Friday 29 October 2010

Procrastination

October 29, 2010
Organizational Friday or Procrastination Depot

I have just finished tidying my chest freezer and inventorying its contents in order to discover what I need to buy to stock up for winter.  (I have been told I am the only person in Christendom who has a catalogue of her DVDs ... and now this!) 

What I discovered:     I do not need to buy ground beef or sausages until 2020.

            Likewise chicken thighs and pork tenderloins.

I am not terribly keen on chicken thighs and that is likely why I have a surplus, but I suspect that the reason for everything else is that I can never find what I am looking for in the cavernous depths so I always eat from the top down.

Does anyone out there have a simple solution for keeping a chest freezer's contents under control and available?

I am thinking of boxes or bins of some kind.



The birds are busy emptying the feeders ... jays, chickadees, red breasted nuthatches, snowbirds, downy woodpeckers, and sparrows so far.  The red squirrels continue to be foiled by the cds that hang along the line between the trees and the feeders ... or maybe they are simply content with the seed that the jays deposit on the ground.


My next task is to organize the bins and satchels containing teaching paraphanalia.


And then I will get down to writing based on last weekend's writing workshop.

Maybe.

I just read an article about procrastination.  Apparently we procrastinate because our various selves are thrashing things out.  The first step we need to take is to identify those different warring selves.  Blogger Oma is often at odds with Lazy Oma who cannot abide my tidy self.  My persona that detests such things as bills and taxes is always at loggerheads with most of the others.  Then there are Funky Furniture, Reader, Movie Buff, Gardener, Dog Walker, and...  and...  and .... 

And that is why we clean out a freezer rather than go through a sloppy in-box (the real tangible wooden kind  that contains bills) or sit down to write a travel piece.  Of the three, the most enjoyable is undoubtedly the writing assignment ... but it requires time and effort .... concentration ... whereas the freezer just is ...

I am trying to clear the decks of distractions ... so that I can write.  Maybe the travel pieces.  Or maybe start something for NaNoWriMo.  Monday is November 1, the beginning of the next challenge. I might decide that it won't be a novel this time ... and ... if I do it ... I won't subject you all to the throes (and vile prose) of daily first draft NaNoWriMo writing.

Instead my blog posts might become 5 minute warm-ups for the contest.  Or maybe they will be become a means of putting off writing the book. NaNoWriMo Oma foiled once again by Blogger Oma.


Procrastinator Oma who has played a game, hung out a load of laundry, spent an hour on the phone, cleaned out  the compost pails, and packaged the outdoor solar lights and their batteries after sorting according to viability ... instead of getting on with the business at hand ...

6 comments:

Erin Kuhns said...

I'm on the fence about whether or not to do NaNoWriMo again this year. I had decided I definitely wasn't doing it; I'm spending SO much time on the computer job-hunting as it is. But I'm also feeling an odd sense of sadness at the thought of NOT doing it. My friend Beth is desperately trying to get me to do it...still on the fence though...

Oma said...

I am on the same fence ... I dd nothing with last year's ... didn't even re-read it ... but at least logging the words every day might be a good way to discipline myself back into writing daily.

kingmisha said...

An excellent day of accomplishment in the procrastination column. I'm thrilled to know that you also have a billowing IN box of bills. I hate them so much that I finally arranged to have all my key ones paid by automatic withdrawal. This after years of careful money management.

Did you know that you can leave solar lights out all winter and they keep working? I discovered this by accident when I arrived at my cottage to find the lights I forgot still coming on each night. Great, one less chore for me to do at close up time.

I believe that it's ok to procrastinate at our age. It's not a sin to only do what we want to do. We've earned that right.

Oma said...

Hi Kingmisha ... I almost called you last night when I was up with insomnia ... but didn't want to run the risk of awakening you if you had managed to get to sleep before midnight. Thanks for the information about the solar lights ... next year ... And thanks for the kind words about procrastination ... whew!

Barbara Carlson said...

Re Freezer stuff -- I'm assuming you put a date on every package?
Perhaps you could build interior shelves with new addions on bottom, but that would mean you'd have to move everything every time you added something...
It is a puzzle.

When my mother buys a new carton of eggs, she puts an X on the "old" eggs so she can use them up first.

We eat week to week, with a small freezer space, so don't have an answer. Perhaps not buying any meat until your freezer is empty of it?

John is sorry it didn't snow here -- he wants to paint it like he did the last 2 years. But in a new spot near Mer Bleue. Dewberry Trail. This last summer he did some paintings at Tenpenny Road -- anywhere near you?

Oma said...

Barbara: I don't want to wait till I have an empty freezer because up here I depend on having a steady supply of food in case I can't get out or the hydro is out for a time. I think I will simply use small bins that can be lifted out easily. Not sure where Ten Penny Lake is ... I've heard the name though. You will have to come for tea here one of these days ... and see for yourself where I am.