coldhearted scientist وداد

This post is dedicated to Stupid Motivational Tricks, because that is a site about Getting It Done.

The bottom line regarding life today is, I need a handyman but cannot get one because, they all say so far, the job I want them for is too small. I have guests coming this weekend and little do they know that I may press them into service. I used to see a man who could do this kind of job and do it right, but I do not see him any more. When I broke up with him, he asked who would now do things in my house. I said I would hire handymen, as one does, but this has in fact turned out to be as difficult as he predicted it would be.

Thursdays, and this was a Thursday night, there’s a dance I’d like to go to, but it conflicts with a class I take, so I usually go to the class. Next Thursday class was to have been canceled, so I was going to get to go to the dance. But when I got to class tonight, I learned that the date of canceling had been moved from next week to this. So there was neither class nor dance tonight, and there will be class and no dance next week. That in itself is all right, since one can always dance another day.

Instead of go to the gym as I might and in retrospect ought to have done, I came home saying it was a good opportunity to do house projects before these guests came. Knowing that the most important of the house projects in question would probably be beyond my capabilities, I procrastinated for two hours by working on the updating and revamping my vita really needs. This, I claimed, was justifiable since I had not updated my vita since 2008 and since doing it — and revamping it, not just updating it — is my promised project for my study group this week, so I must cumplir.

After pressing “send” to distribute the latest draft of this vita to the study group, I embarked upon the most difficult of the house projects. It is installing new blinds in the room I normally use as a study, the old blinds having been removed because the post hurricane leaks to that room had caused them to grow mold. This summer I had the room repaired at last, and I have had the new blinds covering the windows. But since they are not properly installed they cannot be raised, so daylight cannot come into the room. That is why I have been working precariously in the dining room and on the living room couch, which in turn is why I have felt displaced and blocked all summer. I have tried several times to install the blinds, and to hire handymen, but I have failed.

I could hire the grass cutting man to help with this and I may do so still, although when I resort to him for indoor projects I am never truly pleased with the results. It is odd because I have installed blinds before, many times. All you have to do is drill holes and then screw in the brackets. But the wood is so hard in these particular sashes that my drill, which is a Skil drill with new bits, does not penetrate it. This is my problem. So tonight I tried again, and failed again.

Does anyone know the meaning of it, or have a solution? I have been told that my problem is mental block, and that I should be able to drill these holes and screw in these screws. I see the point, since I have accomplished that with ease so many times before, but honestly I think it is a physical block having to do with the nature of this wood.

While I was working on the Sisyphean task of drilling, the phone rang; it was the organizer of a community group I am in. Would I be willing to take over the updating of the website, he wanted to know, because the man who has been doing it these last years is retiring. I said yes because this organizer is a really good worker, does a lot of work, and has at present a baby who does not yet sleep through the night. I am the only other person in the group who knows how to code, I am not currently on any other committees for this group, and the new platform is to be in Drupal, which I would like to learn for my own reasons. I am tempted to put an ad on Craigslist: I will fix your website if you will install my blinds.

Axé.