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by Tom Anselm

I may have mentioned this before, but I am not a fan of yard work. Not that I am denigrating those who are. I know some guys, and gals, who love to mow, trim, rake, blow the cut grass around. Sometimes there may be a few adult beverages involved. For some unknown reason, this never appealed to me.

Strange as it may seem, as a younger man I tried using a rotating blade push mower that I’d picked up at a garage sale. Took it to Handyman Hardware to get oiled up and sharpened. Figured I’d use it as my workout. That experiment lasted about 15 minutes before I reacquainted myself with that red Toro in the garage. Not sure just what I was thinking there.

Since retiring, we have gotten someone to do our lawn. Unfortunately, our home-grown yard boy, Joey, moved away many moons ago. He was one of those who derived enjoyment from that sort of endeavor. Today, a crew pulls up, cuts trims, blows, and is off down the street in about 15 minutes. 15 minutes!

It used to take me that long to clean the bottom of the Toro and pull on the starter string a dozen times. So one may be wondering, just what does a retired guy do with his time in the summer? Believe it or not, I keep busy.

Thanks to prolific children, there is no shortage of grandkids to hang with. This year I am helping a few of them with their golf game. I claim no great proficiency in my own skills, but having been a teacher, I have a few tricks on how to get a kid’s attention. And it helps when the students have talent, which these guys and gals do. Plus, I get to hit some, we talk a bit to and from the course. All in all, it is time very well spent.

I also ran into a gig as a “Standardized Patient.” Couple of times a month I sport a quite fetching puke-green hospital gown at Logan Chiropractic University and pretend I have an ailment. The students may also have to also pretend that I am, for example, a 58 year old accountant who has smoked for 30 years, eats poorly, drinks too much. It is a challenge in improvisational acting and best of all it helps prospective chiropractors.

   And then we have our special days.

Remember the book “Tuesday’s With Morrie,” by Mitch Albom? We have “Wednesdays with Evelyn”, our youngest granddaughter. Most days we just hang at her house. She stays jammied up, watching a little Daniel Tiger, taking a few naps (she and I both), playing on the floor with her blocks and toys.

During my early days as a dad, I seldom got to just hang around with a toddler. Sure, there were times mom went to the grocery store, as much to get a break from the bedlam as to stock the pantry, where I was ‘in charge’ of the brood. But to just chill, spend a whole day doing nothing but being with a child, observing how she goes about her day, what interests her, how she solves things, seeing her grow in her ability to eat, talk, manipulate her stuff, just become a person.

I have to say, these are days that we cherish. And we have another one, on Friday’s, with a couple of older ones, who also grant us the great joy in sharing their lives. We used to get all three sisters for this day, but now that the eldest has become a young lady and is more independent, we see her less. So yeah, I keep busy. Go where needed. Try to be useful.

But it goes without saying that the intrinsic rewards far outweigh the effort.

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