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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Post Marathon Void

Did I really finish a marathon? Can I even claim to have run it seeing as I had to walk so many stretches of it? That was it? If I could do it, anyone could, nothing special. I guess it's a familiar sense of let-down to anyone who has been preparing and waiting for something exciting to happen after the event is over and unfocused life resumes.
It reminds me of childbirth, you focus for 9 months on this moment that you suspect may be to most difficult ordeal of your life, physically, emotionally. Then it happens and in the moment you're there, living it, getting through it. Maybe it doesn't go as you had hoped but there is little hope of fixing it in the moment, you just have to adjust to endure it. And then suddenly it's over and you're on the other side. You're a new person or at least you're told that you are. But life keeps on rolling. Maybe you get a day off, the rest of the day anyway, maybe the day after. But then, before you've had time to reflect on what just happened, there are things to do, new responsibilities to accept and you're off. And all that preparation seems like it was a lifetime ago, did you really even do it?

So now what? Well, I've got a list of course. During all those many hours of plodding around the roads I had many ideas come and go about what next. Let's see

  • Get certified as a lifeguard and help out at the pool
  • Focus on Taekwondo
  • Meal planning
  • Take the Bunny to see Wicked for a girls' weekend in Seattle
  • Watch every soccer game
  • Pick as many blackberries as humanly possible
  • Learn how to can food
  • Pick all the peaches and plums before the critters do
  • Help the Raccoon get out of dipes
  • Spend more time on the boat
  • Go camping with the kids
  • Do more bike riding with the Bunny
  • Ride my own bike w/the trailer more
  • Focus on strength and toning losing about 20 pounds in the process
  • Volunteer at school
  • Take the EMT training course
  • Finish the freakin' house!
That last one needs it's own special list. My Dad has been here for a little over two weeks and in tat time he has been busy improving our comfort levels significantly. He's built nesting boxes for the chickens, a treehouse and a seesaw for Chiara, he's built me a cabinet for my fancy wall ovens and helped us finish the last bit of the deck which had been untouched since last summer. He hung towel racks that had been in boxes since last fall and installed netting over the chickens to dissuade the eagles. All of these projects had been languishing hopelessly and now they're done! Now, can Dh and I keep the momentum going? We don't have much a of a track record. Before we had the kids we could grind out some real projects and did, but that was a long time ago now and our rhythm is way off.
But here's a list, just to help me focus;
  • Design and build posts/bookshelves for the living room
  • Sand and refinish the basketball court floor
  • Install the floor
  • Finalize the layout for the kitchen
  • Build the counterspace needed
  • Install the cooktop
  • Find a better kitchen sink and reinstall with sound plumbing
  • Rip out drywall ceiling in kitchen, rewire as needed and install tongue and groove/beadboard
  • Choose, order and install trim on indoor doors and windows
  • Choose order and install trim for exterior doors and windows
  • Paint exterior
  • Rebuild missing gable on front of house?
  • Build raised garden beds, in back for herbs and lettuce, in front for everything else.
  • Build garage/barn
  • Finish getting mega trash pile to dump
  • Get rid of the Pinto
  • Find appropriate hardwood for stairs and install
  • Install railing on stairs
  • Recarpet upstairs
  • Rip out crap tub and toilet from girls' bathroom and install decent shower.
  • Build a dock for the pond
  • Make decent paths to the front and back doors
  • Build walls for pantry and broom closet
  • Reconfigure laundry area to make space for folding clothes
  • Find and install woodstove before we need it
  • Figure out a convenient place to store the wood for it
  • Build the half post/bookshelves for both entrances
  • Get the Raccoon's bedroom ready for her to use
  • Paint fun kid stuff on the walls of the playroom
  • Make the downstairs guestroom into something functional
  • Install pedestal sink in ds bath
  • Finish pocket door
  • Install doors on interior doorways
I'm sure there is more.

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