Once again, the angels of duty and responsibility have reared their heads and declared war on my demons of procrastination. Though in my defense, it wasn’t entirely wasted time. I WAS doing necessary and relevant things outside while the weather was good. But damn, this place is a few dust bunnies and dirt clots away from needing a power washing.

I kept looking around inside the house the past two weeks and then I’d look outside and see the sun, and see that I could start planting in the garden, and build new beds, and repair the bare spots in the yard with soil and grass seeds, and fill in the foundation holes because of the damned mice.

Well, that last one was absolutely necessary. Thankfully the pest control guys are coming to really check and help me out with the weak points I can’t protect or access and hopefully kill a few of ’em so I don’t have to worry about ’em again. I know you gotta keep the grass trimmed to deter them from getting too close to the house, but that’s hard to do when it’s squishy as hell in the yard and the weed-eater doesn’t feed line like it’s supposed to. Thankfully I got that fixed. But what’s left seem to be the really crafty mice that sticky traps aren’t getting. I’ve got a huge foamboard blocking the entrance to the laundry room where they’ve been seen the most, and hopefully they’re ALL back behind it while I have my waders and laundry basket propping it up in place. Anyhoo–

Thanks, Christopher Walken. The best mouse-hunter I can remember (hee hee)

A lot of this is stuff I’d been wanting to do as the weather improved, and had to do because the rains are coming again (had a short shower tonight already) and I can’t do them when the ground is muddy.

But I went so far in that direction I totally neglected the house. Or I’d keep neglecting the house by chatting with my neighbors a half hour here and there throughout the day.

Yeah, some lazy times crept in there without me noticing.

So now I have a septic tank inspector coming in to do their thing, give me a copy of the report for the county, and I can get that bureaucratic nightmare out of the way. Or at least partially, because I still have to go by the office at some point, but at least the hard part will be out of the way. I’d been trying to communicate with people who could do it for weeks without progress. One more try led me to someone who could show up within 24 hours. I didn’t know whether I was going to laugh or cry.

It’s just relieving to know that some of the things that have held me back from getting more done are going to have a giant red check mark on the completed section of my to-do list at last. But there is SO MUCH MORE I need to get done, and with the rain coming this weekend, I’ve got some time because there’s no way I’m gonna get much if any outside work done.

It just stinks that thanks to the mice issue, I’ve been mostly focused on that part of things and let the actual cleaning elsewhere go to rot. I took a lot of things out of that room (creating a bigger mess) in case the pest control guy needed to move my washer or dryer to get a good look. And then not being able to go back there (or rather, not wanting to in case a little beady-eyed twerp decided to jump out toward my feet and scare me) meant some things just weren’t going to get done.

And my house is still a wreck. I’m getting up a bit earlier than I planned to knock out a bunch of areas that could use a quick sprucing up. With all the drying clay and dirt from the yard the past week, I have a LOT of sweeping in the morning. I hate walking around feeling like I’d tracked the beach into the house with me, so that’s a big one. Also, because of the mice, I have to sweep around the parakeet cage more often than before. I mean, even with seed guards, they’re messy eaters, and they fly around in there so much their feathers get everywhere. So, it’s just an additional routine I’ve got to play with for a while.

Poor MO. It was my fave secondary character of any Pixar movie.

I just want to be able to enjoy my bare floors again. The dirt from me and the dogs accidentally tracking it in is one thing, the feeling that a mouse might run right over my bare foot while trying to find cover was another. So it’s gonna be an early morning trying to push myself to get more cleaned up and ready to go… and develop habits that will help me keep it that way.

I just wish the cleaning angels spoke up a bit sooner and didn’t wait til I was worn out from outside work to start thinking about cleaning inside. Grr… but I’ll chalk it up to a victory anyway, because I wasn’t sitting on my ass doing nothing the whole week. I got more done this week than I have in the longest time.

I think the depression bubble is leaking quite nicely. I have more optimism than I have in a while. And that optimism will give me the energy to take better care of myself, my house, and responsibilities in general. I can sleep well (even if a short sleep) knowing that.