Saturday Routine

After a week away, the Saturday routine returns as if it were a program set on perpetual — up, meds, make a pot of coffee, drink the coffee while reading newspapers online and listening to Weekend Edition for a couple of hours, check email, take an hour-long walk while listening to Car Talk, drive to the Farmer’s Market to pick up our week’s CSA share, tend to any work that needs to be done on my classes, go to the store for groceries and run any errands, check email, make dinner, watch the news, eat dinner, watch a movie on DVD, maybe watch some TV, go to bed. There might be an occasional phone call or yard work to do. There might be a nap. There’re probably sports on the radio or TV during the afternoon. There’s usually an hour or so of reading. It’s a comfortable routine — too comfortable, I’m sure, too dependent on what I want to do (or not) and not enough attention to what I should be doing if I were a better person. But then again, it’s a routine borne over time from some combination of responsibility and repose. And rut, no doubt. But ruts make for lazy going, and maybe lazy going is what retirement should be. And perhaps I’ve been rehearsing for years for retirement.