DOOM, List Of, Day 3

Ahh, the $400 cactus…

When we moved into our lovely new house, I did some exploring. In the little grassy alleyway between our yard and the neighbor’s, outside the gate in my backyard that opened into the alley, was a prickly-pear-type cactus. It wasn’t a big cactus! It was just a few square feet of cactus that wasn’t even as tall as my five foot self. I was happy it was there. It blocked view of the gate into my backyard.

Cut to two years later, and a succession of teenagers NOT dealing with the front yard as I kept asking them to do (I’ll do it! I’ll get it! Tomorrow! NOT.) Now add a neighbor (we’re guessing) who got tired of looking at our overgrown yard and called the city.

We got a letter. Clean up the yard, pick up the palm fronds, trim palm trees to no nearer than ten feet to the ground, and deal with “vegetation blocking access to the easement.” Make sure all of the waste is properly disposed of.

What the hell is an easement? Oh. And it’s my responsibility to keep my half–oh.

That blasted freaking cactus had taken over like, twenty square feet. After a lot of research and discussion (no, you can’t kill a cactus, they’re protected! Yes, you can, if you’re the homeowner. No, you can’t, if you have more than–okay, I don’t have even one acre. We’re good.) I called our friend the lawn guy and it took him and a couple friends all day, several trips to the landfill, and cost four hundred freaking dollars.

You better believe I stomped that little beginning-of-a-cactus when I saw it.

So! The list. The list goes ever on and on–ahem.

This Morning’s Done List

• Getting up in the morning is powerful. Who knew?
• remember the big icky-smelling trash can full of rainwater and ICK? Yesterday I tipped it over to let the ICK run into the goathead-pavilion. Today I picked it up (it smells a lot less) and started dealing with the garbage. I have to do it in bits, though, because it’s almost as big as my trash-collection dumpster that I can’t overfill.
• Emptied the kitchen-size garbage can from back yard, sorting recycling out, and found out why it was SO FREAKING HEAVY. Did you guess it was halfway full of rainwater? So did I but I tipped it and nothing ran out. Turns out, it was halfway full of rocks.
• Yes, rocks. Thanks, teenagers.
• Picked up some stuff out front. Wish they’d stop throwing ads disguised as newspaper in my driveway/yard/sanctioned and permitted cactus
• started dryer I meant to start last night, oops
• Accidentally brought ants in the house in one of my favorite mugs that I found out in the ramada, drowned them thoroughly (geez, I’m ruthless lately.)

Tonight’s Plan

• Wipe down front bathroom toilet
• take out front bathroom garbage
• clean front bathroom sink
• edit
• I really, really gotta start making faster editing progress

For Reference: The Updated and Extended List

Front Bathroom

• empty garbage, wash can
• stock TP
• clean toilet (natch)
• clean the shower
• clean the sink
• smack bathroom fan?
• Help that plant IDK what the hell’s wrong with it
• Discover who all that carp in there belongs to. There’s way too much stuff in the shower

Front Hall and Closets

• hunt down and sweep up wandering cat and dog food
• dust
• rearrange closets so they work better good lord. (begun!) 🗹 ☐ ☐
• maybe think about what would make those closets work better? (maybe do this before the actual rearranging. Or not! Spontaneity is fun!) (First I gotta see what’s in them. See above.)

Living Room

• Deport all the dust bunnies
• deal with stuff stored on the floor in the corner for literally months, come on now
• clear tall shelf of stuff that can be put away or sent to Goodwill
• rearrange seating to make perfectly good living room NOT look extremely small
• wash window? (just wash the window, KD, don’t question it.)
• dust blinds
• replace HVAC filter

Kid’s Room

• shhhh, don’t tell her
• clear out garbage
• find things she “borrowed” and I haven’t seen since, such as possibly three backup batteries I found two! In like FIVE MINUTES. She said she didn’t have them! Also we’re at about seven towels. Ew.

