I dropped Dottie at the airport on Monday and immediately hit a bakery for a long overdue carb fix (Dottie’s newly diagnosed with diabetes so I’d eaten nothing sweet for the entire time she was here, even skipping the Dodge Bakery on our trip to Bluebird – sacrilege!) I stopped at a couple of thrift stores on the way home for old time’s sake. I found a few things but nothing like I used to score but I did bump into an old friend at the Goodwill in West Omaha, which was nice.
The rest of the week was spent going to water aerobics 3 days in a row and then heading home to make lists. My goal was to stop on the way home Thursday and get everything I needed to be super productive all weekend. Thursday ended on a nice note, which felt like a perfect beginning for my fun (actually chore) filled weekend. I had decided to eat my lunch, which I hadn’t eaten because I went out with Dodie at the last minute (Noodles, where else?), on the CBA bench while feeding treats to my campus cats. I was hoping to find Jay, my errant cat, who had shown up for the first time in weeks that morning. After I ate and exhausted my bag of kitty treats, I decided to walk around and see if I could find Jay, who was a no show again. It was a gorgeous night and campus was pretty deserted. While searching for Jay (I never did find him), I bumped into Paul Wesselman, the Ripples guy, walking his dog. He was in town on his way back from his latest leg of the uROCK Road Trip. We ended up chatting for a long time, sitting on the CBA bench while his dog Wendel and the cats eyed each other. It was a nice start to my mini-vacation. I did a Wally World run on the way home and stocked up on everything I’d need to reclaim my life. Yay!
Friday found me enjoying coffee outside on the deck while I made many, many lists of everything I needed to do. Now this included long term lists (Summer Projects), lists for my handyman, and plenty of short-term goals sorted by topic – gardening, housework, cooking, etc. It was just what I needed to get my head around what was possible to accomplish in 5 days. I started in the kitchen and was just finishing up when Helen called (OMG!) She was at the drive through coffee shop (yes, Wahoo has one) and asked if I wanted anything. One order for a half-caff skinny latte later, and she was at the door. We sat on the deck and chatted for awhile and then went to the Wiggie (the Wigwam Café on Main Street, which is actually 5th Street in Wahoo) for lunch. We talked for hours and practically closed down the place. It was great to catch up with Helen, since I rarely see her anymore. You would think that getting such a late start would have hampered my productivity for the day but NO! I went home and finished most of my inside chores and caught up on some paperwork, plus mowed the lawn, leaving the other outside stuff to fill the rest of my time off.
I spent Saturday and Sunday getting tons done. I made yet another list, chopping things up into daily chunks that included some gardening, which I’m trying to limit to smaller projects so my knee doesn’t act up*, some inside projects and some cooking. So far I’ve accomplished the following:
- Planted all my containers. I’d say it’s well over 30 this year so it took 2 days and included removing all the plants that I overwinter ed inside and cleaning up after that.
- Cleaned up the driveway, complete with dismantling the rotten bench and (gasp!) using RoundUp to kill the vinca growing in the crack between the driveway and foundation plus all the weeds in the driveway cracks. I also delivered my old bistro table and chairs to Lorri, who was looking for one for her new patio.
- Swapped out my winter and summer clothes, creating in the process a big pile of Goodwill donations that I’ll drop tomorrow in Lincoln on my way to book club.
- Ran all my errands and paid all my bills.
- Cooked up a storm (it seems like I’ve been eating crap for weeks so having homemade yogurt, stuff for lunches and healthy dinners to nuke after water aerobics will be wonderful!)
All in all, I’m pleased with my progress so far. The house is looking good, the yard is way better and my to do list is cut in half. All this productivity has been interspersed with enough vegging (thanks to whoever recommended Burn Notice. I’ve watched 2 DVD’s of season 1 and have really enjoyed it) to keep it feeling vacation-ish. Now I’ve done my blog post so I’ll cross that off and get busy on my list for my last 2 days off. Happy Memorial Day!
*A brief knee update – I had an MRI a week ago and went to the new knee doc on Thursday afternoon to get the results. He said I do NOT have arthritis but just some wear and tear, including some tattering (I think that’s the word he used but it could have been “ragged”) on one side of my meniscus. Since the mobic I’m taking is working for the pain, there’s no need to do surgery. I’m to take the anti-inflammatory long-term and only go back if it stops working for the pain, at which point he’ll reevaluate for surgery. In the meantime, I just have a bum knee and need to be careful not to make it worse, hence the limited duration of my gardening stints. Aging sucks!
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