Avoiding the urge to be a lazy ass...

I've got a list of chores that need to be accomplished. Most of them involve paint and wood-stain and I hate painting and staining. BUT it has to be done so I decided it was time to suck it up and get started. "You've gotta get it started if you wanna get it done," as Aaron Tippin says.

My Wife and Kids were going to be gone for the entire day today at some baby shower thing so I figured this would be a good day to try and get all the painting and staining pain in the ass-ness over with.

Before I could start with the painting, I needed to clean and prepare the surfaces. A lot of the wood that I have to stain had some mildew on it so I had to scrub that all off with a brush, soap and water. By the time I got that done several hours later, it was time for lunch so I had a quick sandwich and then took stock of my stain and paint supply. It turned out I had very little left to work with so I headed to the store to get more paint. They had to match it up with a sample to get the right colors and that took a while. Then they did not have the type of stain that I needed so I had to head to a different store to get that.

A few more hours later, I had everything I needed, and was on my way home. I felt like I was finally ready to start the real work and get this job over with. Painting and staining in itself is not that bad. It's all the prep work I have to do ahead of time that seems to be the biggest pain. As I was pulling into my house, I thought that the sky was looking very forbidding. I did not want to begin painting and then have it start to rain, so I checked the weather radar and there were a line of big orange and red blobs headed my way. Grrrrr...

So much for that. Scratch getting the painting done. I was pretty annoyed but I would have been even more angry if I had gotten it all done and then it started to downpour before it was dry. At least I got all the prep work and materials ready. Now all I have to do is go out, tape it up and start staining. Whee...

Now I had a big head of steam to get something accomplished on that damn list. Times like this when there are no children or Wife around are very rare and I needed to get some shit done so I could say I at least did something today.

My Wife has some unfinished shelves in the basement that needed to be stained so I wound up doing that. The game today was rained out so I watched Red Sox Rewind of the 86' team as I was working. It was pretty cool and it did not bother me as much watching all the Game 6 highlights, etc, now that The Sox have finally won it all. (Even when doing little everyday things, driving around, getting chores done, The Red Sox are in the background. The Sox permeate life.)

I was glad to get the shelves done, but I've still had a nagging 'unfinished' feeling bugging me all evening because I feel like I did not get what I wanted to do accomplished today.

I've had a list of stuff to do all summer and now that unfinished list is starting to bug me. I can feel myself getting into one of my obsessive modes and I won't be happy until every thing on that list is crossed off and then taken down from my refirgerator. I'll wind up going to on a tear now to get it all done... after I come back from vacation that is!

Starting on Wed, I'll be taking some time off, turning off my phone, computer and all other nerdy devices, and heading for Cape Cod. I can't wait!