10 Things To Stave Off Boredom (Writer's Workshop)

Even though Harry was retired and home most of the time, he always told me he was never bored whenever I would mention it. I guess because when he reached old age (70s, 80s) it took him longer to do things so it seemed he was always busy with a lot to do. Here is a list of ten things he used to do that kept him from being bored:

10. Eat. (It was always quite a production for him.)

9. Write a letter or make a phone call. (Phone calls always were time consuming because he was hard of hearing and letters would take forever because he had arthritis in his fingers and sometimes a lack of feeling so he wrote very slowly. Once he wrote to President Bush with a suggestion for solving the high cost of fuel.)

8. Read the newspaper. (This often took him an hour or two because he'd fall asleep while doing it.)

7. Go shopping to stock up on things you might need some day--walk instead of drive. (This could take up an entire morning or afternoon.)

6. Cut the grass. (Again, he walked very slowly so it took him long to do. He usually only did half the backyard at a time.)

5. Pay some bills. (This took long because again with the writing but also had to find them first! Sometimes he wouldn't get to his mail every day and it would pile up. He always managed to date the envelope though with the date he received it.)

4. Index those magazines and file them away. (He had piles of magazines sitting around his dining room and living room because he had to get them indexed before he could file them or toss them out. He had shelves filled with Consumer Reports and could quickly go to the one he needed because he had them all indexed.)

3. Make some scratch paper. (He always saved his junk mail and then cut it up and used the back for scratch pads by clipping the separate sheets together with a big binder clip.) See post about this and picture: Even Junk Mail Has A Purpose

2. Feed the stray cats and clean the litter boxes for your indoor cats. (Every day he put out food and water for the stray cats in the neighborhood. His porch was a real mess though because not only did the cats eat the food, but so did the birds and they pooped all over the place! In the winter, this really took long because he bundled up in is snow suit first to keep warm--this took him at least 15 minutes to get in and out of.)

1. Fix something or make something. (This was his favorite thing to do, but often ran out of time.)

Are you ever bored? How do you fight off boredom?

This is in response to the prompt: "Write A List Of 10 Things To Stave Off Boredom" from Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.

To find out more about my book and why I wrote it, read the Foreword here.
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