Good things interfere with good things, and bad things interfere with good things.
Tonight, we were able to manage to attend a nice cocktail party, and then to get out to dinner with dear friends we haven't spent time with in a while. There are only so many weekends in a year, and only so many years in a lifetime. Keeping up with friends, and doing the things you want to do, fills the calendar.
This summer, for example, I realize that I cannot golf, work in the gardens, work on my tennis game and play a match or two, go fishing or sailing on the coast with friends, help the Mrs. pick out new ceiling lighting for the hallways, go riding with the Mrs. on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, get to church, and sit by the pool and read with a cigar and a scotch which often ends up as a little siesta. Not to mention evening social engagements and the occasional invitations for sporting clays and skeet.
Don't even mention wanting time to spend messing with these internets.
There are fewer conflicts in the fall and winter up here. For one thing, no yard and garden chores other than wood-splitting and cleaning up fallen limbs and trees in the pastures. Still, I like to go for ducks or goose or grouse or pheasants, but I have a Saturday morning men's tennis group, and you cannot hunt in CT on Sunday. Plus we like to ski in New Hampshire and sometimes Vermont, and I usually have some weekend jobs for work that are needed on Monday.
Nothing I do is particularly expensive (other than keeping the horses, maintaining the pool, and keeping a stock of Cuban Dominican smokes). It's all about time - and making choices.
I think I am going to give up the golf this year. If I ever retire - which I do not intend to ever do willingly - maybe I can take it up again. And I am going to hire people to do the mowing even though I enjoy it. I make this promise to myself.
We are always told that accepting limits is the biggest part of maturity but, when it comes to my plan-to-do list, that aspect of maturity still is tough for me. Friends tell me that I have too many interests.
