Something Tribbling here

Rule 21 -  make connections

    I’ve been forced, these past few days, to make a good examination of conscience. Sister Mary Eucharista (grade 3, St. Matthew’s) would be happy with me for this. I’ve had to take a good look at the projects Hub and I got done, things that cropped up during to add to the project list, and what is still on the table - like, stuff I‘d rather be doing. That middle part is the tribbling part. Have you ever gotten going on a project, then 7 or 8 more come up while you are doing that 1 major project? Some mathletes look at this phenomenon as subset problems of the greater problem. Other, more philosophical folks, defer to Murphy’s Law. Then there’s us Trekkies, and we find the situation totally Tribbling.

     Not a Trekkie? Almost everyone has heard of the Star Trek franchise. There’s the “Next Generation”, "Voyager", and the movies. Those of us of a certain age will remember the original series - you know, William Shatner’s life before Boston Legal and Priceline… One episode from the original series found the crew of the Starship Enterprise venturing to a port in the outer galaxies. Someone brought on board a salesman, who sold one Lt. Uhura a Tribble. These are cute, furry creatures that purr and coo. They are relaxing to have around. They were transportable in a pocket or purse. They loved to be next to their people. They had one drawback, which the crew found out about quickly. Tribbles reproduced at a rate that would make your average rabbit herd look like a bunch of cloistered monks. The fur balls got into the food and into the cargo, and ate themselves silly. They didn’t do any real damage to the ship, but they messed with everyone’s heads so badly… they had to go. And they did, but not without the crew learning something in return.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXE5l0dXt5c&feature=context-shows&list=SL


     Life around here has been a bit Tribbling this past week. Our kitchen is finished with a few exception (minor fixes). We moved box after box out of the living room and the contents have new homes in the new cupboards. Still to be unpacked is the dining room. We are painting the walls before we move the dining room furniture back in place. At this writing, we are in the final coats on the walls and trim.

     Add to this Ma Nature. Not only has she had hot flashes in the form of 100 degree-plus heat, she’s been a sweaty mess. Maryland gets ridiculously humid in the summer. This summer is no exception. Painting in this weather - even in an air-conditioned house- is challenging.

     Then Ma introduced us to Derecho. Talk about a blow-hard… he should run for public office. Seriously, the winds hit our neighborhood with such force that good trees got topped. One of my neighbor’s trees landed on our back patio and deck, with a renegade branch hitting and rolling on our roof. We got lucky with this item, since the insurance adjuster checked out the roof and found no damage. No major damage of any kind, except to my garden ornaments and gnome colony. But the tree needs to be cut up. The job is started, but we need to finish it.

     The heat has pretty much fried the gardens. I can’t keep up with the watering. There’s also the clean up of the yard on a regular basis. All this stopped while the kitchen project was going. And it’s really too unsafe in the heat to work out there now. At least for us, it is.

     Haven’t had the energy to read in the evening either. By the time dinner is cleaned up, my get up and go, got up and went. So there sits two Julie Hyzy books, just waiting to be read. There sits dog training books I use as reference in my manuscripts. Oh, to use them before their expiration dates from the library!

    Writing time suffered too. The only thing I could keep up with is this blog. I’ve got writing projects in various stages of completion just waiting patiently to be pulled out. One manuscript is almost submission ready. It needs just a bit of tweeking. My rabbit character, Esther Bunny, needs to contact her Jersey public again. That’s got to happen soon, too. And I need to work on the fabric I bought to make a stuffed Esther, as inspiration. My plans for Blog 2 are on hold too.

     Church duties came up again this week with two funerals. Ask any funeral director- no one dies on your schedule. And I need to combine scope and sequence charts for two different 7th and 8th grade religious education programs - to be used at the same time.

     This is beyond Tribbling. These projects are eating up my brain cells and I spend more time over-organizing my life than I should.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Bprgl_4z6gY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ok, Self. Time to prioritize…

1. Finish dining room. All else waits for that project to be done.
2. Finish cleaning up the tree when the heat breaks.
3. Read when you can.
4. Keep voice recorder handy. At least when an idea hits, you can talk it into the recorder. Do this instead of the post-it note thing. You already can’t find your desk already for the to-do list and the post-it notes.
5. Figure due dates, mark the calendar, and hit the gas peddle. We are off in warp drive to get things done.

Now, to take a deep breath and get back to painting the dining room.

     The grain shipment in the show was sabotaged. Do not sabotage your success, Self. Get it into warp drive.

Need more power, Scotty….

Captain, I’m givin’ ‘er all she’s got…