With less than a week to go before we leave for Bali (does it sound like I’m excited about going home to see my eldest daughter?), we are working on doing repairs to the house. We have a number of cracks in the walls from the numerous earthquakes over the past four years. We’re working on fixing them today as well as cutting down some papaya trees that have just grown up around the house by themselves. One of the interesting things about papaya trees is that they are amazingly easy to grow – just throw some seeds down and you have some trees. We have a number too close to the house and we’re worried about what the roots will do to the house and the little sidewalk that runs along the side of the house.
I cut down two papaya trees this morning while a couple of guys were working on repairing the wall. Why are we doing all of this now – we still have another eight months before I stop working? I’m somewhat compulsive, and I want to get the house in shape to be either sold or rented out. The first thing is to fix the cracks in the walls, and then we’ll work on changing many of the ceiling panels which are water stained. Of course, now that we have been fixing the cracks in the walls, we’ll need to paint them as well.
I do have a fascination with doing work on the house which I’ve noted before. Thoreau says, “I’ve never in all my walks came across a man engaged in so simple and natural an occupation as building his house.” Hmm.
While I’m on Thoreau, he responded to friends who asked what he was going to do when he set off to live at Walden Pond, “Will it not be enough to watch the progress of the seasons?” Good enough. Being a bit compulsive, I’ve set a bit more of a program for myself. This is what I have for things to do in life after teaching.
1. Cook breakfast for the kids
2. Drive kids to school
3. Pick kids up from school.
4. Correspondence with family and friends
5. Reading online newspapers
6. General web surfing to see what is new on the internet.
7. Developing the cyberbali site to have more lessons that teachers can use with quick to use directions on how to use them.
8. Contributing to the forums that I belong to – expat forums, education forums, 3d forums.
9. Exercising daily – walking, swimming, lifting weights.
10. Cleaning the house.
11. Writing my blog daily.
12. Finishing the novel that I started 20 years ago.
13. Finishing the book on Islam and Hinduism that I started 10 years ago.
14. Reading.
15. Doing house repairs.
16. visiting friends.
17. Learning how to use 3D graphics programs.
18. Learning Balinese.
19. Learning Arabic.
20. Learning how to program in Java and setting up some easy lessons online for teachers.
21. Podcasting.
22. Go to Mecca.
23. Make a series of videos about Indonesia.
24. Take a biology class online.
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