Fish or Cut Bait or Mount the Rotary Table? Covid-19 Quarantine

[Janderso]

My wife found a rash on her toes. No burning, itching or any feeling at all. She consulted Google of course.
What the? There are many new symptoms they are finding with this Covid 19. One of them is capillary damage (rash) in the feet and toes. There is also a blood clotting symptom. A few days earlier she had an issue with her vision. Her left eye had a grayed out portion in one eye. She went to her eye doc. the next day. her eyes were fine.
She went to her regular doc and he decided to test her for Covid 19.
That left me in limbo. I was informed by my co-workers and my boss to stay home and wait for the test results - She tested negative thank goodness!
Meanwhile, I had five days to piddle in the shop. I wandered around aimlessly cleaning, adjusting my machine tools.
I couldn't get into anything. Did some yard work, went back into the shop day after day.
I feel good about getting to know my machine tools a little better through the cleaning adjusting process but I didn't achieve a darn thing.
This morning, I'm back to work. I am excited to get back to my shop to mount the 12" rotary table and make that pallet i've been thinking about.
Last Sunday I thought about it but I didn't have the energy. Why is it I have the motivation at work?
If this is an example of retired life, I better make a day planner and stick to it or my retirement years will be nothing more than a pile of wasted days aimlessly chasing my tail in the shop.
Fish or cut bait?

 

[Reddinr]

Sorry for your wife's health issues. I hope you can get to the bottom of it. Worry can mess with you. For me, "the unknowable" is the worst part of any problem and when faced with a problem like that I can start to (figuratively) wander aimlessly. What mostly works for me is to just set one goal at the end of the prior day and think about how I will go about doing it and give myself a deadline, like "by noon". Then, the next day I usually get it done and sometimes I get something else done too. Myself, I'm deadline driven so work-work has never been a motivation problem. Maybe you are like that or are competitive with people you work with or something else fires you up at work. Try to figure out what really motivates you and try to bring that into your retirement/hobby.

I am just heading into retirement too which is a big unknown. I very much relate to your post and have some of the same concerns about retirement.

 

[benmychree]

Jeff, I too have had a problem with motivation during this virus mess, can't do much until businesses open up, I have to be extra careful due to health issues ---

 

[C-Bag]

My problem is everywhere I look is a project. After I get basic cleaning from the last project I always have something I can settle on. And I never know which way that will be once I've got "have to do's" out of the way. I don't care what I do it always leads to some rabbit hole which generates even more have to do's and wanna do's. Saturday I wanted to use my little angle finder to setup to grind some tooling and decided it was time to replace wingnut it came with, with a knurled knob. That became an all day sucker as I'd never knurled before. It came out good, made the tool totally useful and learned a bunch. I have also done a list on the wall for those times I need a direction when I'm looking for something. That's very productive too.

 

[projectnut]

My wife found a rash on her toes. No burning, itching or any feeling at all. She consulted Google of course.
What the? There are many new symptoms they are finding with this Covid 19. One of them is capillary damage (rash) in the feet and toes. There is also a blood clotting symptom. A few days earlier she had an issue with her vision. Her left eye had a grayed out portion in one eye. She went to her eye doc. the next day. her eyes were fine.
She went to her regular doc and he decided to test her for Covid 19.
That left me in limbo. I was informed by my co-workers and my boss to stay home and wait for the test results - She tested negative thank goodness!
Meanwhile, I had five days to piddle in the shop. I wandered around aimlessly cleaning, adjusting my machine tools.
I couldn't get into anything. Did some yard work, went back into the shop day after day.
I feel good about getting to know my machine tools a little better through the cleaning adjusting process but I didn't achieve a darn thing.
This morning, I'm back to work. I am excited to get back to my shop to mount the 12" rotary table and make that pallet i've been thinking about.
Last Sunday I thought about it but I didn't have the energy. Why is it I have the motivation at work?
If this is an example of retired life, I better make a day planner and stick to it or my retirement years will be nothing more than a pile of wasted days aimlessly chasing my tail in the shop.
Fish or cut bait?

