The Unexpected

As I suspected, one of the major advantages of being retired is a new way to look at time. In the past time has pretty much been the enemy, gotta get this finished before the next class comes in; gotta get to the store before it closes; gotta do this quicker so I can get home so I can go back out and do something else.

Today we had a business appointment in the morning. We enjoyed meeting the guy and sprinkled among the talk needed for the business transaction were a number of entertaining stories. We took longer than we might have done without the stories but the stories made the encounter more enjoyable. Richard had a dental appointment and we decided to go find some lunch and stay downtown.

We found a little sandwich place we didn't know existed, met someone from the church who came in for lunch and then Richard headed off for his appointment and I headed off to an art store. I certainly don't need art supplies for school anymore but maybe it's time to return to an interest I had in high school and one that's kind of been poking away at the edges of my consciousness off and on for years. I lost myself among the books, how to draw all manner of cartoon characters, how to mix colour, how to draw and how to see.

My love of books hasn't changed; only the subject matter has. When I picked up the one on how to see I thought of Freeman Patterson and his photography books. It intrigued me so I bought it. Since I still had time I went poking around some other stores and found a little tea place. I didn't know that Calgary had places that just served tea and I didn't know there were so many varieties of tea. The guy let me smell some green pear tea. Since it smelled good, I decided to try it.

They served it in a pot like a Bodum coffee maker. The tea leaves go in; you let it steep for a few minutes and then push the press down and the tea leaves are trapped on the bottom of the pot. I would never have thought of using a pot like that for tea but it makes perfect sense. The green pear tea was very nice and I want to go back to try some other varieties.

I finished my tea and went back to pick Richard up only to learn that he was going to be another 40 minutes or so. I had business at the bank so I did that and then went back to get him. He was just coming out into the waiting room as I walked in. Perfect timing.

The point of all this is that normally I would have been irritated by the change in schedule because I would have had a lot of other stuff planned and would have felt the constant weight of things that needed to be done. Today I could enjoy the surprises, lunch downtown, a new place to get tea, a new kind of tea, getting business and banking done and, when I got home I was still able to finish the lathe-tool holder I started to make for Richard yesterday.

All in all it's been a very satisfying day, going with the flow and enjoying what turns up.