It has been a month since my last post, and two weeks have passed since I returned home from a 2000-mile road trip in the Northwest from Crater Lake to Glacier National Park. It is time to reflect and summarize my activities to make sure I made good use of this free time at home.
- Handled the usual post-trip tasks – tabulated trip expenses, updated my various spreadsheets, uploaded photos, wrote flight and hotel reviews, paid bills, sorted mails, watered plants …
- Finished three books. Details will be in my next quarterly book report. At the end of August I was four books behind schedule regarding this year’s reading goal; now it is down to three. So I am still just barely keeping up and need to really speed up!
- Exercised and took care of health-related matters.
- Went to swim; attended a hot yoga class; walked on average 7,000 steps a day.
- Paid over-due visits to my chiropractor and dentist, and made an appointment for annual check-up at a new doctor’s office.
- Cleaned house and organized things.
- I have two big boxes of “travel stuff” – maps, tickets, brochures, souvenirs, etc. Really enjoyed going through each item and reliving the great memories at those cool places. Now they are better categorized and duplicates were removed.
- I processed hundreds of stamps. I have been a stamp collector since fifth grade under my dad’s influence. I left my stamp collection in China when I came to US two decades ago, but old habit persisted. I started a new collection here and it got better over the years. In the past few years, however, I was lazy and didn’t do further processing once I tore stamps from envelops and the pile kept growing. I finally soaked them all in water to be separated from envelops, washed and dried them, flattened them in a thick book, and only then they went into proper places in my stamp book. Looked very nice indeed!
- Miscellaneous “accomplishments”.
- Had my car’s rear brakes replaced after they produced all sorts of noises in the past month. Hope it will run smoothly for a while longer even though I admit it is time to consider buying a new car. My beloved Honda-CRV is 16.5 years old after all and deserves a proper retirement.
- Went to a library book sale and bought two books. I rarely left there empty-handed no matter how determined I was not to buy any books!
- Cooked a new pork dish today with Crock Pot. The verdict was that it was not only edible but also tasty. My confidence and interest was boosted and definitely plan to try more.
Next week will be busy, with plans including painting the deck, changing oil for the car, going to DC twice to meet former colleagues for lunch, reading, writing, exercising, organizing photos, starting online courses… Guess there is no risk of getting bored!
Life is good. :))
Ru... 