Jaci Dawn

It is late evening on a Friday night and I am feeling like I need some public accountability. I have projects I need to complete and if I don’t list them somewhere, they will fall into oblivion and never ever get finished.

If I list them here, they will be public. They will still never, ever get finished but they will be on public record that I intended to do them.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

OUCH.

#1. I have a book I need to return to my friend, Marci. It has been in the envelope to mail since February. It is in a drawer at work. All I have to do it take it to the front desk and order a UPS pick-up. I pay later. How hard is that? It is June 10 and the package is still in the drawer at work, addresses and sealed. I think I even put a note in it to Marci dated sometime last February.

#2. I have a postcard to mail to my friend, Mary in the UK. I’ve only had it ready to mail for three weeks. It just needs postage. I never go to the Post Office since they closed the little one inside our independent grocer. They closed the grocery store, too: they are building a Safeway. But I digress. i need to put extra postage on the postcard and mail it to my dear friend, Mary. She’s been to Istanbul and back and I haven’t mailed the postcard.

#3. I need to have a yard sale. WE need to have a yard sale but I can’t just go and sell Don’s stuff without his permission. I need him on board with a yard sale, especially when I start hauling his junk down the stairs to sell. I am arbitrarily setting a date for this yard sale: either the third or fourth weekend in July. No Later. I work well with deadlines.

#4. I need to write several letters and thank-yous. I need my cousin Steve’s mailing address. Steve gave me an incredibly special gift that I want to acknowledge. I’ve only met Steve a couple times in my life but he made the drive up to Ely for my dad’s service and he brought me a painting that I have drooled over (but couldn’t afford) for years just because I told him how much I liked it. You can’t get much sweeter than my cousin. I wish I had known him better as we grew up, but that didn’t happen. I want to make sure we do get to know each other as senior citizens. I don’t have a photo of the painting and it is in storage in Reno, but if you go to Steve’s website you can see it. It reminds me of Levi when he was 12 (not the scenery, which is Tucson, but the bike & the tricks & the hairdo of the boy on the bike). It’s a beautiful painting.

#5. I need to write a will. My dad had a will. He made a trust and we circumvented probate because of it. Don and I need to make a will and set up a trust account for our children with specific instructions. As hard as the past few weeks have been (and harder on my brother, who is chief executor), it would have been horrid if we had to deal with probate. As much junk as Don and  I have, it seems fair that we should set up a trust and let our kids know our wishes ahead of time.

If you don’t have a trust or a will, get it done. Precious things will go to the wrong heir. Probate will freeze the accounts. What is already a miserable time for your children will become a nightmare.

Even with a will and a trust, we’re dealing with a nightmare. Or Terry is.

#6. I promised to send something handmade to several people earlier this year. I have two items done and I need to figure out a way to ship the items. I also need to finish the other three items and ship them. One is just a loaf of home-made bread that I need to bake for a kid, but I need to do it.

#7. I need to have that darn kidney stone blasted out of my kidney. I am actually working on this one! I had an x-ray done on Wednesday. the doctor’s office was supposed to call me but I think I will have to call them on Monday. I know the doctor wants to get this done, too: he called me. But his office staff sometimes drags their feet. I’m learning how this works. It’s day surgery & I’m not too worried about it. I just want this to be a part of my past as soon as possible.

I want to start July 1, 2011 with a clean slate: NEW half-way through the year. The first half has been way too much and I want to bury it.

#7. I am giving away or selling part of our vast library. Yes, I am parting with BOOKS. In order to do that I am making an inventory list of the books we currently own so we can sit and read the list while debating the merits of keeping it in our library. What Oregon City Public Library’s book store will not accept will go to Goodwill. I hate to part with books but it MUST BE DONE. I have a huge library of children’s books that needs to be divided between grands. I have books coming from my dad’s estate to replace all the ones I am purging.

I need to read a lot more books.

And that is just the beginning.

So what am I doing tomorrow? Weeding out three more flower beds. I need to get ahead of the weeds, too. And trim up the rhodies. And build the dog run.

We also have to have the roof de-mossed. Fortunately, someone else gets to do that and after a week of taking bids on the job, I scheduled a company to come in and do it for $300. The other bids were around $800. Huge disparity in price: two companies took into consideration the Cape Cod style roof and height of the house (1 story with a loft=2 stories in their minds) and the first company said simply, “small house” – which it is). While I did my homework, I am still amazed at the price disparity and crossing my fingers that I will be pleased with the results.

That’s it. That is enough. I’m tired thinking about it.

ttfn