Disorderly Conduct

 Blessings Darlings!

As I've mentioned before - I am where organization goes to die.  For example - today my NEW journal disappeared.   Can't find the damn thing anywhere.  It's amazing how fast this happened.

So when I tell you that the goal I set for this month (which I set late, on the 16th or so and is detailed in my journal), is to deep clean the kitchen and dining room - just think of all the disorder in those rooms that I'm trying to tame.  And I'm doing this in the midst of harvest season, when I'm using the dining room for dehydrating (because the big dehydrator is on that table, and I can hang bundles of herbs on the chandelier.)  

But I AM making progress.  In the past week or so I've gotten a bunch done and the areas aren't intimidating me as much.  Am I getting any help?  No, of course not.  Well, for once the cat hasn't barfed on any newly cleaned area, so maybe the counts.

How's your life going?

Frondly, Fern

Where Order Goes to Die

Blessings, Darlings!

I am ... disorganized ... to put it mildly.  Okay, I'm Chaos personified.  My house is where Order goes to die.  Adding that to my chronic level of depression, this means that a lot of stuff falls thru' the cracks.  And even more stuff FEELS as if it has fallen thru' the cracks.

So, again, I'm trying to change that.  So, again, I have bought a weekly planner (the least expensive one that the store had.)  I had the two OTHER notebooks I've been trying to use with me at the store, so I sipped coffee and moved stuff to the One Book To Rule Them. 

To my total surprise, I found that while I've not been reaching all my goals, and CERTAINLY not getting as much done each day as I'd like to - I WAS doing at least something on almost all of my goals each day.  Didn't write down the good sales from each grocer?  No, but I looked at the ads and made mental notes.  Didn't write down a week of meals?  No, but I did plan 4 days of meals.  Didn't have a full shopping list made? No, but it was mostly done.  Didn't go all the exercising I planned to each day?  No, but I got SOME in ... and found the weights I want to work with as well, and put a temporary fix in on the exercise bike.  Didn't get done all the non-JOB stuff I wanted, but I got to the JOB every day and even on the day I was sick I made sure that the co-worker I usually drive in got to work (I had to ask the Spawn to drive the co-worker in that day.) 

I still can't find my desk under all the papers and such on it, but MAYBE I'm getting a bit more organized that I had been, and didn't notice it. 

Oh - beware of crunches just after a cup of coffee.  On that path lies danger and acid reflux.

This post brought to you by the upcoming start of the school year (therefore planners are EVERYwhere), and Lora O'Brien's site Do The Work!

Frondly, Fern

Did I say "Chaos"?

One of my life goals is to 'lightly surf the waves of life's chaos'. I can't argue that the way to learn that is the same way one gets to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice.

I don't recall asking for QUITE this much practice.

Mom's in the hospital, after a dizzy spell that she says is different than her previous ones. She may or may not get out today. I'm 750 miles away. I've left a message for her doctor to call me.

Son was driving on automatic and in the rain last Friday and didn't notice the car a bit in front of him slowing to turn left. He avoided hitting it, but skidded off the road. "Into a ditch" is how he reported it to us, a minute later. Well, only the front wheels were off the road, and the car has rear wheel drive. We reassured him, and he backed out and drove home. This was in the 'old' car, the 1992 Buick.

He wasn't driving the 'new' car - the 1999 Ford - because it is again stalling out in wet weather. We don't have the $ to again replace the sensor. And replacing it twice a year doesn't seem to be a great approach.

The past 4 days, really 4.5 days, have been wet and cold, so only the Buick was running reliably. If you consider having to shift into neutral at stop lights reliable (it needs a new transmission). So, with sunny and dry today I had looked forward to having a car myself and being able to get a bunch of prep chores done - buying gas, getting winterizing supplies, etc.

However, last night husband's main development computer stopped booting up. Some problem with password protection, but he doesn't USE password protection. Yes, fronds, Windows at its finest, bringing down a computer that doesn't even use the screwed up function. Oh, 2 or 3 weeks ago I asked husband to back up that computer. Did he? No. Did he take out the hard drive and back it up last night? No. He DID do that this morning.

While he did that, I got the gas, and then ran to the auto supply store (did I mention that the Buick started flashing an idiot light about coolant?) and, since the Dollar Store is next to the auto place, got glass cleaner refill and waxed paper that I needed and they had in stock. Then came home and put stuff away and put coolant into the Buick, just in time for son to drive off in that.

Husband still - and it's now after noon - hasn't left to get the computer repaired. I could have gotten a lot more outside the house chores done if I hadn't been waiting on him. Now, even if I had the car I can't go anywhere - I'm waiting on that call back from my mother's doctor.

I'm getting things done, but not the highest priority things, and not according to MY plans.

Well, enough of this. Time to get back on that surf board before the next wave comes.

Frondly, Fern

Chaos Theory

As some of you know, I'm pretty active on Twitter. The 140 character nature of tweets is great when I only have a few minutes at a time during the working day, night, weekend .... well, my whole life.

On Twitter I follow over 500 people, picked semi-randomly. Most have some connection to survivalism/prepping, or pagan/wicca/witch issues, or guns, or environmental issues. Some I follow because they are members or staff of Stompernet, some I follow because they are locals. Some I follow because they are long time friends. Some I've followed almost at random. I'm not at all sure how I started to follow @ChicaJones, for instance, but I'm sure glad that I do.

I like the people I follow, even while I know that some amount of what we ALL post on Twitter, like all we do online, and in life) is a persona we affect.

It's like a far more intimate form of people-watching, for they add their own comments about t heir lives and what's happening in their world. For some their world is very intimate, for some it extends to all people/animals/the ends of the earth.

Sometimes I regret folling a person. Not because their tweets angered me or shocked me - anger is an instructive friend of mine, and I don't particulary shock easily. Not over politics - I comfortably follow folks on the far left, the far right, and all inbetween.

I unfollow because of how they handle chaos.

Chaos happens to all of us. Sudden thunderstorms wash out picnics. People forget that they were supposed to call us at a certain time. Children get sick or act ... like children. Sometimes we run our lives in ways that increases the chaos. We intend to pay bills, but don't manage to (even when we have money) and the phone is turned off. Some folks have repeated failed relationships with the same type of person, over and over. For whatever reasons, chaos happens.

I've noticed that I cannot emotionallyhandle watching people who feel that chaos is inflicted on them PERSONALLY by the world/others. The person who says she wants to be a writer, and planned to edit 11 short stories last month, but in fact only wrote 3 and edited none. Who is sure that it's the fault of all those around her for not supporting her, helping her, not being reliable. Who spends her free time tweeting at pop stars, playing Sims, napping, or vegging out when her toddler naps, is down for the night, or at her father's.

Or the man who takes someone messing up his name personally, or thinks that someone forgetting to cal him is practically 'enemy action' (enemy inaction????)

Not surprisingly, I find that I value Tweople who handle chaos well, who do NOT take it personally, who work hard, play hard, and surf the waves of life lightly.

Chaos Theory is a branch of mathematics which studies the behavior of certain dynamical systems that may be highly sensitive to initial conditions.

I think it's also a description of human function. Or, to quote the Magical Aphorism:"As above, so below - as the universe so the soul. AS WITHIN, SO WITHOUT." (Emphasis mine, duh).


Frondly, Fern