There are times when the delightful world of a stress free life bites you in the rear. Our greatest “problems” each day are where shall we go and what will we have for dinner.

As this scenario plays itself out over and over each day the sharpness of the mind begins to dull due to lack of a need for sharp brain power resulting in decreased critical thinking skills. Ann and I are both controllers who like our life ordered and preplanned for maximum efficiency. This is not a secret to anyone who knows us. Just think of Ann’s white board in the kitchen with a week’s menu written neatly as a schoolteacher should. Think of me needing to know each evening what I would be doing on each patient the next day to prevent any surprises.

Well, let me say something about today’s adventure. We left the apartment heading south to Sant’Antimo Monastery to hear the monks chant at 12:45 then head north to Monte Olivetto Magiore Monastery. After beginning our journey we decided to do the first monastery tomorrow and head to the second one today. Such spontaneous decisions are much too complex for us in our relaxed states of mind to be able to comprehend and re-adapt to. So, off we went north but we figured we would get there too early so we took a huge detour to get to the monastery by 12:45 to hear the monks chant. It was 11:30 when we realized this monastery didn’t have the chanting monks it was the other monastery! This one closed at 12:00 and was now thirty minutes away thanks to our little detour and it did not reopen until 3:15.

Due to our changed plans we were nowhere near a tourist friendly area (By that I mean any place where tourists would want to go – not where tourists are not welcome). We had well over three hours to kill due to our lack of brain power. I think this bothered us not so much because we had to wait three hours for the monastery to open but because we became confused. To both of us that is a sign of becoming stupid.

The monastery was nice yada yada yada….

As we arrived home the wind began to blow. I mean blow - sustained winds of 40-50 mph. Shutters were flapping, trees were slashing and birds were ludicrous in flight as they continually readjusted from the gusts. We have real shutters that can be closed or opened and latched against the outside wall. Fortunately I had closed them this morning for no apparent reason so they were secure. The winds howled all night long and into the early morning.

Lesson for Day 29: A mind is a terrible thing to waste.