I am a to-do list junkie. Sometimes I add things I’ve already done, just so I can cross them off.
So it’s no surprise that two days before ringing out 2014, I was scouring my projects list for the year to find some small item – anything – that I could still check off.
I’d like to say I spent most of my waking hours this past week pondering a solution to climate change, peace in the Mideast, or income inequality.
Instead, I focused all my mental powers on the purchase of a dolly diaper bag for my five-year-old granddaughter.
The obsession started innocently enough. A Clintonville friend, wary of attracting rats to her feeders last year, dropped off a giant grocery bag of gourmet birdseed at our door.
“Enjoy!” she said, as I gawked at the mixture resembling high-end granola bars, and wondered what exotic creatures I’d attract.
“If you’d miss it, tile it.”
The ad for the latest soon-to-be-released app for my iPhone sure got my attention. Not only did it pop up mysteriously every time I Googled something else. It also – unlike most ads – promised to solve a problem I actually have. Finding stuff.
Sometimes life is a balancing act. Sometimes it’s a roller coaster ride. Take this last month. Please.
In the waning days of summer, some fret that the pool is about to close. Others fret that school started too soon or that another Winter Storm Titan lurks around the corner.
Not me. I’m too busy worrying that once again, I’ll be outed as a black thumb gardener.
First, thanks to all the mechanically inclined gentlemen who stepped up in response to my last column and proposed ingenious fixes for our temperamental automatic garage door. One suggested inserting a toilet paper roll to focus the eye. We went that route, and voila! We could trust the door to stay down when we went abroad on the European vacation of a lifetime.
Amazing how simple life can become with some practical advice. In that spirit, I am paying it forward this month with equally practical advice mostly missing from the travel guides, and gleaned from our mostly wonderful trip.
Certain things in life are a mystery. A quick cure for the common cold. The number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin. And our automatic garage door.
It started with a Groupon offer to digitize 1,000 photos for $29.99.
“Wow!” I said. “An easy down-sizing project!” And mentally pictured my mile-wide basement brigade of photo boxes melting into one handy silver DVD.
For years, I’ve been confessing in these pages that my life is out of balance. But regular old garden variety balance? I figured it was OK.
So it was with a nonchalant “Whatever….” that I agreed to accompany my fiancé, also known as Smooth Move, to an Introduction to Tai Chi class.