Whether that's on the couch watching TV or on the stoop watching the world go by is up to you.
Because mark my words, if you succumb to the siren call of "using your time productively," you're gonna regret it.
The problem is, one thing leads to another. For example, today I was sitting out on the porch, enjoying a profound moment of satisfaction with life. The fall colours are peaking all around. There's geese honking and cows bellowing. I've got a full belly and a roof over my head, and all the kids are out of jail and off welfare.
Life is beautiful!
And then, right there in the midst of all that bliss, it occurs to me to turn off the water to the outside tap. Pretty sure the Farm Manager won't be doing any more watering this season.
A few years ago I forgot that chore and ended up with a water-pipe that froze so solid it turned a brass casting into a work of art. I was able to rectify the matter without calling a professional plumber, saving several thousand dollars.
Point is, there's no need to have a repeat of that disaster.
So I roust myself off the stoop and make my way to the basement.
Water shut off, I look around...
Gott im Himmel!!!
There's so much to be done down here. I really should use my time more productively....
That's the red flag right there.
Whenever you tell yourself that one, give your head a shake and resume your meditation on the porch.
I'd been busy trying to get rid of the stuff that can accumulate in basements, and there was plenty more to go. So I busied myself tossing old pallets up into the woodshed and from there out the back, where I soon had a great heap of them. We used to have them on the floor so the firewood wouldn't be sitting on the cement.
Not really sure what the science is on firewood sitting on cement. Is that bad for firewood? Maybe that's just a local superstition. In any case, we had a whack of 'em, and I piled on some cardboard and a stack of Globe and Mails and lit a match to it.
Then I returned to the basement to muck out where the wood had been stored. That stuff won't burn, but it makes a decent potting soil.
Next thing I know, I'm hearing some crackling and popping.
I check out the back... and whoopsie! The fire found some dry grass and is licking at the base of the splendid laundry-hanging platform I put in a few years ago, when the FM got tired of standing on the picnic table to hang the wash.
I run for the garden hose, and... nothing!
Because I just turned the water off!
There you go. Had all sorts of destructive hormones rushing through my frail blood vessels for a good fifteen minutes, simply because I had that urge to do something useful with my time.
If you're happy on the front stoop of life, stay put.
Don't go down that slippery slope.
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