the id, the ego, & the single misfiring brain cell

For some reason--one of the great mysteries of the universe, as far as I'm concerned--I awoke with motivation this morning. 

That's right. I used the "m" word. 

I've been ashamed to admit I live here for a while, or at least to allow friends into our home. We've been working more than I can express, and when we weren't working, we were too exhausted and demoralized to do squat. I had to retrain myself how to vacuum. That's how bad it was. (Except last weekend, we went to Breckenridge where we relaxed utterly. Without that, I doubt I'd have made it through this last week with my sanity intact.) 

Oh...for those not in the know, thanks to the government shutdown on midnight Monday, the military members of the English department were the only ones left to take all the classes. All majors/enrichment courses were suspended, and we all doubled up. That meant that, instead of teaching 4 sections (in my case), I had 8. Even Col Harrington, our department head (who has plenty to do in addition to teaching) went from teaching 1 class (required) to a full course load herself (4 classes). Morale was good, though. We pulled together and checked in on each other a lot, making sure everyone was holding it together somehow and didn't need what little help we might have to offer. 

So I rolled out bright and early at, oh, 11:00am, had about 1.5 cups of coffee, then got to work gathering clothing from the nether reaches of the house. I even stripped the bed and threw the sheets and comforter into the washer first.* Then I put away clothing and made piles of dirty clothing**, before descending to balance my checkbook and pay bills, do the dishes, go through my mail, and probably other nitpicky things that just don't get done often enough. 

* In all fairness, one of the cats had hacked something unseemly up at the foot of the bed a couple of days ago. It wasn't much and, like I said, we've just been too beat to care. 

** My system is inconsistent with Mich's and thus, unacceptable. I just learned this. 

Having gotten the laundry going, I descended to the basement with two screwdrivers in hand, where our under-bar refrigerator had given up the ghost a couple of months ago. It was a U-Line, which is only serviced by one company in the Springs. Little did we know that it was a top-of-the-line and most expensive 'fridge until it kicked the bucket. We brought out the serviceman who explained that it would cost at least $1000 to fix (original price, about $1500--can you believe that?! Jesus). We decided to cut our losses, get rid of this defunct refrigerator, and buy something more within our price range that will fit the space available. The trouble was, it was far too heavy for us to haul up and out to where the trash dudes could haul it away. 

Thus, I decided it was time to get this worthless eyesore out of the way. I mean, they put them together, right? It isn't like they just cast them whole. There had to be a way to take it apart. Follow my logic? 

There is, but it turns out that it requires more than a flathead and Phillips screwdriver. I didn't make real progress until I hauled in two sizes of crowbars, a sledge hammer, a heavy duty chisel, and a wire cutter. But take that booger apart I did, hauling up the smaller bits as I got them loose and piling them in the back of my pickup.

It was about that time that I realized I was sick of looking at my broken wheelbarrow and all the dead weeds I'd laboriously pulled up back when I had time (6-8 weeks back) piled in the driveway. So while Mich went down and swept up the mess I'd left in the basement, I took the sledge hammer to the wheelbarrow and used it to get the wheel back on (wheee!), then I filled four huge yard trash bags with dead thistles and elephant ear. 

Still in my jammies, but whatever. 

Meanwhile--and this is something that comes with not having time or energy--we'd been cooking more and more creatively thanks to not having much food in the cupboard, so I decided we needed to make a CostCo run. We took a bath (I even shaved, y'all...that's just how motivated I was), then I vacuumed the upstairs, groomed the cats to remove excess hair, then made the bed with clean sheets/comforter. 

Then, CostCo. This may be the one place you NEVER want to shop if you're hungry. I hadn't eaten a bite all day. I was so hungry I was no longer hungry. (And no...it was past the time of free samples; it was just a get-your-shop-on time of day.) We grabbed tons of whatever it looked like we'd enjoy. All told, we spend just under $1000 at CostCo today. 

It took a while to find homes for all the food. Both freezers* are jam-packed, as is the fridge and the cupboard, and we still have a pile of staples (by the case) in the garage, besides. The food we bought packed the back of my pickup. On the up-side, we have dog and cat food to last for the next couple of months, tons of meals to take to work, and enough staples to last the winter, should it come to that. 

* There's the refrigerator one, then the deep freeze in the garage. 

As I unloaded the truck, I noticed that my right rear tire is flat. And I don't mean "a little low." I mean that, for some indeterminate period of time while I was driving our haul home, it went flat. Flat as a flitter. 

We're presently awaiting the ready-to-cook fresh chicken alfredo we picked up, and sipping rum and Diet Cherry Dr Pepper (which tastes heavenly). 

Tomorrow, I vacuum and clean the main floor, change my tire, make arrangements to get new tires anyway, and relax, I think, with Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself." I begin teaching it Tuesday. :) 

The weird bit is...I've been just pumping with energy all day. And it's still going. I don't know what to make of it. I'll hit a wall at some point. I just don't know when that'll be. 

It's been a good day, though. ;)

Y'all be excellent to one another!

d