Billy Wetterer: Even routine things are interesting when you retire

"What do you do to keep busy since you retired?" my friend asked.

Obviously, I hadn't visited with her for some time or she would have known what I "do."

When I retired, I said "yes" to requests that I had said "no" to while working full time. Now, my time is free but I don't have a lot of extra time. (For those who don't know, I worked at The Independent, retiring as family living editor several years ago. I still write a weekly column but that's not the same as working full time.)

As I thought about the question, I looked back at some of the things I did last week, beginning with Wednesday. I had lunch with a number of friends where we talked about "Being a Mom" and the importance of mothers and of women. I may write more about that for next week's Mother's Day column.

Following the luncheon, I went to the Blood Donor Center at the Central Plains Chapter of the American Red Cross to see if I could donate blood. My blood pressure has been unstable and I had been turned down since I last donated in October.

You no doubt know the Bloodmobile will not take donations if, for any reason, you are not in good health. Some time ago I had set a goal of giving 18 gallons. I know that seems like a lot, but I've been doing it since our youngest daughter was a baby and those years -- and pints -- add up.

All right! It was a go and the nurses at the center were glad to see me. Donations have been down and when I visited with Donna Titman later, she said the chapter is about 25 percent below its goal. That's too bad because donating blood is easy. Sometimes we forget, so this is a reminder.

We talked last week about being absent-minded. When I divided the number of pints, 146, by eight I realized that I was already two pints past my goal of 18 gallons. Oh well, let's go for 19.

What else have I done to keep from being bored? The program chair of the Kiwanis Club to which I've belonged for about 20 years learned a few weeks ago that we could visit the new Hall County Correctional Facility instead of having the director attend a meeting to tell us about it.

On Friday we had a box lunch at the facility and were given a short tour. The tour guide said any of us, not just groups, could make arrangements to tour the new jail. If you think we are catering to criminals by building that facility, a tour will change your mind. It's very impressive but the cheapest hotel or motel you have ever seen would be preferable to being there. Believe me.

On Monday, I had lunch with two daughters who live in Grand Island. We were celebrating Mary's birthday. When she was born, 50 years ago, I needed a couple of blood transfusions so I don‘t need other reminders about the importance of donating blood.

Also this week I had a couple of appointments with my chiropractor, Dr. Eric Benson, keeping spinal stenosis and arthritis at bay. Yes. I'm in good health. Those things are annoying and a nuisance but are not life-threatening and often go along with growing older.

Growing older does have others disadvantages. I'm not as limber as I was in the past. When a driver parked his/her SUV within about a foot of my Taurus yesterday afternoon, there was no way I could get in my car on the driver's side. I had three choices: I could go searching for the driver, wait until he or she returned or try getting into the driver's seat of my Taurus from the passenger side.

I won't go into detail but I made it. I don't want to try that again. I wondered if I should go back to see Dr. B. but I'm OK today.

Also to keep me thinking: Like it did last fall, my trusty Taurus quit running. I was less than four miles from home. This time I had a cell phone to call for help. We don't know why it quit but by the time my family got there to tow the car home, it would start.

No. Life is never boring and so far I've not run out of things to think about or things to do. May your retirement be as interesting and as much fun.

Billy Wetterer writes a weekly column for The Independent. E-mail her at billybillw@aol.com.