EVER HAD A BORING DAY?

[Lately, my life has been one long stream of medical appointments, tests, clinic visits, check-ups, and the good old Etc. I'm having no real big problems, just the, you know, the Aging Thing. And as we do the Aging Thing, somebody somewhere mutters, "hmmm," and next thing you know, there's a new prescription or another test, or an appointment in X number of weeks to check up on that "hmmm." So all those interruptions to Life As I Know It make it hard to get new thoughts rounded up and whipped into shape for a blog post. So, dear friends, herewith a rerun about what to do with a boring day. And just so you know, I would dearly love to have one right now!]

 Please don't roll your eyes and mutter, "Duh," under your breath. Believe it or not, some people never have a boring day.

I'm not one of them. I've had boring days. Just so you know I'm speaking from experience here.

First, I think we better have some parameters--there are different kinds of boring days:

--Nothing's Happening - no plans, no possibility of activity, nobody coming to visit, etc.

--Nothing Creative Going On - the day offers no opportunity to hammer, saw, paint, plant, write, sew, so on

--Same Old/Same Old - Nothing new going on; just a repeat of the day before and the day before that and . . . hard to know the name of the day or the date on the calendar.

Okay. So far, so good.

Next, what are our resources?

--phone

--Internet

--transportation (car, boat, plane, scooter) for getting out and about

--paper and pencil/pen for writing notes/letters/whatevers

-----

There's been no formal survey yet, so far as I know, but I can speak from experience here that there's a sure-fire way to keep from getting bored. Are you ready for this?

            MAKE PLANS

Take my yesterday (puleeze!)--had my usual Wednesday list, not too full of chores, just an errand or two and an extra-curricular thing (baking scones) that I wanted to do.

First hop out of the box--text from a friend (sent the evening before while I was in bed) wanting to stop by for a few minutes in the morning for a short chat. I replied, sure, come ahead. 

After she left--first thing on my list, go to the pharmacy to pick up refills. Got there, drive-thru lane was closed, had to go inside (picked up a couple of things I could've done without but since I was there.....); waited in line at the pharmacy behind people getting COVID vaccines (I'm very bad at waiting in line); one woman told me to go ahead inside the curtain--she and her kids were all done, just in the 15-minute waiting period before they could leave. Finally left the store with my refills and  three little items I paid for in the self-checkout lane. 

My mid-morning coffee, still in the coffeemaker, was sitting on the kitchen counter getting stale by the time I got home. I drank it anyway and tried to dredge up a scintillating topic for today's blog post . . . came up with what to do to avoid a boring day. Or, maybe, rearrange one.

(What I actually did was play online solitaire for a while to get my brain calmed down, then started typing.)

The rest of the day probably was going as planned--make the scones, do dishes, have lunch, take a nap, read . . . the normal day, after all. Not boring, but not jumbled either. Just a little jangled after the earlier morning's unplanned activities.

Apparently, if I'd had no plans for the day, everything would have been spontaneous. But since I was foolish enough to make plans ahead of time, I had nothing but interruptions. The upside, if there is one, is that I didn't have time to get bored. Just jangled.

-----

What to do with a boring day? Pretty much depends on your personality. If you absolutely can't stand doing nothing--or doing only the mundane chores you face every day--you'll likely call somebody, or get on your scooter--or, in your car/boat/plane--and tool around visiting people and places to give your eyes and mind something to feast on besides the inside of your house, head, and life.

If you're one of those people who can stand a lot of nothing, but feel adventurous, you might read a book that takes you out of your everyday--or escape into the world of a video--or surf the 'web for places to visit that you might never get to see in the flesh.

Writing a letter to a friend or relative can also get the creative juices going; I mean, who tells the whole truth about life in a letter? Lots of license there for making it all sound better--or worse--than it was.

If you're really, really desperate, you can eat a big bag of chips and a quart of fudgy salted caramel ice cream, with nuts. (Doubt that you'll be bored the next day.)

-----

Wishing you happy days--stimulating days--quiet days, if you need them--and once in a while, just for contrast and to help you appreciate the other kinds, once in a while a boring day.