1099 Another Blown Day

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

"There's no sense beating a dead horse -- but if you've reached the point where you even seriously consider that abusing a dead animal might improve your lot in life, I say go ahead and give it a shot." --- (Anthony Myers)

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My "to do" list is so long that I get overwhelmed just looking at it, and end up doing nothing. On the theory that any single step forward, no matter how small a step, is still a step forward, I've decided to use a trick I used when I worked. At night, you make a small list for the next day, being careful to put only as many tasks on the list as can reasonably be accomplished. Many of the tasks might be things you have to do again and again (like laundry), but you have to be sure to include at least ONE "do it once and it's done forever" task every day.

I put five things on my list for today:
- Make appointment for Suzuki service
- Shop for mats and sheets
- Pay bills
- Take at least two boxes down to basement
- Mothproof and store red pepper rug.
That sounds manageable, doesn't it?

I started out at 1 pm, and I went to the Suzuki dealership to check on some things and to make an appointment for service on Friday. Item #1 accomplished.

Then I went to a shopping cluster to buy some mats to put around the cat's litter box so she won't track the litter so badly, then to a huge big-box store to buy the sheets to make the feather bed and comforter covers. I didn't get the sheets (they had single flats only in 200 count, bleck), but I impulsively bought a rather awkwardly large piece of office equipment. Item #2 not yet accomplished - no sheets.

When I went out to my minivan, I was missing my keys. Gone. I am absolutely certain I had them when I walked into the store. I lost them somewhere IN the store. I had recently switched purses, and the spares didn't get switched. They're home. Of course.

Back into the store, watching the ground the whole way. I went first to Customer Service (CS). No keys. Parked my purchase, still in the cart, and retraced my earlier wandering pattern through the store. No keys. Back to CS. No keys. Called a taxi.

Took the taxi home, used the secret key to get in the house, located the spare van key, and took the taxi back to the store to retrieve the van. It's exactly 22.0 miles round trip, store to home to store, and it cost me $90 (cash only) including tip. The only lucky part is that since I won't have an ATM card for 10 days, I had taken out a lot of cash on Monday.

Back into the store, to CS, nope, no keys yet. I figured that as long as I'm in the store, I'd buy a couple of those magnetic spare key boxes that you tuck under the chassis. On the way to the auto section, I saw some 3/4 sleeve sweaters on clearance. Picked up one. Went home.

I was home ten minutes when the store called and said my keys had been turned in. In the meantime, I had tried the sweater on, and I love it! I am hard to fit. I'm now into the smaller sizes, popular with teens, my bust is big and my arms are short. When I find something that looks good, I'll go back and buy more of the same, and especially when it's on closeout.

So, back to the van, back to the store to pick up my keys and see if they had more of the sweaters in my size. There was exactly ONE in my size in each of five colors. So I bought the five. Checkout. Pick up bag and go home. Open bag. Two sweaters in the bag. Five sweaters on the receipt. I must have missed a second bag.

Called the store. CS again. They recognised my voice. Snickers. If the sweaters were left, "they'd have been put in the returns cart to go back on the rack". "Oh, no! They were the only ones in my size! Please, can you rescue them and hold them for me?"

The lady found them, and they're holding them for me to pick up tomorrow.

Not only did I get only one of the five "to do"s done, but now I have to add a trip across the river to tomorrow's list.

A necessary item on tomorrow's list is to locate the battery charger, and charge up the dead Aerio, so I can get it in for service Friday. That's an absolute requirement. I don't know when I'll get to the other four things on today's list....
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