction, if it is for the highest and best good for all concerned, the Source (God/Universe) jumps in and gets things moving - sometimes faster than you are really prepared to have it happen!

I returned to Washington State with the intent of healing my back issues, and beginning to re-structure my life in the U.S.  I have not given up on my Colombia life, but it has to take a back seat while I get my health in line with my vision. That, dear readers, is to continue to be of service, and many, many years ago, as a little girl, I wanted to be a nurse. My father's clear message was that it was a 'dirty job, not for the faint of heart.' And he certainly discouraged me. I wonder if I had stood up to him back then where it might have led me.

Eagles are all around here on the Peninsula... I think this is a youngster.

Instead, there were hours of being a Candy-Striper in Monadnock Regional Hospital as a teenager, then I took an Emergency Responder Course, which eventually led me to train to be an EMT (so very satisfying!) but because I got married and went to live aboard a sailboat, I only used that experience on the water, not on a squad. It served me very well in a number of circumstances, but clearly I wasn't done with medicine yet. Many of my clients with my consulting business in Public Relations and Marketing were hospitals! My very last job was at the VA hospital in Lake City, FL, and with my background in communications, I became the driving force behind their objective to get their Emergency Response Manual finished. Right after I retired from the VA, I was called to be a First Responder with the Red Cross for the Katrina disaster.

And there are all the alternative therapy courses and education I've acquired with becoming a Reiki Master, learning about nutrition, and other healing arts. Plus I have a rather (undesired - because of how I got it) extensive knowledge of MM which might be useful for some situations.

In fact, I have a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience in the medical field, emergency response, and health in general, both intellectual as well as on-site, and it seemed a shame to not listen to a call that incorporates that into my life or service at this point in my life.

It does require me to step out of 'retirement' for awhile, so while I will continue this blog, it will obviously not be as a full retiree as I have been for the past four years. But perhaps that is part of what retiring is about, having and taking the time to discover and focus on those things that rushed past you while you were doing what you thought was more important.

Reflection on my life as I approach a milestone birthday has caused me to see patterns which cannot be ignored. All my life I have enjoyed 'doing for others' as my Aunt Iva (Nini) used to say. She was my care provider when I was little and an early teacher of what love really is. Perhaps nursing would have burned me out from being a responder and perhaps the overuse of adrenaline as being part of a EMT squad would have taken its toll as well, but it seems to be in my nature to be a care provider, so I am enrolling in a program to be a professional one.

It will not be a full-time job, leaving me time to continue my artistic endeavors, and I will have time once the training is completed to go back to Colombia, but I will be then a licensed Home Care Provider which means I will have a way to express my desire for service to others, because it seems there are a lot of retirees who do the job of cooking and tending for others who can not manage it now. And I will have, as long as I am able to do the job(s) well, a small source of extra income.

Because the facts are, Social Security does not really provide an after-job living wage, except in Colombia. But even the Colombian officials know that although their cost of living is less than in the U.S. retirees there have to have three times the base cost for income parameters to be allowed to retire there.

A not-so-great shot of Trumpeter Swans and possibly
young Tundra Swans, but it was too far away to tell for
certain. Audubon Master Birder said the flocks do mix.
This was near Dungeness Road in Sequim, WA.

My concerns, after living there for nearly three years, are based both on their infrastructure for providing health care and my ability to utilize it given that my Spanish is still very elementary. I had a pretty bad fall last year, smashing my face into the very hard floor - caused by lack of attention and a poorly identified second step down. I was treated at the local hospital and it went very well and was affordable, too. But it was my wake-up call that if I was faced with anything more serious, how well could I communicate my needs?

No one in our small village hospital speaks English very well. They are all learning, and while some Latin medical words transfer over, it has the potential to be a serious situation until their language skills achieve the parity needed - at least as far as I am concerned.

This brought me gradually to the realization that being a solo retiree in a country where my language skills were less than ideal might not be sustainable. I love the people in Barichara, and I don't like that as time progresses I will have to make hard choices for myself that will necessarily exclude them from my daily life, but never from my heart.

So as I get my back issues resolved, I am in training. And not as a greeter at one of those large corporations as Jeyhu once suggested I could be. Who knows? Perhaps I could end up caring for someone who likes to travel as much as I do... anything is possible at any age, if you believe - and train!

Obama win is good for Colombia

Approaching Barichara, you can see one of the cordillas of the Andes stretching out ahead under the clouds.

I am not taking sides when I say that Obama's win is good for Colombia, but the last four years of working to strengthen the ties between the two countries will benefit from a continuation of the existing policy. While I do not want Colombia to become 'Americanized' in any way, inevitably that is going to occur with people all over the country watching the TODAY show, learning English, and having more tourists coming from the U.S.

Clearly my blog has been read by a huge number of Americans, possibly those looking for a nice retirement option. And Colombia is supportive of retirees (although you have to prove you can support yourself to get a visa) and welcomes Americans as visitors. Santos has been working hard to bring the FARC to the peace table and since Obama supports this, there are plenty of hopeful signs that an end to the conflict could occur. This would only benefit Colombia as a tourist destination country because it has so very much to offer.

Cathedral in Barichara - early morning shot

Although the U.S. State Department does issue travel advisories about Colombia, anyone visiting here and taking reasonable precautions for their personal safety should not be any more concerned about touring here than touring in the U.S. Don't bother wearing your expensive jewelry in any of the large cities. (If you are going someplace where you want to show it off, carry it in a pocket or something until you reach the inside of your destination, then you can put it on and remove it when leaving. That's what Bogotonians do.) Probably that's good advice in the U.S these days as well.

Anyhow, all you folks reading this, come on over and see Colombia for yourselves... the El Dorado airport in Bogota is being upgraded, you don't need a visa for a two-month visit, and it's well worth the trip!
NOTE: One village in northern Colombia is totally pro-Obama... read this!