*Updated* Scaling Back: Today's To Do List

As any compulsive list-maker knows, it's easy to add far too many things to the "To Do" list. After all, scratching pencil marks on paper is easy. It's doing what these marks say that is more time-consuming and sometimes difficult. So, in the spirit of trying to take it a little easier on myself today, I've put together a fairly scaled back list.

• Shower & wash hair (only about every 5 days now - the hair washing part) - done
• Vacuum up laundry soap powder that spilled in vehicle yesterday on way to laundromat - done
• Find receipt for defective thermometer - done
• Preheat solar ovens
• Unpack one box in the office and put everything in it away - done
• Start spaghetti sauce in one solar oven and steam squash in the other
• Drop mail off at close post office - done
• Return thermometer - done
• Use coupon for lunch at salad bar buffet - done. Yum.
• Come home, sit on my butt, and read the latest scifi book from the library
• