It’s a mess out there – stay home. Oh, I’m sorry – you have to work! It’s great to be retired, but not everyone in my family has that luxury. My wife had to leave on a business trip early this morning, and was concerned about the light snow-fall affecting traffic to the Portland airport. She turned to me for help, and I did the driving, so the pups also got to go along. I only had time to run a mile, preserving my nine-year-plus consecutive streak, and fought the traffic that I am thankfully now able to avoid on a daily basis – except today. It was stop and go both ways, with slush and rain adding to the typical rush hour mayhem. I reflected on all those years of commuting to work that in several lengthy stretches involved nearly three hours of driving every day. This does not include all the side trips that I did making sales calls, so the best part of being retired is spending only only a couple of hours each week in the car, with most of this driving done between morning and afternoon drive times, in what I call “the eye of the daily traffic hurricane.” Although, this morning’s venture to the airport was only an hour-and-a-half round trip, it was traffic-dodging that I’m no longer used to and quite exhausting. Feeling sorry for me yet?

I was glad to get home, but will need to make a second trip downtown for today’s “Leadership Meeting.” These beer-and-wings luncheons with fellow retirees and retiree-wanna-be’s are usually on Friday, but travel this month has also disrupted this aspect of my typical routine. I will be leaving tomorrow to join my wife for “her” weekend, and will have to cut my morning run short again to catch an early morning flight. A pet-sitter will move in shortly after I leave, part of the daily travel expense that I estimate to be about $1000 a day, regardless of where we go. (See Post #320).  We’ll be gone 16 nights this month alone, with some of these daily costs covered by my wife’s business expenses, Marriott Rewards Points, and lodging with relatives or friends. It saves a lot of money if we stay home, but we “ADORE” travel. (See Post #396), and are willing to spend our retirement savings on going places.

When I am home, I relish what I call “My Days.” ( See Post #30). This is my alone time or “my time” that I spend writing, reading, and watching documentaries. For example, I spent yesterday watching another Ken Burns documentary titled, Cancer – The Emperor of all Maladies. It was tough to watch but made me appreciate the good health that I continue to enjoy at age 66. Here’s the list of more of his excellent work that I’ve found educationally worthy of retirement “my time:”

Baseball

The 10th Inning

The Vietnam War (See Posts #267, #268, #275, #276, #277, #282, #287)

The Civil War (See Posts #309, #311)

Prohibition (See Post #318) and (See Post #545)

The Roosevelt’s (See Post #327)

Horatio’s Drive (See Post #365)

Empire of the Air (See Post #399)

Jackie Robinson (See Post #399)

Lewis & Clark (See Post #417)

Mark Twain (See Post #417)

The Shakers (See Post #417)

Thomas Jefferson (See Post #417)

The Dust Bowl (See Post #417)

In the process of investing time in these documentaries, I also discovered my local library (See Post #361) and am fulfilling one of my New Year resolutions (See Post #380) to watch the rest of these Ken Burns productions this year. It looks like I’m far from being done:

The West

Central Park Five

Brooklyn Bridge

The Address (See Post #545)

Statue of Liberty (See Post#525)

Unfortunate Blackness

The Congress (See Post #545) and (See Post #546)

Huey Long (See Post #545)

Thomas Hart Benton

Not For Ourselves Alone

Frank Lloyd Wright (See Post #545)

Plimpton

The National Parks (See Post #545)

The War

The Simpsons

This Is America

World Play

The Address (See Post #545)

Jazz

Country Music 2020 (See Post #1071)