Lockdown: Sunday mundania

Sunday was pretty mellow. I slept until just before noon. Ate breakfast (three small burritos), read the news, did the NYT crossword. Thought about a few things I might do, checked on my Amazon and Etsy shipments. Went back to bed at around two. Got up at around four.

Had a late lunch: all those leftover Korean veggies. It was good. I mean it was really good. Korean food keeps so well. I attempted to make kimchi many years ago and it came out terrible, but it’s such a favorite of mine that I think I should give it another try, especially now that I’ve been making refrigerator pickles for a few years and they’re great.

I meant to do two chores Saturday but never got to them. I did the easy one Sunday and goofed around for a little while. Watched the news on TV. Listened to a podcast. Read some of the metal blogs. I had a feeling I was going to skip walking tonight, but sometime after things closed I was going to the supermarket to refill my water jugs. It left me time.

To do the unpleasant chore. Listen, I have a feeling I’m going to have to write about this extensively over the next month, but I can’t tell anyone what it is. It’s a big task that got way too big, to the point of ridiculousness. It could have been a small task every day but I got behind on it and then it was a big task and now it’s a monster. Henceforth I’ll refer to it as either the Task or the Monster, depending on my mood.

I actually started on it a month ago, when this lockdown first started. I felt good, too, about the progress I made in one short night. I thought a little bit of time every evening and I’d have this thing licked by the time I returned to the office. But then a little complication developed, making an unpleasant task even more unpleasant. So of course I procrastinated, unsure if the new wrinkle was going to be prohibitive. I would never know until I gave it a try, and every evening since that first night I’ve been meaning to give it a try.

Weeeeellll tonight was the night. I looked around and found nothing to do. So I just did it. The prep took like twenty minutes, but I think it was only because it was the first time with the new wrinkle.

And then I set a reasonable goal, something modest but not too modest, and I did it, and then I went a little past it, and the Monster is still a Monster but it’s ever so slightly less monstrous. It was unpleasant but not especially difficult. More Monster-slaying Monday. I can do this. I can do this!

It’s 1:25 Monday morning, around when I usually get back from my walk. I’ve got some potatoes in the Instant Pot, which I’ll swap with some kale in a few minutes for a late dinner. The kale Sylvia got for me yesterday.

Sylvia and I traded a few texts about the bread she made in her bread machine with the yeast I gave her. It’s a good-looking loaf. She’s had a bread machine for some time, inherited from a friend, but this is the first time she’s used it. Penny finally read Dig, that novel I’ve been thirty pages from the end of for more than a month. Now I’m super motivated to get it done by tomorrow night.

It was sort of a pleasant, normal, boring day and I think it did me a lot of good. I’m going to have this ridiculously late dinner and try to get to bed at a decent hour.

Whatever your ridiculousness is, if you haven’t got someone to talk about it with, reach out. I’m here. And I have chips and salsa.

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