Fifteen not-work things to do offline, even in a small town

(After you read this post.)

• Finish reading the hardback book you started three weeks ago – or decide you’re never going to read it, and take it to the nearest neighbourhood book shelf and trade it for something you might actually read – or, if it is an actual library library book, return it to the library
• Ask the librarian why they don’t have a community puzzle-project out on their puzzle table (or put two pieces in their correct place if they do have a puzzle-project out.)
• Get a coffee or beverage of your choice at a local restaurant
• Stare at the random objects for sale at the weird boutique store next to the restaurant until the shop owner asks if you’re going to buy something or what
• Stare at the summer people who buy something
• Stare at the sky. Bonus points if you see a plane practicing aerobatics, a big bird being chased by little, angry birds, or a star constellation you can correctly identify from memory.
• Go to the park/lake/community centre (sometimes they have free music performances)
• Take a long bath or shower (a cool bath might help with the sunburn)
• Take your bag of random bags from buying vegetables to a dog park. Say hello to a dog (or cat.)
• Buy a vegetable or fruit of a kind you’ve never eaten before. Bonus points if you’re unsure how – do you take the skin off? Do you eat it raw or cooked? Is it ripe? Should it smell like that?
• Listen to a radio. It has music. You could dance to the music. (If you don’t have a radio, you might find one at the flea market.)
• Go to a garage sale or flea market with a friend. Not necessarily because you want anything, but because you wanna see what stuff other people collect, and sometimes there are ladies handing out home-made cookies.
• Make you own music. Sing/play an instrument/knock against a wall. Or sketch something. You don’t have to show it to anyone. Or fix something simple that has been driving you crazy for ages, you just haven’t ever seemed to find five minutes to fix it until now. (Warning: Make sure this will really be only a five minute project before you start, you don’t want to end up working on this “simple fix” for the next four days. Unless you do want to, of course.)
• Go to an art gallery. Even my small town has a small art gallery. You might have to hunt for yours a bit, sometimes the little ones hide. But the little ones small town ones are usually free to get in! You could also try a local museum.
• Watch a movie or a TV show. (You don’t need to be online for this, even if you’re the half of the population that doesn’t have cable. This is what DVD or Blu-Rays are for. Remember that flea market? They often have pretty cheap DVD players – and DVDs – available. So do libraries.) You could also go to the movie theater. There is often a day of the week when the ticket prices are lower than the weekend ticket prices. (Please don’t be a jerk if you go to the movie theater. Other people are present and trying to watch the movie.)
• Plant something
• Create a list of things to do offline – What would you add to your list?