This Week In Retirement-Denver Style

The past week or so in retirement I have slowly settled in. While I am in limbo, I'm starting to settle in to my non-travel/at home routine.  This will surely change some once I am unloaded and in my new abode. Meanwhile I continue to fill my days (as much as I need to), explore the town, and dive into my various interests Colorado style.

• As has always been my cold weather routine, I arise and feed and let the dogs out. I then return to sofa or bed with blanket, beverage and book or laptop until my second awakenin.  gAdmittedly this may change a tad when I have to get actually dressed to walk the poor things, but not by much I expect.  After awhile I rise for breakfast and spend my morning puttering at will. My afternoon is spent sewing, reading, exploring the town, planning for travel and other things. After cooking dinner, my schedule varies, but on the weekdays it's generally slower than the weekends.
• I have finally started walking a half an hour three times a week. It really has taken me time to adjust to the altitude and my doctor suggested I limit my exercise to this for at least another month. The cold weather has increased my creakiness and laziness a tad-which is why for me my snowbird months will be mid February through the end of April next year. In between I do seated exercises and seated yoga.
• My brother and sister in law celebrated my nephew's eighteenth birthday-with all of his favorite dishes.  Beef tenderloin with various sauces, chervil soup, a Hawaiian shrimp and pineapple appetizer, grilled stuffed clams,  potatoes Lyonaisse,  multiple salads and vegetables and two pies for dessert. I think I've spoken before of my brother's culinary abilities. He's the kind of guy who has no problem spending a day on a classic, difficult homemade soup with all it's steps. With food like this, who needs a restaurant!
  
• I've also gone out to dinner. Seafood is one of those things I don't cook well myself, and it was Lobster fest at Red Lobster. This was a once a month spurge, but the kind of thing that down sizing allows me to do more often.
• I've been to two different churches and plan to visit one a week (at least those that are close to me), until I find a good "fit". I expect that during the next month and for next winter I'll be worshipping evenings or on the weekdays as I seem to be rising every so slowly on the weekends. Much of my church visiting includes exploring volunteer opportunities-such as the safe woman shelter that one church operates in it's "undercroft'. I'm missing my volunteering and ready to get going again.
• My sister and son and I took a drive up to Morrison, Colorado. In the foothills, Morrison is home to beautiful Red Rocks amphitheater, has a beautiful but downtown with restaurants and entertainment, lots of hiking and biking, as well as dinosaur fossils. Definitely a place I will revisit.

• We spent some time trying to get to the back of our storage unit for my son's transcripts (which he put in a locked trunk at the back of the uhaul-meaning it's now at the back of the storage unit). We're going to have to move things out to get to the stuff. On the other hand, however, I decided trying to dig to all my fabric was futile-so I ordered a few new fabric sets including the Christmas ones shown below-and then went to Joanne fabrics simply to have some solid blenders.
  
  
  
  
• Needing to then use those fabrics, I designed a queen sized quilt for my bed, finished a baby quilt and started on a new quilt using precuts. Up till now I've used Target quilts on my bed because the bed is shared with creatures. I decided quilts are meant to be used, and I can always pull the thing back during the night.




• Although I have not attended yet, I joined a book and dining group through meet up-this one is for women only. The events fill quickly, so I'm keeping my eye on upcoming events!
• I've done lots of searching of future craft fairs, including those out of my area.  Craft fairs and antique festivals in other areas are a great way for me to travel and come out even or may be make a profit. So far I'm looking at Texas and the states surrounding it and Colorado, but I plan to go further afield.  Now if I could only design a quilt backdrop I really really liked.
• I spent some time on Amazon. While I'll talk about this more in my next downsizing article, this is what do: I look at popular pre orders and recommendations and put them into my wish list. I print out the wish list, go to my library site and start reserving. My library allows one to reserve as soon as the book is ordered-often six months in advance. Just as an example, the new Carl Hiaasen novel (Bad Monkey) will not come out until June, but could be reserved two months ago. This makes using the library for new releases much less painful!  I also ordered a couple books I've been wanting for awhile and simply don't serve well on kindle. 

• I've changed my diet (not Colorado related) and am concentrating primarily on carbs. Not giving them up, just going trying to limit myself to twelve carb servings (15 grams each a day), and treating that as my primary goal, with fat and calorie follwing in second place. One can only do so much at a time (at least I can only do so much), and concentrating on Colorado style hydration and this portion of my diet is where I am at the moment.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Finally, I took a gander yesterday to my new condo complex. I wanted to get some measurements and some photos. Although I am not moving for a couple weeks, I would rather be prepared. I will hire someone for a couple hours to move the furniture into place and put it together and I don't want to have to be thinking about that later on. Also, since I am fencing my own patio, I need to think about how to do that (I can go out into the rocks) and what is the best material. Pictures shown are of the model unit. Mine is green as well-which works for me as my furniture is all dark brown with green, peach yellow and cream accents. I chose this particular ground floor condo because I have no neighbors in front...just a high fence and a canal bike path twenty feet up!

Today, I'm off to sew, make a casual dinner plan after all our rich eating, and settle down with a new book or two.  I'll get back to those downsizing articles.....soon!