WEISURE: Free time spent doing work or work-related tasks. (WordSpy.com)

We always joke about the postal delivery person who goes on a hike on her day off, or the carpenter who builds a garage on his vacation. There is even a phrase for it, "Postman's Holiday," although when I made reference to that term one day recently the much younger people with whom I was talking looked at me as if I was from Mars. I guess it's an archaic term these days.

But we all know what this term, weisure, is all about. I found it in the archive list of WordSpy.com, which is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs. It reveals that in my spare time I search out and read blogs that are related to this one. I'm guilty of weisure.

It would be easy to come down hard on weisure, to wax philosophical and describe the unhealthy aspects of spending free time at projects which are related to work. But I won't. Instead, I will point out that the reason I do it (and I suspect I speak for others on this matter) is that I enjoy it! It brings me pleasure. I learn from it. I enlarge my personal network. Is that all bad?

Of course, while I'm sitting at the computer researching blogs I could be walking, exercising, completing other chores on my "do list," or...maybe just doing nothing. I could be checking out the RISD museum, completing the Cliff Walk, or browsing the Athenaeum. I could be riding a bus downtown, sitting in on a court case, working on my new screenplay/putting finishing touches on my 'tween novel, or sending a short story query to a prospective magazine. I could be trying that new recipe I found in my wife's Real Simple magazine. It's not as if I'm without choices.

One of the joys of being in my new state of retirement, where writing is my only occupation, is that I have time to do whatever I want. What they say about retirement is true...my day speeds by and I never seem to have enough time to do everything I expected to accomplish. But that is true because I have time to read the entire New York Times every day. And I really can take my time doing a task, rather than having to rush through it, jamming it in before or after going to work. If there is a televised speech, an important event, or an interesting interview on television, I can watch it. My time is structured only by own design...with a little help from my wife.

And if I want to sit at the computer and check out blogs, I can do that, too.

I make it sound as if I'm spending hours and hours researching blogs. I'm exaggerating for literary emphasis. There's plenty of time to do all of those other things, and I probably will. Right after I finish reading interesting blogs.

Photo Credit: Home Page of Workaholics International Network