The Problem with Getting the Lawn Done

The problem with getting the lawn done--except for the couple of patches we call "the wild places" because I'm too lazy to get in there and cut them--is that it leaves you open for other work. Like yesterday, with my next cover story a week away and only a column to write this weekend, I suddenly found myself renting that rug shampooing machine I've been thinking about. Of course to shampoo the rugs you have to get everything but the piano and big desk off the floors, and if you're gonna do the room where Yelena stayed and her dog pee'd some, Italo's old room, well, I figured I might as well attack the closet floor there too....And then of course, you can't shampoo until you've vacuumed three or four times, and with this being Boots' the Wonderdog's serious shedding season, that meant not just emptying out the plastic container on the vacuum every five minutes but having to wash the filter a coule of times as well.....See where this goes? There's a reason we put off work. It's because it's never a job, it's a million jobs to get ready for the job. And those are such pain in the neck jobs that it seems easier to avoid them than attack them. I mean, unless you happen to be wealthy and can hire someone to do them for you.
    So yes, Madeleina and I picked everything off the floor in four rooms. Then I attacked the floor of Italo's closet and got rid of a large garbage bag of old magazines and dirty sox and such, while at the same time found a brand new pair of rollerblades I'm sure he's forgotten about. And then we vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed some more and then hit the carpets with the heavy machine and by five in the afternoon were done.
   But it was still light out, and once you start, it's hard to stop, eh? So I decided I'd better paint my office. Of course, to do that required taking down 30 pieces of art and cabinets and six shelves holding hundreds of artifacts from Peru--and so that's what I'm looking at today. Art is down. Paint and supplies are here. Some furniture is in the kitchen, some on the front porch. Man, I know we'll get it and it will be fresh in here for another year...but if I do get it, I hope it's getting dark, because if there's still any light, I might find myself thinking that it would only take a little while to do the laundry room...which would be a mistake. I should never get so caught up with work that I'm able to get there...