Saturday, March 8, 2008

House Maintained, Blog Is Not

My intent here was to provide an accounting of my daily housekeeping travails in terms plain and un-entertaining. Somehow, I'm so busy with actually doing the things I should be recording here that I have no time to record them here. That kinda sucks.

This week was stressful as the divorce progresses. The clock is ticking for me, too, as I have to get my ducks in a row on many levels. Here is the meta-pyramid of my existence:

Work - provides money to do everything else
Daughter - fight with spouse over parental rights; attempt to keep kid interested in my existence
House - maintain cleanliness and order; repair infrastructure; buy food and supplies; laundry
Animals - clean up after them and what they destroy; feed and water them; clean their toilet
Money - pay bills; schedule budget; project where to allocate future funds
Credit - repair in anticipation of a house purchase
Investment - continue research in anticipation of future investment: held up by divorce
Me - yes, I am at the bottom of the list and I'm not lamenting it here: exercise, schedule dentist and medico time; keep space organized; write; plan my life already

That leaves little time for actual living.

I imagine that, after the divorce, there will be a whole new set of time allocations. It all depends on what's agreed upon or decided upon and that all seems to be mostly in the air. I really have no idea of what will happen.

I've been admonished to "make time." Well, I'm sorry, but that's the most ridiculous notion in human existence. If every moment is filled with "priority" tasks, how can one make time? It's not possible. Right now, I have to hit the head and run out to see if I can get by brakes done since they're scraping in the front. I don't even have the time to do this writing.

This week, I did this:

- Cleaned the tile floors downstairs. In fairness, my ex cleaned up some dog pee, too.
- Cleaned up two piles of wet dog poo - the poo was wet, not the dog - and cleaned the carpet in those areas.
- Organized my kid's room, folded all her clothes and hung up many, changed her sheets and pillowcase, put all schoolbooks in one place, picked up all the trash on the floor, brought glasses and cups downstairs, put her jewelry in one place, took out the dirty laundry, vacuumed.
- Vacuumed all three floors.
- Changed the cat litter
- Folded five loads of laundry and washed three. Another 2 folds and 1 wash is for today, somehow.
- Plastered the crack in the upstairs bedroom door wall (my bedroom) with special crack tape and latex plaster. This is a two-step job and that was step one.
- Set out the paint and tools to finish painting the upstairs hall and my room.
- Dusted all surfaces.
- Cleaned the upstairs bathroom - by the way, the drain is running perfectly now that I used that two-part Liquid Plumber. My kid has a lot of hair, apparently.
- Excercised: reps of sit-ups and free weight (25 lbs x 2) for the arms and chest. 4 out of 6 days, so not so bad. Did knee bends, but my knees hurt for two days after that - that can't be good.
- Checked my DVR for surveillance every night.
- Repaired my 285HV, so know I have a good off-camera strobe - yay!
- Had my DSL and phone line installed after a long fight (2 years) over who controls the phone and internet service.
- Pushed up a payment on my premier card so that it's paid off now.
- Paid a car payment, the electric, other cards, the insurance.
- Checked my postal box every day - it's on the way to work.
- Had a discussion with ex regarding settling: fruitless