We sit at our laptops, Hubby and I, like Sally and her brother in Dr. Seuss’s book, The Cat in the Hat, waiting for something to happen that will change our day, our week our lives…for the better you understand.
We write, we apply for jobs, we check emails, wait for someone to Skype, we search the net for inspiration and find distractions for a few moments, maybe the news catches our attention or an old music video or in my case, random words and phrases pop into my head to look up, I search for places to go, things to see.
Everything is at our fingertips. If we want a break we have to make ourselves arise from our table or desk and go for a walk or change rooms.
Sitting at a computer for more than two hours at a stretch wears me out and makes me feel unproductive somehow. I would feel more literary or academic if I had reference books open around me, a well thumbed thesaurus, but it’s all online. I hang on to a few tools of my trade, on my desk in the bedroom I have a notebook and pencil for ideas to be recorded as they enter my head because I know they’ll scatter with the next key stroke; I have a dictionary, I love this book of words, it is a concise Oxford so doesn’t have everything but there is enough for me; I have my bible which I refer to at least once a day, a little idea from the Word comes to me and I want to quote it accurately. Everything else awaits my pleasure stored neatly in folders on my laptop’s desktop.
At Hubby’s table in the dining room is his spiral in which he keeps notes. A phone, just in case and not a lot else. All he needs is also within reach behind the screen of his laptop. He works at his computer for longer hours than I, his tolerance is higher.
There are no interruptions. I remarked on this a few days ago,
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“At home you’d be overlooking the pool and notice the cleaner wasn’t running smoothly so out you’d go to look at it. That kind of interruption.”
“Yes,” he said, wistfully, “no interruptions.”
He misses the children popping in before work for a cup of coffee and a chat. He misses the phone calls from the train as our oldest son makes his way into the office and wants to ‘shoot the breeze with someone,’ always his father. He misses the ups and downs of everyday life with four grown children still within a mile from home. The caring for, the problem solving, the advising, the helping, the mainstay he became for everyone else’s lives.
Until lunchtime there are no interruptions. Then there is a flurry of calls as the children prepare for work and eat a bowl of cereal in front of their iPhone screens as we video Skype. Problems are aired and solved by them, for me it’s a relief knowing they can call insurance companies and handymen, get things done. For Hubby it’s bitter sweet, a feeling of losing just another twig to the inevitable world of independence.
No interruptions means more time to spend on the task at hand, which is good. No interruptions may also lead to feelings of loneliness, a sense of being washed up.
Perhaps we’ll go to a market today and completely interrupt our routine!
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
No comments so far!
Leave a Comment