Ruminating on the 3 Rs: Routine, Retirement and Regularity

First, let me apologize to all of those faithful friends and family who have been following this little blog of our experiences in Mexico. I had let things slip a bit. Frankly,
Polley and I have found that as the weeks of this first attempt at phased retirement pass by (more than a month now), we have become aware of the impact of retirement on that of routine. In retirement one does not abandon routine, although there is a fantasy of doing exactly that prior to actuality. There is the idea that each day will be some sort of random improvisation as one caroms off each event of the day, headed in no prescribed direction. Wrong! That reality, if it exists at all, lasts a very short time. One creates new routines, in fact, looks to make certain one does. In retrospect, that does not seem too surprising, especially as one leaves one’s own culture for that of another. What surprises me is how quickly those former engraved habits of daily life are washed away as if they were only temporary markings on a sandy beach; a change of location serves as the tide that wipes all away. My days at home consisted of getting up no later than 4:30 a.m. and heading out the door for an hour’s walk (God help me if got started late; the whole day would be thrown off. I’d never catch up!). Back home in hopes the paper had arrived, a cup of coffee and then shower and shave, teeth and hair and on our way. If it was Monday, Wednesday or Friday, there was the trip to the gym squeezed in among all the other daily requirements. If it was gym day, then that meant applying a coating of cortisone cream to my extremely dry face, Tuesday, Thursday and the weekend meant I didn’t have to plan as carefully, but Polley was off to Pilates and then to work.

Here, as we came to the beginning of the fourth week, we both began to realize that we had settled in to a definite routine in Puerto Vallarta. Getting up has been moved by to about 7 am. Usually that is followed by a cup of coffee and then I head out for a 4-5 mile walk along the Malecon while Polley does Pilates back at home. The second cup of coffee comes with my return and I usually use the Pilates mat for a little stretching. E-mails, some reading, general tiding up, etc. takes us to about 11. And then, it is off to the beach, or to a round of general errands. We have decided that every other day at the beach is about right. Mid-afternoon of any day brings us back to the apartment for a light lunch and our treasured Siesta! We usually arise about 5 and then check e-mails (we are 2 hours ahead of friends and family on the West Coast). 7 or 7:30 in the evening finds us dressed and ready to go downtown. Often we leave with no particular place in mind. It might mean going out for dinner, it might mean having a glass of wine near the beach. We have discovered a very nice restaurant, Le Bistro, right at the bottom of our hill, that has live music 6 nights a week and pretty decent wine. So we often finish the evening there and dance some while drinking the vino. It is a $150 atmosphere right on the river, for the cost of two glasses of wine. Very nice. 10 or 10:30 finds us back home for some reading and then lights off.

I guess the reason that I am providing this overview of our typical days, is that I wanted to you to notice that no blog time is built in there. We have become so wedded to this lifestyle, that we have surprised ourselves by discovering how much we value it. Last Saturday, February 2nd, we were scheduled to go on a week-long trip to Guadalajara and then on to San Miguel de Allende. Both us were quick to confess that despite having the bus tickets, hotel reservations and expectant friends, neither of us wanted to leave the life with which we had become so comfortable.

However, we did go and that will be the focus of our next blog. We are having a great time. We have put down roots and are even talking of returning next year, despite of having lots of other options. Mostly it is the people that we have come to love. The little gal who runs the laundry; the girl who is the hostess at our favorite restaurant; the man on the beach who always tells us, “too much tequila last night” is the reason he is moving slowly today. People have been great and we will miss them.

So, again, I apologize for failing to keep up and I appreciate the not too subtle reminders of our obligations to our reading public. But our failure to do so has been for some very delightful reasons. The Trip details with photos in the next blog.