Busy Times

I can't believe how much adjustment is required in retirement. I can't, seriously CAN'T, believe that that there's so much to do daily and that, even though I make an ever growing 'To Do' list, I've never accomplished everything on it in a single day. I like having the list though. It helps keep things from falling through the cracks and it keeps me on track. I include everything from taking my pills to making my bed. I make sure to do some laundry every day and I edit some pictures too although not as many as I used to because I found out how little time I really have. I love these days though. I'll always be grateful for every single one of them and for everything I've been able to do that I couldn't have done if I were still giving more physical effort everyday than I had to give. I just can't wait until Mr. Right joins me. We're going to have such a good time and part of the reason will be that we can travel at the drop of a hat if we want to.

I've been trying to evolve my koi husbandry skills with some degree of success. There are no longer any koi in the two tubs outside. I've moved a total of 100 of them into the goldfish pond (where there are no goldfish of course), and the last 42 were moved into the aquarium yesterday. Here they are just before they were introduced into their new home.


Cute aren't they?

I was able to add this many to the aquarium, first of all because they're so small and secondly because the numbers of the ones that had been in the aquarium seemed to be diminishing ever since we put Mr. Algae Eater back in there. So before we added the 42, we netted the fast growing algae eater and took him for a one way ride to our local tropical fish store.

I'd estimate that there are about a hundred babies in the aquarium now and I did put 100 more into the goldfish pond where I never ever see more than six at a time which is worrisome. Also worrisome is the plan is to keep the outside koi in the rather shallow goldfish pond over winter with a pond heater or two. (Mr. Right doesn't know it yet but my next big push will be to get a portable generator. Otherwise a power loss in the middle of winter could result in the loss of our entire stock of koi.)

So it goes.

And I muse about people who hate retirement because they're so bored. Could it be because they don't have koi ponds? Or maybe they don't have a computer and a blog and Wii Fit (that's a story for another day) or gardens or books or a camera or WHAT? I don't get it. I really don't but I thank God that as long as I have my faculties and can get around unaided, I don't think I'll ever be bored with retirement. It's really too splendid for words!