This weekend, my husband and I dove into our laundry list of odd jobs around the house, many of which we’ve been putting off for some time. Yes, procrastination is alive and well in our home.
However, to be fair, procrastination often comes after long days at work, after which neither of us care if anything gets done other than needed household tasks such as laundry, dishes, cleaning bathrooms and a quick run of the vacuum. I wonder sometimes if it’s really fair to call it procrastination at that point.
Merriam Webster defines procrastination as putting something off intentionally and habitually. Going by this strict definition, I suppose these things qualify as having been procrastinated. However, to me, procrastination is more of a willful avoidance rather than out of necessity, or in this case, exhaustion.
Sometimes, though, the exhaustion is self-inflicted. This weekend, I did set an alarm for 12:20 a.m. so I could see the eclipse in full swing. The beauty of the reddened Moon was incredible. As it’s two and a half years until the next one, I don’t feel guilty at all for getting up for the event.
I did try to take pictures, and I discovered standing out in below-freezing temperatures in fleece pants, a T-shirt, a bathrobe and slippers while trying to hold a camera steady long enough to get a full exposure in the dark is not easy. I also discovered my hands aren’t steady enough to hold the camera perfectly still for several seconds to get that exposure.
It’s a good thing no one drove by, or they’d have seen a crazy woman with her car door open, trying to prop the camera at an angle on the roof to hold the camera steady. They’d have seen me twisting and turning, trying to get the right angle as I steadied the camera on the car.
Sure, I took lots of pictures, but in every one, there are moon shadows, as the pictures picked up the movement. I will say, though, the pictures are unique. Sadly, after my 20 minutes outside in the freezing cold, I was wide awake, and it was almost 2 a.m. before I could go back to sleep. Hence the self-inflicted exhaustion on Monday.
Saturday, however, was an energetic day for us both. We installed wood shelves in my office closet (my husband loves to build things), removed a sliding glass door on the guest shower—I hate sliding glass doors on showers—and replaced it with a curtain and moved planter boxes my husband completed building into the sunroom for an indoor herb garden space. He then began working on building a new medicine cabinet for the guest bathroom.
The planter boxes necessitated rearranging the sunroom, of course. We also rearranged my office space, cleared out some garage space, and unpacked a few winter clothing boxes, followed by laundering the items. Okay, yes, the winter clothing unpacking had definitely been procrastinated.
All in all, though, it was a successful day, followed by a relaxing evening, secure in the knowledge we had completed several needed tasks. If we play our cards right, we may be able to ride the sense of accomplishment for some time, successfully procrastinating the next set of honey-do tasks. But I’ll think about that tomorrow.
