Ignorance is guilt

I am not normally a procrastinator.  I procrastinate, on occasion, but in general my motivation runs along the avoidance of pain and suffering.  I have found that procrastination makes my life frenetic and harried, and actually brings more work.  So I try not to put things off until they are actually on fire.  However, lately things seem different.  I have been procrastinating.  Duties and commitments are sliding.  Look at me ignoring my responsibilities!  I am putting off commitments until the very last possible moment!

Things that have deadlines and should take priority aren't as appealing as the stuff that is farther down on the priority list.  Why is it the higher the priority, the less appealing things are?

I SHOULD be writing the primary program.  This is my fourth one, and I can tell you I am sick and tired of them.  Yessirree, I would just about do anything on earth other than write another Primary Program!  And I am doing just about anything on earth instead...   I've already used up all my clever ideas, I'm tapped out.  Every other ward I know of has already had theirs, and I haven't even started writing ours! Oh, the humanity. And to top it off, we are having it on Halloween, of all days.  I want to throw in a spooky song.  And maybe have the kids wear costumes.  It will be the Best Primary Program Ever!!  The kids always pull it off, but first I have to write it, publish it, distribute it, and we have to practice it.  

I should also be making Quilt Blocks!  Slightly below the Primary program on the Priority list, but still pretty important. I committed to participate in a Christmas Quilt Block exchange, and it is going to be wonderful, but if it's going to happen on October 11th, I have to hold up my end of the deal.  12 quilt blocks finished and pressed in about two weeks.  Should be plenty of time, but... did I mention I haven't actually completed ANY of the quilting projects I started with this group? 

I should also be cleaning my house.  My folks dropped by today, my mom called from the road that they were coming into town and would be at my house soon.  I was at Costco buying, among other things, Nutella (the food of the gods) in bulk.  I could not be interrupted.  

So I didn't have time to even get home and load the breakfast dishes from the sink to the dishwasher.  I can imagine the horrified conversation the folks are having as they pull away from my house, something about depression, therapy, and slovenliness.  
And I should be getting our financial ducks in a row.  I'm the bookkeeper, and I haven't actually reconciled the bank or AM EX account for several months.  I haven't made a travel report (required for tax purposes) since the 2nd quarter.


Did I mention the sprinklers are broken so I turned off the water a month or so ago?  I remember to hand water occasionally, but the whole yard is starting to have the professionally neglected look of a "Bank Owned" property.  (On that one I think I'm giving up.  I think I'll hire someone come in and fix the sprinklers.)

So what is it I'm doing instead of these important things?  Blogging, for one, or rather reading other people's blogs. Also working on the sweater that I started for Thing 1, but Thing 2 is quickly growing out of  - I was so close to finishing it three years ago when I put it down for one reason or another, and finally picked it back up last week. A kid grows a lot in 3 years and I would like to see someone wear it.  While I knit I watch 24, season 6, in which Jack Bauer can cross LA in 7 minutes, catch terrorists single-handed using nothing but... well, his hands, and use his body to shield innocent bystanders from the blast of a nuclear warhead.  Well, almost.  There is so much shark jumping going on it isn't interesting anymore.  Yet I'm addicted to watching through to the end.

I've also been reading.  Nothing amazing, just picking up a book now and again and ignoring everything until I put it down. 


And I've been staying up late at night to do all of these things (or, more correctly, to NOT do the things I should be doing, but to do the other things.)  Speaking of which, it's past time for bed and I haven't had the nightly call with Hubby... so I guess I should prioritize bedtime as #2 (right behind phone call) and then stick to my priorities, at least until tomorrow.

In the Doghouse

I've been wondering if I should do anything for the dog's first birthday. Evidently the answer was "no" because it passed over a month ago, and we didn't do anything. But I've been thinking about how much he's grown up since we got him.

He's been so good, I've been writing a post in my head singing his praises. There was the time he was sitting RIGHT BELOW a plate full of link sausages, and he didn't even look up and smell it. He walked right by it half a dozen times, never even looked up. And the paper towel they were draining on was hanging off the counter! (I was so floored I took a photo!) And there are all those times he just walks out onto the porch to greet people who come over, and then comes right into the house with them. Without me even having to call him into the house. He is rock solid housetrained, he's friendly to everyone, person or beast. And for the longest time he wasn't hardly shedding at all. The list of good qualities just goes on and on.

Look at him ignoring those sausages!

Well, it turns out he does shed, I guess he was just fiercely clinging to his puppy coat or something. And he does get things off the table - he chewed up the cute little hand carved wooden spoon that goes in the wooden sugar bowl I brought back from Germany 15 years ago. He stole it off the table when I was out. And then yesterday he ripped out two strands of the drip sprinkling system in the back yard. I hadn't even left him out there very long, dang it! Hubby recently gave me a brief sprinkler tutorial and then turned the sprinkler maintenance responsibility over to me. This is a responsibility he is very happy to unload and I am loathe to accept. I found one blown sprinkler head in the front yard a couple of weeks ago and have been hand watering to cover the dry spot rather than fix the small geyser the broken sprinkler head creates. I had hoped the rest of the system would limp through the fall season and then we could turn it off and I could ignore it until next spring. But NO! The dog has brought the harsh reality of sprinkler responsibility in the form of little black tubes and uprooted petunias on the patio.

And then, the last straw, today he ran away. I had to run an errand in the neighborhood, and I just walked over since it was so close. The dog watched me go out the front door, and stood and watched me walk away, but somewhere down the line he grasped in his little brain that I wasn't just going out and right back in like I often do, I was ACTUALLY LEAVING ON FOOT and NOT TAKING HIM WITH ME. I could hear him barking. It is my theory that he got mad at me for leaving him behind and decided if I could go for a little solo walk then he could too. When I came back 45 minutes later he BOLTED out the front door and galloped into the next door neighbor's front yard. I went out on the porch and called him. He stood staring at me. I started to go into our house, as sort of a threat. This usually works. But not this time. He just stood there watching. I went back out to the porch and down to the front yard and called him. I started walking toward him with the intent of dragging him back by some of that fur. He saw me coming and RAN AWAY! He trotted down to the sidewalk and off up the street. I was flabbergasted! Verging on furious! He has only done this once before, and that time I dragged him home by the scruff of his neck muttering at him... obviously that didn't impress upon him the dire consequences of incurring my wrath, because here he ran off again!
I marched back in the house and got his collar and leash - I don't put a collar on him all the time because it cuts off all the fur around his neck and I like him looking big and fluffy. I followed him up the street. He was already most of the way to the end of the block, 5 or 6 houses away, by the time I got out to the sidewalk. He crossed a moderately busy neighborhood intersection (thankfully no cars around) and stopped to sniff a woman walking by. He sat on the sidewalk and watched me cross the street, and didn't run when I walked up to him and put his collar on him.

Of course I can't yell at him, because I don't want him to flee my wrath should he ever run off again. And he trotted along happily with me back to our house, it wasn't like he was dragging on the leash, he was happy to go with me.

It will be a long time before I let him darken my doorway without a leash clamped firmly around his neck. I keep thinking about his big furry butt trotting away from me, out into that street... I sure as shooting would have zapped him with the shock collar, if only I had one.

By the way I'm NOT buying a shock collar for the two times a year he misbehaves. But I do daydream about cranking the control up to 11 and zapping his furry ass.