Friday, September 25th, 2026

Yet again, another week is almost done. Of course, this is not really the end of the week. It is just the end of the workweek, and since I no longer work, this is just an arbitrary boundary. We create arbitrary boundaries all the time in our lives, such as the start of a week, or the transition between months and years. They are all made up. But since enough people follow these made-up boundaries, they have become a type of social contract. There are expectations of what happens on weekdays versus the weekend. The weekend has historically been for rest. But that is only true if you have a good enough job to have the weekends off.

I’m not sure where I am going with all of this. The concept of time, how much we have of it, and what we do with it seems to be more interesting to me now that I have so much more of it. Not that there is more. More accurately, I now have more control over my time. I have been enjoying learning how to define what is interesting to me and how I use the time I have. The types of things that I have gotten into since retiring have been surprisingly varied. In the over three years since retiring, I have really tried some new things. These interests range from getting back into motorcycles and planning a long-term trip, to building out home automation and learning a new language. I’ve also found ways to keep my brain active by exploring new developments in the technology world. If anything, I have too many interests. Maybe that is not fully true. I have been pretty good at dropping, or at least being okay with, initial interests that really haven’t stuck. Like fly fishing. Sure, I’ve learned it, and I still have my gear. But it isn’t something that I think about doing all the time.

Snowboarding is another activity that has held my interest. Winter is coming, and hopefully we get some snow. It will be interesting to see how this winter’s weather impacts our plans for the Pan American trip. Of course, having two years planned to travel means that if things shift a few weeks due to weather, it is what it is.