A Look Back at October

It seems like a retirement thing (an older person thing?), but I have noticed that the days seem to pass more quickly. It was a case of “where did October go?” especially as I look at our house recovery progression. If you are following along on that saga, all the pilings are in the ground!  The equipment broke down three times, they discovered an old septic system tank (surprise), and it took five days instead of one. The next step is still a TBD as we could not schedule it until pilings were complete. Patience as a WOTY for 2025 was the right pick.

I decided to reapply a monthly look back approach from others and use the word October to look back at the month that flew by.

• Overwhelmed. Not a good start at the look back, but as I took on things to distract me from the lack of house recovery progress, I took on too much. This too much is especially true with one of my garden clubs. When I listed my I Did It items (a tool I’ve been using for a number of months to help me celebrate the small things I do – link here to the idea), there were 10 items under that club – including some multi-day activities and a really big project. No wonder I’m feeling overwhelmed! Going into November, I need to be more choiceful in where I am saying “yes.” A new question to ask myself before I say yes is, “Will doing this bring me enjoyment?” Because a number of things in the overwhelming list are there because I felt I should do them (no-one else would). Yes, I was should-ing on myself!
• Crafts. Crafts is an area I have added into my life in retirement. I’m a dabbler here. Not only do I enjoy the dabbling, I enjoy going to Arts & Crafts shows. October saw some of that (going to a new show I’ve been wanting to try and an old favorite one I had not been to in over a year), but I’ve added in a teaching element to my crafting. Yes, some of the garden club overwhelm is teaching craft classes there.  Fun, but stressful as I figure out everything needed to teach a class on a craft that I’m a beginning dabbler on!
• Tarot. I use a tarot card reading, usually associated with an astrological event like a new moon or the solstice, to take a step back and reflect. My time in reflection helps me pause, adjust, refocus. This was one of the few moments of pause and stillness this month.
• One. Just one date with hubby this month. Oops. My goal was to go out to dinner weekly, checking out some of the restaurants in the area of our apartment. I need to refocus that goal in November!  Our one date this month was a good one – The Florida Aquarium and a late lunch at Sparkman Wharf, which I had been wanting to try.
• Book Clubs. While I often struggle to read all the books for my three (yes, 3) monthly book clubs, I do enjoy each one of the clubs. The conversations are always stimulating. And I often read books I never would have selected, pushing my comfort zone.
• Exercise. While my various projects/clubs have created havoc with my regular cardio drumming class schedule, I continued to go at least once every week. And yoga almost every week as well. So good there, but no beach walk at all in October – a big miss for me and one to fix in November.
• Redington Wine Fest. Our big fundraiser (supports our local scholarship programs) was November 1^st and therefore required a lot of preparation time in October. Once again, I took on too much and felt a bit of “didn’t do enough” on a number of things. But the event was a success even with less turnout than previous years. Not totally unexpected as our town still has more than 65% of houses uninhabitable from the hurricane. People were happy to see us trying to get back to normal. (This fundraiser has been a yearly event for over a decade.)

That was October – some ups, some downs. I’m looking ahead to November and noticing my various clubs are beginning to overlap in the timing of activities, which will force me to make choices on what activities to participate. I will use the “which will bring me more enjoyment” criteria. I also want to make sure I’m spending time outdoors as fall has come to Florida (finally). And hopefully we will see progression on the house recovery. It’s now 13 months post hurricane; I had no idea we would still be so far from having a house recovery at this point!

Have you also said, “where did October go?” Do you feel like time is speeding up as you’ve gotten older? 

Picture: The calm before the wine fest party “storm”. I helped string the lights, set up tables, made all the centerpieces (zoom in). Also helped set up the Silent Auction, run the 50/50 raffle, do post-party breakdown. Yeah, too much.

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