putterings 372 < 373 > 374 index
so nearly featureless. See freedom; puttering mode takes over
ex index, Robert Stuart Weiss, The Experience of Retirement, Foreword by David J. Ekerdt (2005) : 210 : link
partially viewable at archive.org : link
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extracts —
Puttering is a relaxed way of moving through a day, engaging in activities as they attract one’s attention, undertaking nothing that demands energy and concentration... Nothing has special urgency...
142
In the evening, as retirees look back on a day of puttering, they may feel that it had gone by quickly, possibly just because it was so nearly featureless, so lacking in the charged events and encounters that had crowded the days of their employment. And yet a day of puttering can seem to have been full, filled with slow-paced activities closely following one after another. Some retireees joked that they couldn’t understand how they had ever had time for work.
p143
They may begin with a list of things to be done, though one problem with lists is the ease with which they are mislaid. In other cases, retirees sometimes make a brave start moving through items on their lists, but then the puttering mode takes over...
143-144
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Robert S. Weiss (1925-)