We have retired friends who struggle to fill up their days, always on the lookout for a new restaurant or for a free concert to attend. Retired people come to Carlton Gardens wanting nothing other than to spend an hour talking. I had to walk away from a guy yesterday and warned John about him. We simply don't have enough time for what we want to do. We've been making changes at the Gardens recently and are having so much fun doing it, but the days end to quickly now that we close at 4 pm. I try to keep up on my writing and painting but never have enough time, especially since we prize "free time" so much. On Monday after work we took our kayaks up to the Rockford dam and kayaked up the Rouge River for an hour and then floated and paddled back. On Tuesday evening we biked for a couple of hours on the White Pine Trail; on Wednesday went to an absolutely wonderful performance of "Chorus Line" at Circle Theatre. And the list goes on. Right now, late Sunday afternoon, I'm sitting on the back patio at Terrace Inn in Bay View, where we will spend the night. We left home early and arrived in less than 3 hours, went biking and stopped at our favorite fish hatchery where we viewed from one point a very close up Great Blue Heron and at a distance a bald eagle and some otters at play. What a show. Tonight and tomorrow we will bike again; then on the way home stop to purchase more yard art at a mom & pop little "factory," then make my monthly chaplain visit to a boy incarcerated at the Muskegon River Youth Home. Tuesday morning, the rat-race begins again.
