Morning Routine

I use the phrase "after my morning routine" a lot, so I thought I'd take a minute to jot that down so any new readers can check it out and I don't have to repeat it every so often.

I'm not an early riser. I get up with the sun most days. On average, in the summer I get up around 7 AM, and in the winter, I get up around 8 AM.

I come downstairs into the kitchen, where the first thing I do is brew a pot of coffee. I use whole bean coffee and grind it fresh every morning. My coffee of choice is Eight O'Clock Whole Bean Columbian Perks. I do get one pound of locally roasted beans every month so as to support a local roaster. My formula is one liter of water for 60 grams of coffee. I have a Mocca Master KBTS drip brewer. It makes enough coffee for DW to have one 8 oz cup (she limits her coffee intake due to her AFiB), and for me to have one 12 oz mug and another half mug after that. Both of us take a splash of half-and-half, although DW does love her syrups or other flavorings in her coffee.

While the coffee is brewing, I put in my morning dose of eyedrops for my pigmentary glaucoma. I also take my morning meds: a blood pressure pill, Vitamin D, Vitamin B Complex, and also an Iron+Vitamin C every MWF. In the summer I take Claritin for my grass allergy.

DW likes to have muffins made for the morning, usually a carrot-raisin muffin, so I grab one of those if available. Then I sit down at the computer and write my morning post for this blog. I then go through my email. Rather than read the news, I subscribe to newsletters. For the most part I just skim headlines. I skim the NY Times Morning report, NPR's Morning Report, and a publication called Morning Brew, which is cleverly written with a bit more zing and pizzaz, and is clearly aimed towards a younger crowd, covering financial news as well as national and international briefs.

If I have any email, I'll read and respond. I will then go to my Feedly newsreader, where I read personal blogs as well as more specifically focused blogs.

Lastly, I will go through my baseball sites, checking on my rotiserrie baseball team to see how they are doing and if I have to make any moves.

From there, I will go out for a morning walk, weather permitting. I usually walk 4 days a week, so it's not an everyday thing. I find I need zero days here and there for recovery. Then it's breakfast and a shower, not necessarily in that order. After that I grab my second cup of coffee, and begin the day. All this can take up to three hours, so I usually start my day - such as it may be - at around 10:30-11 AM.

I've been retired for nine years now, and it's taken about 7 years to perfect this routine. It's cozy, comfortable, and suits me well. It sure beats working!