I Need a Caffeine IV Drip

September 27, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized

I wrote up a new and improved List of Things To Do during my commute today. Who says I can’t multitask? No, no, I really DIDN’T write while driving. I just wrote while I was stopped at red lights cursing the chickenshit people that actually STOPPED because I’m on my way to WORK, DAMNIT! Technically, now that I think about it, that isn’t exactly multitasking. Must. Work. Harder.

I did get to cross off one teeny little item on my list. I did stop on the way home and buy groceries. Then when I got home, I ran inside the house, shedding clothes along the way like a big ol’ overstuffed python shedding its skin, threw cold stuff in the fridge, frozen stuff in the freezer, then ran back into the kitchen, divided chicken into various bags for freezing, divided ground beef into appropriate-sized packages for five two people, kept a 2 lb. package of ground beef on the counter, grabbed a couple eggs and whipped ’em, chopped some onions and peppers and tossed ’em in a bowl, stirred in some tomato sauce, a cup of oatmeal, various herbs I felt like adding, and dumped in some salt and the 2 lbs. of ground beef, smushed it all together, threw it in a loaf pan, tossed it in the oven and set the timer, and put some taters on to boil.

I’m late for feeding the livestock! I ran out the door to the porch, remembered I had to transplant some sprouted lemon seedlings (about 50 of them), ran back inside, grabbed my infant lemon trees, back to the porch, potted ’em, then ran out to feed the horse, the furthest sheep in the pasture, a couple stationary chicken houses, back to the house for more feed, then moved, fed and watered three more pens of pastured poultry in the front, three pens to the side, two pens in the lamb pasture, ran back to the feed, added some soybean meal to the lamb feed, fed and watered them, locked them in the barn for the night, back to the house to feed old momma cat, feed Puppy, and out to Swampman’s barn to feed daughter’s two cats and one stray. Oh, yeah. Gathered the eggs, and fed/watered the denizens of the duck pen in the front who will be in the freezer soon, fed the loose chickens on the back, side, and front of the property, and fed/watered the orphan cage of hatchling ducks and injured chick.

Then back inside the house where SwampMan had removed the meatloaf from the oven, and the potatoes were all cooked and waiting for smashing. I had forgotten to cook the Brussels sprouts, and Swampman thought that was a GOOD thing. We just had smashed taters and meatloaf.

It’s 9:40 p.m., SwampMan just retired for the night, and my list only has one thing crossed off of it. Oh, wait. TWO things. I threw some clothes in the washer (and then the dryer). But now I need to add more things to my list, to wit: Fold laundry. Put away laundry. Iron clothes. *sigh* They’re currently tossed in my lazy chair. Would it be cheating if I redid my list to say “throw laundry in lazy chair and forget about them until you need to sit down or wear them?” Then I could cross another thing off my list. Oooh, I didn’t have “post to blog” on my list. Let me add that and cross it out, too. Now we’re getting somewhere!

SwampMan took the trash out for me tonight. Well, technically he took it out of the trash can, tied the garbage bag shut, set it on the floor beside the trash can, and put a new garbage bag inside the trash can. He is pretty proud of that accomplishment. That plus taking the meatloaf out of the oven and turning the oven off. Maybe I can sneaky add that to my list, too.

Every morning I wake up with the enthusiasm that Today is The Day that I will get ALL my chores done inside and out the house and be able to go to sleep with a clear conscience. Unfortunately, every day I run up against the fact that my time for getting my chores done starts somewhere around 9:30 p.m., and in the morning when I make my list my back doesn’t ache (much) from carrying 50 lb. sacks of feed or dragging 300# chicken pens, my feet are not swollen from standing all day, and I’m not exhausted from sweating through a PE class with the class on a 90+ degree day inside a gym with no ventilation or A/C.

Well, now it’s 11:30 p.m. The dishes are gurgling away contentedly in the dishwasher, the counters and sink are clean, and the parts of the house that aren’t near SwampMan snoozing away in the bedroom are vacuumed. I did some ironing, transferred the (folded) clothes off my lazy chair to the living room sofa (so I don’t wake SwampMan by putting them away). NONE of those things were on my list. What IS on my list are big things like shampooing the carpet, washing the windows, getting the rest of the wool washed, dyed, combed, and sorted, and figuring out a small business to do in my spare time. Oh, yeah.

The getting started on a fitness program that requires an hour of hard exercise every night is on the list, too. I’m just not feelin’ it tonight! Wait a minute…I think getting 8 hours of sleep is supposed to be good for making people lose weight, too. Wuh oh. Too late for tonight! Tomorrow night I’ll cross the exercise part off the list and write in sleep instead.