Kitchen

• oh you know. Kitchen stuff. Keep the dishes up, fix food, take trash and recycling out
• possibly rearrange here too? but not too much. Roomie doesn’t cook when she can’t find stuff.
• clean out the fridge
• rearrange the freezer
• scrub the sink
• clean the microwave
• clean the stove
• refill water
• mop the floor

Back Hall and Bathroom

• move stuff that doesn’t belong there OUT. Why is there a bag of potting soil in the hall? And no matter how pretty the ladder is, it really doesn’t need to be there
• clean the toilet
• clean the tub
• sweep
• mop the floor
• wipe down washer and dryer and sort out the detergent situation
• deal with all the empty TP rolls. (don’t ask.)

My Room

• oh hell it’s 10 p.m.
• sweep, dust
• rearrange bookcase, decluttering as I go
• declutter/rededicate bookshelf outside my room
• rearrange desk

Backyard

• fix the fence
• clean up the shed (terrifying. It’s been occupied by teenagers)
• clear junk off the porch (working on it!) 🗹 ☐ ☐
• clean grill, get propane refilled
• defrost outside freezer?
• weed whack around the citrus trees
• deal with STUFF lying around in places 🗹 ☐ ☐
• transplant the herbs and stuff
• clear off the cart and do something with it
• get the rusted-on hose off the faucet
• get irrigation set up once the faucet is useable

Front Yard

• palm fronds how are there so many?
• weed whack corners getting out of hand
• water everything that’s supposed to be alive and see if it is
• Figure out if the ladder is tall enough I can clean the gutters. If not, either hire a person with a ladder, or buy a taller ladder.

Carport

• get stuff that’s just stashed dealt with. What do you mean there’s more potting soil?
• investigate the floor situation

Healthy Choices

• Make overnight oatmeal (by week-ish) 🗹 ☐ ☐
• make healthy lunches 🗹 ☐ ☐
• plan healthier dinners 🗹 ☐ ☐
• go to the gym ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
• go swimming ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
• stop accepting junk food for fish’s sake! Yes, they love you. No, you don’t have to eat the donut/breakfast burrito/candy. ❌ (accepted an eegees today bc eegees)

General Adulting Shit

• call for termite inspection bc we do NOT want them Coming Friday morning.
• call for roof inspection before monsoons
• check the easement bc another $400 cactus would really suck
• Wash car
• Get oil changed
• Call handyperson about ceiling fans, bathroom fans, broken drawer, hole in wall
• med appts
  • Made 🗹 🗹 ☐
  • Kept 🗹 ☐ ☐
• make eye appointment

Stuff I thought of to be added to the list but not done yet

• put a water bottle in back toilet to save water
• Plan out a routine for house cleaning
• plan out a routine for tooth care bc I have got to get better at it
• make a plan to up step count
• Move bills currently auto-paid by bank credit card to the one I always pay in full, so payments to bank credit card go towards balance (I’m aware it’s just an accounting trick and I could just put more money towards that card without moving things, but I think this will make it easier for me to do it.)
• Research and purchase camping gear
• investigate getting dryer duct cleaned
• Make food plan
• Get a haircut
• plan/complete water heater flush
• Research 5-minute bread
• TDP FW page
• TDP Serial Page
• Update TDP front page
• put weather-stripping on doors
• fix gaps at thresholds
• mail friend package
• Purchase 1-2 thermometers, one for the porch and one for above the thermostat that doesn’t really work well.
• Get a pot larger than 13 inches, and heavier than plastic, and transplant dragon tree
• possibly find a way to deal with fact I can’t turn front hose off?
• Hi, can we just fix the hole in the wall? You already have the drywall.

New Section For List–Enjoy My Life!

• Went to zoo for Summer Safari Saturday Night, but it was packed so instead I walked around the park
• made step goal Saturday, whoo!!
• Went and got a Mango Tango Eegee’s. Yum!
• Watch Captain Marvel
• Watch Last Jedi (I’m a coward. Shut up.)
• Watch Avengers Endgame
• Read a book
• Take a nap 🗹 ☐ ☐