I've been out of work for about one month now. Some of you may be wondering what life is like without a job. I was curious what it would feel like too after five steady years of work. And here we are.
If you're still working, you may be happy to hear that it doesn't feel like anything special to not work. When working, days off from work are great because you know you will go back to work at some point. But when there is no work looming ahead, making you really savor the time, it's just a day. I guess this is what days are supposed to feel like though. No super high and no super low. Um, I'd still rather be here though. It's also worth noting that a little while ago I had a nightmare in which I had to wake up with an alarm clock (details are a bit fuzzy now).
I'm now living in the countryside as I make plans and preparations for my next move. I'll admit I had this dream of riding my bike down the rural road to the farmer's market and picking up some cheap local produce. Unfortunately, the farmer's market seems to not have any local produce?! There was only a small selection of produce which looked like it was at least partially trucked in and it was more expensive than in the Big City! Transportation is an issue. Everything is far away, so I need to plan my outings to accomplish as many objectives as possible in one go (which is the way it should be). I still miss being in the city though, with car-free access to people and resources.
Ironically, now that I have all this time, I feel guilty taking a nap during the day. I get this feeling like I should be productive or something. Conditioning I guess. I've only had a nap on a very small handful of days. I guess I might be sleeping more at night though, so maybe that's why naps don't reign supreme anymore.
Days pass much more slowly now. With so much of the day available, one day can feel like one week has passed. One week feels like two or more weeks. It makes me feel like I'm moving slowly.
Completing tasks feels great. I can't say I'm that diligent about rushing to complete everything I want to do, but I'm making progress and slowly checking things off my to-do list. Here are some of the projects I've worked on:
- Scan documents so that I can still have access to them once I move again, but not have to carry them.
- Chop up a large tree for firewood.
- Landscape the backyard to convert runoff water into a water feature and pond.
I feel like I'm supposed to be thinking about stuff, but I don't know what it is. I have this problem when I change my environment. I do have plans I need to make, since I won't be remaining here in the countryside for too long. I have a lot of options and I'm not very good at making decisions. It's nice when you can weigh one option against another to figure out which direction to go, but seeing the positive and negative in each variable things usually come out even.
With all this free time I even took a vacation.
