random thoughts – Day 2,092 (Monday) – cold and time

The light and loose plan for the day was to go to the post office for some stamps and mail the Christmas cards. It looked cold out and the car fob is being difficult, which added up to staying in the house all day, on purpose. Mostly all day. I stepped out twice. Once to drag the trash and recycle bins to the curb, the second time to take them back up to the house. The “looking cold” aspect of the day was accurate. It was cold. And I was tired, having slept poorly and waking at 2:55 a.m. and not sleeping much after that. The cold was the perfect cover for doing next to nothing (not that I ever really need one). 

Cold days are great for using the oven, which might be why the electric bill that came a week or two ago was high compared to the month before. After flirting with the idea of beginning the holiday baking, today’s oven usage was instead designated for roasting a baking sheet of broccoli, carrots, and onion. The thinking was to eat a little for supper and save the rest to enhance a meal tomorrow, but the first little plate was good so there was a second and then a third, and after that it was gone. Those crispy, charred bits of broccoli are irresistible.

There was a small amount of work done in the guest room in an effort to empty a box that was in the middle of the floor, whish is easier than it sounds and also why it has sat there untouched for months. It held (and still holds) journals. I have been conducting brain dumps in spiral bound and hard bound books since I was in college. In addition to the diary type books, there is a stack of desk calendar/day planner books. I’m not entirely sure why I kept all this stuff, but at least once when I was a kid I thought I’d be famous when I “got older” and then my biographer would find the minutia of my days fascinating details of my daily life. So far, there is no whisper of remarkable achievements and fame, but I wrote that off years ago anyway. Sometimes, though, I flip through the old planners and find the records of my olden days mildly interesting when I can actually understand my own project shorthand. 

When I worked at an agency, we tracked client project time in six minute (tenth-of-an-hour) increments and I logged my time spent on client work in the desk planner as it happened to make it easier to log it all on the time sheets later. Some of it looks like gibberish now.

Once I get done amusing myself with skim reading days, weeks, and months of fascinating entries like time off for trips I don't recall taking and client entries for things like “SHB web copy - 10” KB- SHB Icon ads - 10,” “memo - web edits - 20,” and “Storm – servers out,” I can figure out what on earth to do with 20-some odd years of yearly planner books. Exciting stuff.