Day 8-Biden said the pandemic is over

After the sprinkler repair…

9/26/22. Monday

7:00-7:50 -L. and I are dropping my car off at the auto repair shop and we plan to leave at 7:50 am. Of course we don’t. It’s way to early and I sabotaged myself by not getting enough sleep the night before. I go downstairs for coffee and hear the dog coming from L.’s room. She’s not exactly happy to see me - she just wants her treat. We go outside.

Return inside and cheese for her; coffee for me. I go upstairs.

-Shower. Lotion. I wear my Audrey Hepburn Italy shirt with a tank top underneath; black leggings; gold flats. Garden Society Member attire.

-L. rolls out of bed in her pajamas, gets in her car, and I follow behind her, in my car.

8:00-8:30-I tell auto repair that I think I need shocks, struts, and brakes. They’re going to run a diagnostic and let me know.

8:45-9:00-L. drives me home and goes back to bed. I have a mini-snickers bar for breakfast.

9:00-1:00-I’ve been listening to a lot of Cal Newport podcasts on ‘deep work’ so I try to incorporate his principles while I update my bullet journal. I use the History function on my computer but notice that I’m frenetically multi-tasking and moving in between tasks. A tiny mundane task seems to give me a burst of energy that ends up pulling me away from the major task at hand, which is typically either updating my bullet journaI; submitting a blog post; or doing class work/prep.

-I make the executive decision to concentrate solely on my bullet journal during this time period. After an hour in, I want to quit, but I force myself to re-focus and keep going. It works.

11:00-12:00-Cesar and crew arrive. I show him the busted sprinkler and the new rainforest shower head that L. wants installed.

-L. is forced out of her room while they install the shower head, so we hang out in the kitchen. I defrost the squash lasagna I froze several weeks ago and have it for lunch.

12:00-1:00-Cesar and crew install the showerhead. Apparently, L. also wanted a new faucet installed in her sink, but the kit L. bought isn’t compatible with our plumbing so she will have to return it. Cesar leaves once to get additional supplies for the installation.

-L gets ready in my room for her upcoming job interview at Reformation.

-Still no word from the Mechanic.

-Cesar and crew report to the backyard and there is lots of clanging and hammering. The sprinkler job is a bitch! Oddly, they constantly open the sliding doors to their van, which happens to be parked right outside my office window. It’s sooo distracting - I can’t work. I’m trying to ready my classes for next week because I’ll be out of town, but it’s not going well. I eat a few pieces of candy.

-Finally, the clamoring stops. It takes me a while to realize they’re eating lunch

1:00-2:30-Cesar finishes repairing the sprinkler but doesn’t bother to tell me. Instead, I get a text from Cesar that they’re done. I go outside to pay for the repair…they’re gone.

2:30-3:00-I check my yard and it’s a disaster! which is probably why they disappeared. The potted plants surrounding my fountain were casually discarded and stacked on top of each other and the area surrounding the fountain has turned to mud and is completely flooded. So is the entire patio. My god -it looks like a natural disaster happened!!

The rocks I’ve gathered from various beaches that I artfully arranged were removed and thrown in a pile. I didn’t take a picture prior to the job, so will have to figure out their placement later. Also, the fountain isn’t working. I try several times to reset it but nothing happens. I text Cesar because I have to pay him - I’m afraid to hear how much this will cost - and I also ask about the fountain. I try to be kind because I like Cesar and he, ordinarily, does good work. Cesar suggests that I let the fountain dry out - it’s waterlogged - then try to turn it on. By the time his suggestion hits my phone, the fountain is working.

It’s too muddy to put the rocks and my plants back where they belong; I’ll have to wait for everything to dry out.

3:00-4:00-I update my Books Read 2022 list and finish my Cash Balance [STRS retirement] paperwork.

-That crazy OSD bitch emails me that my instructions for submitting the Socratic Seminar paper were vague and she can’t figure out how to turn in her assignment. She sends this email AFTER she already turned it in, so what is the point of the email? This latest email is a strange, single-spaced rant, incorporating the numerous medical issues that she’s experiencing. Ever heard the expression, “She’s too mean to die?”

How vague do these instructions sound? “Students, please email me your Socratic Seminar papers.” Could this be any clearer?

I respond to her email, while cc’ing OSD staff and Dean L.L., who is utterly worthless, wherein I say: “I disagree that my instructions to the students were vague with regard to emailing their assignments. The assignment can be emailed to me on either platform and it is a certainty that I will receive it. YOU emailed your assignment to me via the Canvas platform and I responded that it was received. I am now responding that I am in receipt of YOUR assignment via the G-mail platform as well.” Go to hell.

-L. drives from her Reformation interview to Otis. She won’t be home until 8:00 pm so that means I will miss my Striders walking group [at 6:30 pm] because I don’t have a car.

-4:00-4:30-I call the Mechanic and he says they were short-staffed and didn’t have time to diagnose the car. I can either leave the car there or pick it up now [at 4:00], and do the same thing all over again, tomorrow morning. Of course I’m not going to do that! What a waste of my time. I say that I really need the repairs by Tuesday - can that happen? He says yes.

-At 4:30, thirty minutes after he told me to pick up the car and bring it back tomorrow morning, the Mechanic calls me and confirms everything I suspected. The only good news is that I don’t need rear brakes. The bad news is I need two axles, which I hadn’t bargained for. With my law enforcement discount, the cost is $3075 [seriously - what discount?]. Remember the online high school class that I was able to salvage? The class with just 8 students that I converted to Asynchronous? The proceeds from that class just went straight to my car.

4:30-5:00-I change into workout clothes.

5:00-6:15-I do a 15-minute, Insanity Max-Ab workout, followed by a 30-min Insanity Max-Full Cardio workout. Recover.

6:30-7:15-The area surrounding the fountain has dried out. I rearrange my plants and put them back where they belong as best as I can recall; it’s still too muddy to fix the rocks. I check the garden lights to make sure they’re working, then do a test run on the newly repaired sprinkler. It works! It’s humid out and I’m being attacked by mosquitos. I start sweating instantly.

7:15-8:00-I water the rest of my potted plants…you know, the plants that weren’t subjected to the tsunami?

8:00-9:00-Upstairs and I grade a Socratic Seminar “Draft” from a student. I stop grading almost as soon as I started - what happened to my “deep work” tactics? - text B. and ask if he can pick me up from tomorrow’s hiking location instead of my house tomorrow morning.

-L. returns and tells me about the wonderful Reformation job interview she had.

9:00-10:15-I finally finish grading the paper.

10:15-11:00-Partial kitchen duty and I eat the rest of the hash brown dish. I add goat cheese and when I’m finished, I also also have some of L.’s TJ Bamba snacks. I don’t pack a lunch bag or ready my coffee for tomorrow and later I have dreams about not having enough food to eat.

11:00-1:00-I take out my contacts and wash my face. Sunless tanning then I sit on my bed for a minute and fall asleep

1:00-1:30-I finish brushing my teeth. Bed.