The first part of what we are getting done around the home starts next week.  We are converting our former garage into a granny flat.  An individual or couple will be able to stay there totally sperate from Merril and I.
I guess it is just a fact of life that as one grows older less space is sought and what is needed is reassessed.  Often the conclusion is that less is required.
It is interesting to me that worlds become smaller.  There is a natural resistance to such a thing, but that either ends in acceptance or bitterness.  I know from what I experience I do not like growing older and often my body lets me know that what I once did is now out of reach.  Often I find that out by trying what was once common place, and paying an unexpected consequence for it.
So what Merril and I are attempting is to set ourselves up for the inevitable.  There are two things at work.  We want to get the place nice for us and downsize now while we can.  We also want to set the place up for others who are experiencing the same.  Our aim is to have a place ready.  In the meantime, we are happy to put family and friends and visitors up for short stays.
Having said that we know that we do not know what the future holds.  We feel the best we can do is go by advice we trust and look around at trends.  Right now the trends do not appear to be good.  There seems to be a great promotion of rescue coming from certain quarters, yet what is often promoted is untried.  It also seems to me the scale of things that happen that require immediate finance is growing to such an extent that there will be nothing left for other worthy causes.
That is why now, as best we can, we set up for a possible day when hand outs are not forth coming, and what we have is self-generated - and the haves assist the have nots.
Anyway that is what we are doing on one level.  On another more obvious level we are getting a granny flat.  We are very much looking for to the time we have it, rather than are looking forward to having it.

As per usual I find food for thought in the weekly James Clear email.
"Before you worry about how to win the game, figure out whether the game is worth winning."
I do have an issue with one word in this and that is “worry”.  If I look up the meaning of worry it is “feel or cause to feel anxious or troubled about actual or potential problems.”  I think the word anxious is why I have a problem with worry.  When I consider synonyms for worry “unease” and “fear” come up.  To me neither in this context is healthy.
I do not pretend worry is an easy one to dismiss.  Yet I do contend that worry is never a helpful emotion.  Worry to me implies anxiety, unease, and fear.  It may seem to be just saying the same thing a different way but to me the word focus is better.  In this context “focus on.”
(This has got to be some sort of record.  I started this then had to go out.  Then someone came over.  Then I cleared a room in preparation for it being gutted.  Then I had lunch.  Then a rest and that was when I remembered this had not been posted.  So back again!!)
It is all about is the game worth playing.  My experience is there are sometimes things I am involved in for a time.  They are not the main game as it were but fill in or tide over games.
I think as liog as whatever I may do does not stand in the way of the “main game” for me, it is worth learning, playing and winning.  One thing I would really not like is in ..(I was going to say forty years time, but I would be 106 at that point and I do not know the future but I doubt I will be around then).  So really in any length of time I would not like to say I could not do what I really felt I should do, because I was doing something else.  To me the something else needs to be dealt with so I can learn, play, and win the main game.
So regarding the situation posed, some games are definitely not worth learning.  Others are a tide over and have something to teach, while some are the main game.  To me the main game is worth learning and winning.  The main game is the one I feel I was born for.

Yesterday I did something I have been wanting to do for years but have never done before.  I went to a stamp club.  I thank Merril for her willingness to drive and be a part of the day.  It went from 2pm to about 3.30pm.
The day sort of made up for the days before.  One I had designated a rest day.  But one day became two.  Sorta reminds me of a joke I saw.  I guy tells another “never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”  The other guy says “beady.  I was going to have tomorrow off.”  I had 2 days off.
Yesterday was different though.  We did the market first thing.  We did well and were able to give our food pantry about $50.  Then I set up a place we have church.  Then we went to Trash and Treasure and dropped off stuff there.  After that we bought lunch and ate it hurriedly before heading to Caboolture for the stamp club meeting that meets on the 3rd Saturday every month.
I was interested to see who went.  It actually felt little different from what I see regularly.  It seemed appropriate it was held in the Senior Citizens Hall.  The youngest would have been forty something.  Most were 50 and up.  There would have been about 30.
We were made to feel welcome and accepted.  One reason was probably more by accident than design.  They ran a raffle with 4 winners.  It was $2 for three tickets.  Merril and I bought 6 tickets.  We won 2 of the 4 prizes as 2 of our numbers were drawn.
I found the club procedure interesting.  They have a meeting for 5 minutes or so which is just telling what has happened and setting up for the day.  The next 50 or so minutes everyone looks at folders supplied by attendants advertising the stamps they have for sale.  Anyone can claim a stamp they want by writing on what is like a library borrowing form.  It has the book and page of the stamp claimed is located.
One thing is obvious.  The stamps are really cheap.  They have an auction at 3pm of collections for sale by attendees.  Again they can go for very little.  Merril bought a fist day cover book for $5.  There were also other items for sale provided by a stamp dealer.  
Worthwhile I reckon.  We sat opposite some other newbies.  It was their second time.  He was born in what was then Rhodesia.  He has never lived in Zimbabwe as he was in Australia before it became that.  His wife is a born here Australian.  We met and were talking to others.
Time well spent I reckon but from a people and procedure point of view.  We will be back.