As I was getting ready for retirement I was worried that I would have trouble finding things to do. That hasn’t been the case. I’ve been busy for the past few weeks. At least for the most part. What has been tough has been a routine and structure to my week. The last two weeks my routine has felt a bit upside down.

Hoagie had surgery on his shoulder to remove a tumor. He is healing well, though I have had to keep him inside more than usual and avoid long walks for a few days so he didn’t pull out his stitches. Of course he doesn’t understand and is bouncing off the walls a bit. We won’t find out how bad the tumor is for a few more days, so that has been weighing on me.

Izzy is on Easter break this week and I can’t leave Hoagie home alone all day yet, so we are stuck in Växjö (and nearby) for the week. Most of her friends are out of town or not available to get together, so she is stuck hanging out with me for the week. Hopefully tomorrow she’ll be able to meet up with a friend who should be returning from Denmark today.

I’m currently building a chicken coop for Susanna’s preschool, but have mostly been only able to get a few hours here and there to work on it. I was able to get one full weekend day working on it, and I think I’ll probably have to carve out one day on the weekend to work for them as I go ahead. It’s hard to get more than a few hours at a time with Izzy’s school schedule and Susanna’s work schedule. I was worried that I would be bored in retirement, but that isn’t the case. I think the hard part has been routine and structure. I need to spend some more time focusing on figuring that out.

Anyway, long story short, I was a little (or a lot depending on who you ask) grumpy yesterday afternoon. The clouds had mostly given way to the sun by early afternoon, so Susanna pushed me out the door to go take a walk. Hoagie and I headed down the hill to the bike path, but instead of taking a right into town, we took a left and walked the 3km north through Araby and to Hovshaga. We took a loop around the Hovshaga Cemetery (Hovshaga begravningsplats) and headed back.

Today looks to be promising as well. The sun is out this morning. Izzy and I will walk to the center this morning to go to the farmers market/market square (Torghandel) which is every Wednesday. Then we will head to an outdoor furniture sale at one of the local second hand stores and look for some patio furniture. After lunch we will head up to my workshop to put another coat of finish on the patio furniture that we already have and hopefully get a fence to put across the patio so Hoagie can hang out outside with us without running away.

Hopefully I’ll be less grumpy today!

Here are pictures from the walk yesterday.