Midlife Motivation

Posted in Blogs on Midlife Expression by Jean Storey at 1.28pm on Fri 19 Mar 2010.

Today was going to be my first day this year spending time in the garden but the bitter cold wind and lack of sun put paid to that. Living at 11 hundred feet above sea level on a particularly windy hill, I know my garden starts later than most, but I still felt disappointed at not being able to "get out doors".  My crocuses have just started to appear. In about two weeks I will see the tiny purple and yellow heads open which will be just about the time most other gardens are filled with the magnificent yellow heads of the daffodil.  Never mind I am patient.

Not wanting to remain in doors on my day off work I decided to sort out the "new contents" of my husbands shed. He lost his dad last year so we inherited his dad's model railway. I had no idea how much paraphernalia came with a model railway. Like my husband, his dad thought he was an organised person. But he wasn't!  I have spend the day sorting cardboard houses, tiny files even tinier drills, clamps, braces, wires, connectors, miniature pots of paint, glues, tapes, and all things stick, into two neat sets of drawers. This was no mean feat as I started with two full sets of drawers and a further six boxes.

I didn't throw a thing away, I just laid everything out on the shed floor then collected all the like minded things together and put the whole lot neatly into the two sets of drawers.  Now all I need to do is label the drawers so my hubby can find things. My Virgo Husband will really appreciate this and in six months time will even believe he organised the drawers himself.  But he could never have done the job as he is quite chaotic and often losses himself in the object rather than where the object should be filed. He is an unusual Virgo because he truly believes he is a very organised person. But he is not!  

Its a strange thing handling your late father in laws hobby. As I sorted all the tiny stuff I thought how much patience he must have had to work with miniature object such as these. He was never known for his patience. When it came to people, he could get hot and bothered at the drop of a hat. He was known for his short temper. His DIY attempts were always a bit of a frustrated bodge and when you got him talking about politics well he could see red the minute you mentioned Labour.

But today I saw another side of him. While disorganised and quite chaotic in his work he never the less produced three magnificent model railway layouts and build an abundance of tiny engines.  We miss this very creative man. We miss his arguments his opinions and his cheeky grin. We have his beloved railway and who knows maybe my Husband will one day venture into the well organised drawer and become a model railwaymen.

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