Kicking It with naps

Elizabeth Youngman-Westphal

Special to The Village News

There are many advantages to retirement. Unlike my working years when others dictated my daily routine, now, I get to schedule my own time.

While occasionally my daily calendar is cluttered with errands like the market, returning online purchases to the UPS store, or medical appointments, I find, for the most part, the rest of my free time is mine to fritter away.

And wouldn’t ya know, I married a rooster? Without fail, as part of VJ’s dawn patrol exercise, my darling, early rising husband believes he is duty bound to roust me from my pillow, every morning.

Which only stands to reason because, unless he over sleeps, he’ll rise about 2:00 in the morning which means by 5:30, he is roaring to have some company. Since I am the only one here, yeah, I know, he comes in to give me the updates on the outdoor bunnies and the current Oriole feeder levels.

Some of the time, rarely, I’ll follow him into the kitchen for a cuppa, if and only if, he has made the coffee. Otherwise, I have a tendency to grab my reader, roll over, and seek morphias.

Here’s the way I see it. If I have to get up before 8 a.m., it must be the first day of vacation and I have an airplane to catch! Right? Right. What happened to those days when ya could sleep until noon?

Luckily for me, VJ has taken over most of the household errands. It isn’t because he’s so altruistic, he just believes himself to be the better shopper. I mean like I care? After all, I’ve been grocery shopping for over 65 years, I’m over it. I never want to see the inside of a grocery store again. Period. I’ve been there and done it.

Naturally, there is a caveat. He won’t buy something if it isn’t on the list. Yet, all too often, items are not added because he fails to write them down when he empties the container. Which means when I have to shop and happen to see an item on the shelf that isn’t on the list, I buy it. The difference is VJ won’t. An item will not make the cut if it isn’t on the list. To him, the list is sacred.

Which is why, on that rare occasion when he is out-of-pocket, and we need something (usually meaning me), I will order online. It’s easy to fulfill the $30 minimum to have someone else do my shopping while I wait in the parking lot. Easy peasy.

Another use of my free time is getting my teeth cleaned every three months. As it turns out. It is one of the best uses of my time with the benefits exceeding the cost.

The bestest use of my empty hours is that time I set aside for my nap. I am officially a napper. I am a woman who naps. I have napped. I am napping. I will nap again. It is the optimum use of my afternoons because when I wake up…it’s happy hour!

Elizabeth can be reached at [email protected].