Bailing On Things

Whittling 'Er Down To A Minimum

A few things I've all but given up on:

  * Popular Music.  From my heady days in high school, following the top-40, I've pretty much abandoned what passes for 'pop'.  I hear the big names, and recognize them, but I only listen to one radio station, and buy maybe one new release a year.

  * Donations.  I used to donate online.  This meant getting solicitations from ten times that many causes.  I now donate anonymously through United Way.

  * Mowing.  We have a lot of grassy areas.  But we've cut back on mowing under trees, in outlying areas, plus, we've added flowerbeds.

  * Boardgames.  I used to spend ridiculous amounts of time knowing about the thousands of new designs released in the boardgame industry every year, buying 5-10 at a time.  I now buy one a year, or less, and we play a handful, at most, focusing on designing our very own game.

  * Ads.  With a DVR, one need hardly ever watch an ad.

  * Eating Out.  It is a very rare occasion that I visit a restaurant.  This is mainly because I don't live in a large enough urban area for there to be local, organic food.

  * The Sweet Stuff.  I've found that nearly giving up on sugar has cured an occasional case of the tremors, as well as realizing, surprisingly, that I don't miss it.

  * Traveling.  Turning to social media has had the effect of not wanting to get out there.  It also helps that I had so much traveling as a youngster.