saturday observations
I had such good intentions of cleaning my house today. I have so little motivation, though, and finally just succumbed to laziness with a good sit on the patio and an hour long nap. Mom's coming to visit tomorrow but I know she doesn't care about a dust dragon or two.
I did get two things done that have been on my to-do list for several years. I called a cleaning person who will come on Thursday to see if she wants to take us on as an encumbrance in her life. She comes highly recommended and other people who have her say she doesn't need to be told what to do. A cleaning person who wants instructions would be like a hair dresser who needs directions. They're the professionals.
I also called a painter to come and take a look at our garage. He's been painting in town for forty years so when he asked if this part should be white and did this color match the siding of the house, I just shrugged and said, "You're the professional, Don." So by the end of the week, our garage will have a new coat of paint. Our neighbors will be relieved as our garage looks like something from the Dust Bowl.
I told the painter that I had been meaning to call for at least couple years. He laughed and said, "You probably thought you'd do it yourselves in a weekend." No, I said, that's not it. I've eliminated to-do lists from my life (too much pressure to perform) so it just kept getting forgotten.
Regis is pleased with the heat wave. He said, when asked for a quote, "It's almost hot enough." He likes beads of sweat to form immediately upon sitting down in his lawn chair. Me, not so much.Regis has gotten some satisfaction from the dust-up he started at Podunk U. They agreed, in emails, that they had said it was a one-year course, that 18 months seems a bit longer than a year, that it might be inconvenient for people who are unemployed to lounge around for six months waiting to take six credits, and that yes, the website is inaccurate. It has since disappeared. Small victories. Tiny delights.
I read this somewhere this summer and posted it on facebook, which has been my guilty pleasure for the past few weeks.
I did get two things done that have been on my to-do list for several years. I called a cleaning person who will come on Thursday to see if she wants to take us on as an encumbrance in her life. She comes highly recommended and other people who have her say she doesn't need to be told what to do. A cleaning person who wants instructions would be like a hair dresser who needs directions. They're the professionals.
I also called a painter to come and take a look at our garage. He's been painting in town for forty years so when he asked if this part should be white and did this color match the siding of the house, I just shrugged and said, "You're the professional, Don." So by the end of the week, our garage will have a new coat of paint. Our neighbors will be relieved as our garage looks like something from the Dust Bowl.
I told the painter that I had been meaning to call for at least couple years. He laughed and said, "You probably thought you'd do it yourselves in a weekend." No, I said, that's not it. I've eliminated to-do lists from my life (too much pressure to perform) so it just kept getting forgotten.
Regis is pleased with the heat wave. He said, when asked for a quote, "It's almost hot enough." He likes beads of sweat to form immediately upon sitting down in his lawn chair. Me, not so much.Regis has gotten some satisfaction from the dust-up he started at Podunk U. They agreed, in emails, that they had said it was a one-year course, that 18 months seems a bit longer than a year, that it might be inconvenient for people who are unemployed to lounge around for six months waiting to take six credits, and that yes, the website is inaccurate. It has since disappeared. Small victories. Tiny delights.
I read this somewhere this summer and posted it on facebook, which has been my guilty pleasure for the past few weeks.
Most of us miss out on life's big prizes. The Pulitzer. The Nobel. Oscars. Tonys. Emmys. But we're all eligible for life's small pleasures. A pat on the back. A kiss behind the ear. A four-pound bass. A full moon. An empty parking space. A crackling fire. A great meal. A glorious sunset. Hot soup. Cold beer. Don't fret about copping life's grand awards. Enjoy its tiny delights. There are plenty for all of us.Here are some tiny delights, right here on the patio on a hot August afternoon:
- A breeze that keeps the bugs away.
- The smell of a charcoal fire.
- An almost fully-grown robin taking a bath.
- A woodpecker on the suet feeder.
- A few tomatoes (not many) ripening on the vines.
- Cumulus clouds rolling by in the sky.
- Waldo catching a frisbee across the street.
Comments
Reading on a Saturday afternoon instead of cleaning.
Cucumbers from my dad's garden.
(This is what I wrote before, with one correction.)