Hi Neighbor,
It has come to mind recently that if retirement has a color it would have to be seafoam green. Many of my friends have pulled up stakes in their sunset years and moved to sunny places, developments named Coastal Carolina or Southern Pines or Port Harmony. There is usually an ocean around or easy access to some body of water which for some reason they rarely go to. I don’t know why, maybe to be in close proximity to the great blue expanse in order to scatter cremains when that time comes?
Their new homes are built to spec. The decor, granted a step up from the Raymour and Flannigan years before tastes and bank accounts had fully matured is invariably nautical theme. Seafoam green is the go -to palette, master bedroom on the first floor a requirement. In the foyer on a side table is a bowl of collected sea glass under a lighthouse-styled lamp. The bathrooms have shower curtains swimming with mermaids, turtle shaped soaps and hand towels that sport starfish. The bedspreads are a riot of seashells and the mantels are bracketed with two, three feet tall egrets.The artwork-terns, pelicans, beach scapes and fish. It all can make you a little seasick.
My one friend drives fifteen minutes most every morning at dawn to the beach and takes pictures of the sunrise. I’ve had a bazillion such photos forwarded to me. Beautiful yes, but after you’ve seen twenty sunrises, you’ve seen them all. Is there a new sunrise to be seen under the sun? Makes me think my friend greets the new day at 6:00 am just to check off that she made it through another sunrise to sunrise. Back at the home front her husband, who hates the beach, shoots battalions of squirrels off the bird feeders during the day with a water blaster gun. It takes up a lot of his time as they have a multiple bird feeders. Who knew that birds were such an obsession with the post-nine-to-five crowd?
If riding your bike up to the clubhouse to get your mail or taking a snap of the beach or waterboarding wildlife is the highlight of your day, so be it. If they are content with the tempo of their lives, then I’m happy for them. They just seem to have a lot of time on their hands, and precious little on the to-do list. Me? I like to do things. Do I have a grand, lofty purpose in life? I’m working on it, littler purposes at least. But no, I do not want a seafoam green coffee mug that says I (Heart) Lower Slower Delaware. I don’t want slow. I need to move fast. There is a lot more to do, to learn, to see and very precious little time to do it in.
I am however wondering if we could convert our mudroom into a first-floor bedroom.
Be well and be kind,
Susan
