A November to Remember

Caution: Not much in this posting is about new boating related activities.

When I was in college my fantasy life was: professional work by day and enjoyment of some sort of theater or other cultural event once a week. Well it didn't work out that way for a long time; work and other responsibilities consumed all of the time and cultural recreation got lost in the muddle of life.

But retirement changed that calculus and I've been making up for lost time. While I still get up between five and six, post-retirement life means the first two hours of the day are spent with the New York Times; what a luxury. And then there is my correspondence, mostly by email these days; and Facebook.

But what a November! The first two days we were still in the dark following hurricane Sandy. Six were spent getting the boat prepared for the winter (as reported in my last posting). Three involved traveling to and spending time with my family in Atlanta. Three were used in planning, shopping for, cooking and eating Thanksgiving dinner. One dinner meeting of the Book Group. Three events, including services, at my Temple in New Jersey. Two doctors appointments, one work party at the Club to start cleaning up the damage the storm caused to the clubhouse and one Club membership meeting. Five afternoons in the Map Room of the New York Public Library working on my volunteer project, making sense of some 6000 nautical charts published by the United States Navy's Hydrographic Office from the 1850's the the 1950's. The map room is another water related project; about which you will hear more when I get it done, this winter.

And the rest: Three lectures, two concerts, three movies, and ten stage plays. Eighteen events altogether. We get tickets to some broadway and most off-broadway events from playbyplay.com at $4 per ticket or clubfreetime.org, for free. Not all of the events are great, a few are fantastic and all are well worth the money. To many of these cultural events we can walk!

I count my blessings; in fact, those from November are counted above. It sounds to me like bragging but it is actually a sharing of gratitude.