Morning Coffee

The first thing people say to me when they hear that I have retired is “wow, must be nice to be able to sleep in every day”.  And I guess I too used to dream that’s how retirement would be one day. I’m sure many retired people do like the fact they can sleep in, but for me it doesn’t seem to be what I do.

Funny though, because for years I could barely drag myself out of bed on weekday mornings and, given the opportunity, I probably would have slept until noon.  However, when the weekends came I always seemed to wake up early, in fact even earlier than when my alarm was set for during the work week.  I loved the quiet time in the morning on the weekends.  It was my time to enjoy a big, hot cup of steaming coffee and catch up on the news or just sit and enjoy the peace.

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When we first arrived in Cabo, the sun would rise around 7:15am.  Those first few weeks here were quite hot, and the coolest time of day was just before sunrise.  Lorne’s alarm was set for 8am during the week for him to get up to prepare for work, but somehow my inner clock seemed to be set on “weekend mode” and always seemed to wake me up early each day, before sunrise. 

My mornings here became quite routine.  I would get up, get dressed, and wander out to the kitchen to pour myself a nice big cup of iced coffee (seriously, it was way too hot for the hot stuff!).  I would then grab my sunglasses and my cell phone and head out to the patio.  The air was always so fresh in the morning and always a cool breeze in the air, which was quite the contrast to later in the evening as our bodies were then so sticky from the heat and pretty much no breeze coming from anywhere. 

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But the mornings were magical. I would sit on the patio enjoying my icy cuppa joe and just watch as our little town came alive.  Slowly the sun would rise, and everything became brighter.  People were starting their day, and I would see the same familiar faces out walking their dogs each morning.  

Even though the day was starting, and people were up and about, it was always so peaceful out on the patio early in the morning.  As it got brighter, I would put my sunglasses on, grab my phone, and start checking the news, weather, and of course Facebook to see what the rest of the world was up to. 

Eventually I would hear that Lorne was up and I knew the next part of our daily routine was about to begin.  But during those last few sips of my morning coffee I would simply enjoy the quiet and the breeze, until I would hear him call out to me from the kitchen “hey, do you want some toast?”

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Of course, I assumed all this would all change once Daylight Savings Time ended and we had to move our clocks back one hour.  This meant sunrise was now much earlier, around 6:20am. That first Sunday after the time change, when we went to bed Lorne jokingly asked if I was going to set an alarm to get up in time for the sunrise.  I told him no, if I miss it, I miss it and will just get up when I wake up.

I guess I should have been surprised, at least a little, when I started to naturally wake up before sunrise again. 

I am happy that even with the time change my mornings have become routine again.  I get up, get dressed, and wander out to the kitchen to pour myself a nice big cup of iced coffee, grab my sunglasses and my cell phone and head out to the patio.  I watch the morning unfold, taking time to enjoy the quiet and my morning coffee, and wait to hear Lorne call out from the kitchen “hey, do you want some toast?”

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