Best efforts

Around here, there is usually a Plan for the day. I divide my time between work inside and out, trying to cross things off my to do list before it overtakes me completely. And so, on various days, I’m up before sunrise, working on business things, then heading outside to work, coming in from time to time to take a break and do more “real” work things, finishing up outside, and then coming in at dusk to clean up, make dinner, and do more work.

Some days, it all works perfectly. Some days – like yesterday – not as well. By the time I’d gotten myself over to the lab to have blood drawn (and waited 40 minutes there), gotten myself to the NOC to handle a couple of things, and gotten myself back to the HQ, the day had turned quite gloomy. With the sky spiting rain intermittently, and not making for a good time for doing certain types of things outside that needed to be done, I wound up staying inside, puttering about with business things, making dinner, throwing together some focaccia, and doing some general slacking off – specifically, reading a couple of books, something I haven’t done in awhile. Not a terrible way to spend a day, and a nice break from the usual, but as always, the next day finds me looking at my list and shaking my head about the things that need to be done.

Still, if there is one thing that getting through cancer and working out here on the ranch has taught me, it’s to be slightly more patient about those things that need to be done versus what I can actually do given certain limitations I find myself with these days. They’ll get there: today, for instance, I’ll be relocating some of the survivors from the back frames into the front so those frames can be relocated themselves. Sure, it isn’t an emergency of any sort, but I wouldn’t mind having the frames that are to be moved put into their new home so I can get to the business of planning out the rest of the winter garden (something that should have been started in August and September, but given the weather around here, something that waited for October and the mid-80s weather rather than the mid-90s of late summer). There’s also the fence to put up, as a surprise visit from one of our neighbors yesterday afternoon also brought her beagle into the yard, tromping through the peas (which need to be trellised, something made simpler by the fact that I already have trellises available from the summer garden).

So it goes…