The “To Do List” is a theme I have touched on previously in The Havens. (I would provide a link here, but for some reason I can’t find any of the posts where I talk about my to do list. Wordpress appears to be quite busy right now.)
It seems like a list of jobs one wants to accomplish in a day has much in common with a Star Wars novel: it is pure fantasy. Forthwith for your amusement I will provide you with a short fantasy to peruse:
If you pay attention while you look over my date book, you will see that there are short lists of things that I want to do that day optimistically posted. The careful reader (with a magnifying glass) will notice that there is a theme for the week: Fleabane. Fleabane appears every day, and every day fleabane does not get crossed off.
That is because the fleabane is still joyfully blooming in the daylily bed.
There should be another theme. “Laundry” should appear every single day. Every day that I do massage is a day I do laundry.
There are lots of things that I do every day that do not appear on my list.
Feeding the cats, for example. That is something that I am not likely to forget to accomplish, given that both cats vociferously demand their breakfast beginning the second my feet hit the floor when I arise. No matter that I need to visit the toilet before I do ANYTHING, my bladder has achieved “a certain age” and brooks no interference in the accomplishment of its duties! The cats tell me all about how starving they are, how the situation vis-a-vis the food bowls is not satisfactory, blah de blah blah blah, and don’t shut up or stop trying to trip me until kibble hits the china.
Watering the potted plants is another daily chore. While many of them do not need water every day, the African violets have to have their saucers refreshed daily and the outside potted plants require daily watering, especially on the hot dry days of summer. No water, and they throw themselves in front of me crying out “Water, for the love of God, Water!” as I walk by them on my way to pick zucchini.
Yes, that is a daily task which one would do well not to neglect. Otherwise, one finds that the squash have multiplied excessively and there will be one the size of a small crocodile lurking in the garden waiting to snap you up as you go by.
Anyway, I have lots of reasons why the fleabane has not been pulled out of the garden. Mainly, that would be the kazillion mosquitoes that are residing back there. I’m waiting for them to starve to death. Hopefully that will happen before the fleabane goes to seed.
Many of the jobs on my lists are not small jobs. ”Mow back yard” is a task that takes at least an hour, and that is getting only the area inside the privacy fence done.
Today, I got sucked into a job that I have been meaning to address for several months over a year quite some time now, and that would be reclaiming the path from the back door to the side gate. I made a big mistake ten years ago, I allowed a small vinca plant that the birds planted in the area just to the east of my back door to grow. I also allowed a goldenrod plant that blew in to grow as well. I thought the flowers looked festive in the fall.
A couple of years ago, it seemed like the gravel path that serves the side gate was getting narrower and narrower. When I was mowing the back yard the other day, I noticed that the gravel path had completely disappeared. So I mowed the vegetation that was encroaching on it. This morning as I exited the house on my way to deal with the fleabane, my attention was caught by the small garden by my back door.
Actually, those pictures were taken after I had been working for two hours beating back the vinca and the goldenrod. The situation was much worse when I began.
Long ago, the area right next to the house was yielded to Ruby. I call it “the foxholes.” She digs pits which are nice and cool, lies in them during the hot part of the afternoon. I didn’t have anything back there that she was going to spoil, so I figured “What the heck, let her have her spot.” During the winter she has a sand pit to dig in, but during the summer her sand pit is covered up by the swimming pool. Anyway, she thought the fact that I was digging back in her area was just peachy, and proceeded to “help” me.
Several hours later, I stopped for the day and went and cooled off in the pool. I am not quite done with the job, but the area looks a LOT better now, and you can actually see that there is a path back there.
I guess the fleabane will be put on the list for tomorrow. Maybe if that is the only thing I put on the list I’ll actually get it done.
Maybe.
The best laid plans of mice and men oft gang aglae (or words to that effect).
