Retiree needs a hobby

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/10/2015 (3998 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: My neighbour’s leaves are three-feet deep and blow onto my clean yard every time there’s a wind. I get so mad about having to re-rake the leaves every day that my husband says maybe I should move back to the country. I should move, not him, you’ll notice. We used to live on an acreage and just let them blow anywhere. Today, I put up a cheap netting to keep that neighbour’s leaves off my yard, and the sticks that held the netting up fell down. I went over and rang my neighbour’s bell and told her what’s-what. “Being retired is becoming a full time job for me because of your laziness,” I told her. She’s a low-class woman in her 30s and told me to take a flying (rhymes-with-duck), and slammed her door in my face.

My husband wasn’t sympathetic in the least. He said he was embarrassed of me and I should apologize. He says I’m getting to be so picky and neurotic over little things, I should go back to work because he can’t stand living with me this way. He’s still working half-time. What do you think?

— Furious With Lazy Neighbour, Riverview

Dear Furiious: Watching TV, doing housework and fussing about the neighbours can make a mate seem old and tiring to be around. How do you think your husband feels? He’s hinting broadly you need to make a change, before he makes one in the relationship with you. Most adults need a purpose— a full- or part-time job, a club, a sport, even a charity they work for; a passion that doesn’t stop when they’re retired. You have to do something with purpose and get out of the house.

The leaves are secondary to your relationship problem, but here’s a solution anyway: put out fake bushes in pots to catch the neighbours’ leaves, and light them up.

Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6

Miss Lonelyhearts
Advice Columnist

   Read full biography