Inclement weather

One does not live in Canada for the weather. It's going to be a mostly crappy and rainy month of May here in Montreal which does play on your mood a bit.

Now that I am decoupled from work routine it makes things easier to circumvent weather and a soggy weekend does not ruin plans which can now readily be moved into the week. I have also told my office that I do not take calls or meetings before 2 pm as a way to control my consulting work which I have managed to maintain at a maximum of 4 hours per week.

Having a lot of choice is not easy. Just think about the 1970's and getting up to switch between maybe 5 channels using a clunky dial and being happy. Today we scroll through hundreds of movies and shows with a combination of listless boredom and nervous uncertainty about choosing unwisely. Retirement can feel akin to this in that removing boundaries could leave us without a proper rudder.

I have largely eliminated fear of missing out (FOMO) which appears as preoccupation in some YouTube videos. People who toiled at obligations with resignation at the turn of the 20th century would have marveled at our embarrassment of choice and scratched their heads at how we do not even remotely appreciate it.