One of my husband's favourite observations is how much we humans are creatures of habit. We find comfort in the familiar and the routine, and this is what habit is. Actions and reactions that become automatic, we don't plan or think about them, just think of them and perform them because they have become so ingrained in our minds through constant repetition.

A fairly good example, is the recurring satisfaction of thought that floods my own mind on Fridays contemplating the week-ends. A quiet celebration of anticipation. Of rest and recreation, of 'catching up' on things that were impossible or difficult to do during the working week. The problem here is that it's been twenty years since I retired from the workforce. Every day is the 'week-end' for me. There are few constraints on my time relatively speaking, in comparison to when I worked full-time out of the house, and part-time in the house.

That's when the week-ends signified leisure, although in truth they were anything but that, since it's when household tasks and maintenance had to take place, difficult to achieve during the working day. But somehow we managed to cram into those week-end hours lots of leisure activity, from hiking in the woods, to canoeing, and camping, or snowshoeing and just having a good time to relieve the pressures of the working week.

I managed to do a lot of baking, preserving, cooking and cleaning while I worked full-time, and now that I have the entire week to do what I used to cram into a much more narrow field of time, I do less of all of that, and still feel pressed for time. I haven't enough time to do all the reading I crave, since with finite time frames I want to concentrate on other things that I'm motivated to do, like creative writing, gardening and occasionally searching out new and novel hiking venues.

As for my husband, who while he was working full time out of the house somehow managed to do all manner of things, from creating his own paintings on canvas to stained glass work, flooring, installing brickwork on the house exterior, and generally transforming this house as he did our previous homes into a reflection of his aesthetic taste. He still does all of that in his retirement space, but it likely takes a bit longer to perform these things.

So, it's the weekend. And we view its arrival with a kind of relief that has its genesis in the past and which no longer applies. We make an effort not to go to places which normally attract working people on their days off. It makes no practical sense to view the arrival of the weekend with such anticipation, yet habits die hard, and it's difficult to wean ourselves off this one.