I've officially been "retired" 14 years. I took an early buyout that I couldn't refuse. It was one of those instances where it worth my time to take it whether I was ready or not. The offer was generous and followed by the explanation "You can either take the money or take your chances. By the way if you choose not to take the buyout we're going to transfer you to XXXXX. As an FYI The manager there hates people from corporate engineering. Make your choice".

It took less than a blink of an eye to make the choice and so began retirement. The first 3 years were nothing like what you're experiencing now. It was non stop 16 to 18 hour days catching up on everything we let slide when we were both working. Once we finally caught up we started traveling. We put well over 100,000 miles on one motorhome and another 50,000 on the second. In the non travel time I was trying to get projects done in the shop and the wife was into quilting.

We spent over 3 months on the road last summer and fall. We decided to stay home over the winter and once again catch up on things we let slide. The original plan was to hit the road for a few weeks in April. Obviously that didn't happen. There are still plenty of projects to tackle, and more than enough time to get them done. The trouble is that I would use the shop time to relax from the everyday rigors of life. Somehow staying at home for weeks on end, not being in contact with friends and fellow co workers isn't inspiring me to work in the shop all day every day.

It's a bit more fun to go to the shop when an idea strikes me, I need a break from something else, or I have the urge to finish a project. For now there's not much to take a break from. I've done a little yard work, and mowed the lawn once. It's still generally in the 40's to 50's so not a lot is happening out doors. Things are a bit boring, but I expect that to change with the weather. Variety is the spice of life, but right now there's not much of it.

 

[Janderso]

My problem is everywhere I look is a project. After I get basic cleaning from the last project I always have something I can settle on. And I never know which way that will be once I've got "have to do's" out of the way. I don't care what I do it always leads to some rabbit hole which generates even more have to do's and wanna do's. Saturday I wanted to use my little angle finder to setup to grind some tooling and decided it was time to replace wingnut it came with, with a knurled knob. That became an all day sucker as I'd never knurled before. It came out good, made the tool totally useful and learned a bunch. I have also done a list on the wall for those times I need a direction when I'm looking for something. That's very productive too.

Oh that is funny, I do the same thing. I head off in one direction, next thing I know I am doing something completely different.

 

[C-Bag]

Oh that is funny, I do the same thing. I head off in one direction, next thing I know I am doing something completely different.

But isn't it nice to just go where you're fancy takes you? I used to struggle and second guess it but not any more. My home biz is my must do and a lot of the projects are making machines and fixtures for that. That is the reason I bought a lathe and mill. But the real rewards with the lathe and mill is being able to mod my HF stuff into really useful machines for cheap and often that are not available. It isn't just circles going nowhere of tools making tools. I keep telling the SO there is a method to my madness. There is actual production going on with a lot spiraling in between

 

[RJSakowski]

I've been retired for going on seven years now. There are a lot of potential projects on my list as well as a bunch of "Honey do" projects. I also experience the lack of motivation regarding starting a project. I suspect it is largely due to the philosophy that "I'm retired so I don't have to start the project now, it can wait". The sense of urgency that was present when my time was limited doesn't exist any more.

Usually, when I get into a project I stick with it, putting in full workdays until completion. I guess it's like fishing in the rain. If it rains while I'm on the boat, so be it bur if it's raining out, it's hard to convince myself to go fishing.

 

[DavidR8]

Oh that is funny, I do the same thing. I head off in one direction, next thing I know I am doing something completely different.

I blame my mild ADD. Oh look! A squirrel! Wheeee!
And off I go fixing/sorting/fussing with some tangential thing.

 

[Janderso]

It is so nice to be able to fix just about anything, make repairs to old machine tools, have a place my wife and I can work together, have a plasma cutter, welding equipment, mills and a lathe with all the required tooling to create, renew, repair, modify.......... It's a real blessing.
Sorry honey, no garage for your car.