So, that first official day of semi-retirement

Sorry mom, I know that you have a tough time thinking you have a child old enough to be almost retired.

I've been saying for a while that I wanted to start shifting to part time work about the age I am now. The thought of working on an interesting project for a while, then taking a break is calling me pretty loudly right now.

It was looking like that was going to happen with work last fall, in that I seriously thought my contract would be ended. Well, no. They extended it another three months, then last week we signed the paper extending it till the end of June, on the understanding I work an 80% week. Typically that means Friday's off. And just now at least, it's very interesting work, trying to match up a not-quite database with real data.

Last Friday I was in the office because I had a lunch date, so today was the first of my Fridays off. I am loving it so far. Even though I didn't sleep that well, I snoozed in a bit. I'd woken up with more ideas for the book, and even before coffee I pounded on the laptop a bit, then brewed coffee. The Christmas Blend from Crickle Creek, if you're wondering.

While I slowly sipped that, enjoying it immensely, I nibbled on breakfast and pounded on the laptop some more, to the tune of about 1500 words today, so far. All during that there were many cat complaints and a few house chores.

Then I went downstairs and got on the bike trainer. 1.25 hours, nice easy warmup, some fast spin ups, then 30 minutes at the top of my endurance/bottom of tempo pace. By the end I was dripping sweat, but my heart rate was nice and steady. Stretched. There were more cat complaints.

Nice soup for lunch. Then some shopping and research on replacing the halogen bulbs in the kitchen with LED's. Turns out we also need to buy the right kind of dimmer switch as well, which I hadn't known but they aren't terribly expensive, about the same as a bulb. The bulbs are $30 and there are 6 in the kitchen on the same switch. I'm having some trouble with that because I grew up with incandescent lightbulbs, and they are cheap like borsht. Sure the LEDs last forever, and burn less energy, but still. The world keeps changing. What next?

I spent a delightful time in Lee Valley shopping. There's still more of a gift card to use up. I brought home one of their big catalogues and plan to get more tools. Guys are always wanting more tools. Their product descriptions are amazing; they fill me with the desire to go buy something that I hadn't realized I urgently need. I'm thinking I spend a lot of time typing, and I should probably do something else creative with my hands to use different muscles.

More quiet time writing in the afternoon, then a lovely pheasant dinner. With wine, of course. A bit more writing, then I'll binge on more House of Cards. I hope I'm in shape to run tomorrow.