Calm down, calm down, it's not Xmas and I'm not Santa. Not Mrs. Claus either, or even a workshop elf. But deadlines are approaching, some passing, others threatening havoc if skipped. Lists become a necessity.
The daffodil bulbs are finally planted. They're covered with hardware cloth held down by stones and stray lumber pieces. All but three of them that is. I just finished filling a large patch with bulbs this morning, large enough to start with a shovel instead of a trowel, and filling the space I'd made back in to cover the bulbs, when a neighbor walked by. I still had three bulbs needing a hole, matched by a hole needing a location, but my locations were full. Why not offer the last 3 to the neighbor? She's also a gardener, and in fact received a 1//3 section of the big old bleeding heart I split to make room for daffodils. She willingly took these off my hands despite my guarantee that they were from a batch of totally mixed bulbs, so no guarantee of color, numbers of petals, trumpet shape, or anything except being daffodils.
I thanked her for saving me some work.
Last part of that list item was watering them in where I'd planted, which would include spraying the remainder of the dirt pile down flat to match the rest of the bed. I hooked up the new hose to the old hose, after using the short old one to water the circle garden next to it. When I say I hooked them together, I mean I tried. Several times, thus: Twist, twist... flop apart. Twist, twist... repeat. Repeat. Go inside, check out exactly which brand the new one was since I'd helpfully put the cardboard label in the recycling bin a few hours after it got picked up, weeks ago. As one does. Once locating the brand and choosing the size, putting my order in. Theoretically it will be delivered late in the week. Put hand/bucket watering back on the to-do list. Finally, decide whether I really meant tonight or tomorrow for that last one. Those arms are progressively getting more sore as the day passes. Water in buckets is heavy. (Sorry - you did know that, right?)
While I made that order, I added some food items getting low, along with a note to self to pick up my pharmacy refills. Once that was completed, with no time left to add to the order, I remembered we need some blue ice. Or canned ice. Or call it by whatever name works, because for sure the store doesn't sell it under those names anyway. Once at the pharmacy, even though my order is ready, it's not actually ready. The pharmacist hasn't looked it over yet. Maybe they know where the canned ice is while I wait. Well, they are fully confident that the (wrong) set of aisles they sent me to in order to locate it was right... because it was in Tupperware. Uh, riiiighhhtttt. Uh huh. Staffers working in one of those aisles have a better idea... actually showing me the location. How many did I want? They even pulled them down from the high shelf I can't reach. Of course, since they were standing still, other customers got in line for some rare personal help. I still don't know if they got back to their original job. One trusts their boss is happy with them, since we all are.
Next Steve put in an order before I left home... with me... kitty corner across that huge box store from pharmacy, pushing a no-longer-empty cart, hunting up and down two long grocery aisles with more blank spots than merchandise for sale. I'm sure one of those blanks used to hold what he wanted. Make another note to suggest to him putting his own order in for some sudden impulse order. Let the hired help go find it. Worst case it might be delivered along with the needed hose in a few days right to our door.
I returned to the pharmacy, having gotten the phone call that it was ready now, checked out, and drove around the corner of the store to pick up the order I'd called in hours earlier. On the drive back I recalled a place Steve had bought what he wanted in years past and gave them a go. My shoulder allowed me to carry two out to the car and in to the house. In return he put the canned ice packs into the freezer top shelf for me.
Tomorrow I'll be getting the cooler back which was on loan to somebody. They don't need it any more. We will, since people have heard we'll be up north at Betty's Pies on the North Shore in a bit, and have placed orders with us. (They have turtle pie? Maybe I'll pick one up for me.) At any rate, we need to keep them cool for the drive back, hence the cooler and canned ice. In addition to cool, they need to stay flat. The loaned out cooler is large. And Steve is even now going through their online menu for his pie choices. So on the list goes "Eat Stuff Out Of The Freezer To Make Room!" Come to think of it, some of that ought to be turkey frozen after last year's holidays for indeterminate use later. This is definitely LATER. Hmmm, sandwiches for the trip?
Since we'll not be here to mind the traps with a check every few hours, either relocate them inside the shed or spring them closed sans squirrels. To be decided. The one bar that the coon kicked loose has been replaced... by me. It was an excellent job requiring a needed sit-down during planting. I hadn't the heart yesterday to pile that one on my son's list, especially after he helped with my car (see below) and swapped out the furnace filter which some highly able-bodied whippersnapper had designed to go way on top of a narrow but vertical furnace. I simply choose not to subject my shoulders to that. It takes my son all of two minutes, but still, it's a great help.
Another item knocked off the list was doing dishes, by hand, not in the machine. My finger nails were black after hand digging the hole bottoms for the bulbs. The only dependable way to clean them is by doing dishes. Problem tends to be Steve, who is gung ho on using the dishwasher instead of leaving me a bunch of things easily done by hand to do. I can give my hands a good soak and some swipes with the nail brush sitting above the sink in the soap dish. This time I got to them first, a side benefit of which is that the counters now have also all been washed down. Dishwashers don't offer that service. Somebody might make a fortune if they got those kind of improvements the way smart phones get new stuff every year in them. (It wouldn't be the consumer, of course.)
Because of impending travel, there's packing to manage. Change of clothes in case of weather, medications including extra sets just in case, trip food, maps, phone numbers... all the usual, just much less than for a multi-day snowbirding excursion. An additional item knocked off the list months ago was getting the state parks sticker for inside the windshield. There are a lot of them where we're going, but it's been getting more local use. Needed event reservations have been made and paid. A couple adjustments on the car interior have been made, thanks to my son stopping by and not just showing me how to do them, but blessing me with the news after 12 years that such things were even available. My seat has been sitting very low, for example. I don't know where/when it happened or who did it, but it turns out there a little lever that pumps the seat higher. It also lowers it. I thought maybe my spine was curving, or the seat springs had worn out. But now I can actually see out over the steering wheel again instead of between the top of it and the dash. It makes a difference!
While he was at it, and due to prompting from Steve who's heard me complain that when I turn the car lights on I lose the dash lights completely, he showed me another thing. It used to be they'd just be very dim in the daytime but still visible in day, brighter at night. There's a fix for that too that nobody ever told me about, and now I know where it is and what to do with it... in a good way. The car didn't come with those issues. Somebody changed something. It's not old age (mine) or something burned out in the car like a fuse. Since I so seldom do any night driving, and only recently again am in a place with plenty of rain, requiring headlights to be on in the day, I hadn't had quite the issue until recently.
I'm sure there's more to go on the list. But right now I think the top item should be supper. Mmmmm, Pad Thai!
Where are those extra peanuts....?
Oh wait: Chargers! How could I fail to list chargers???????
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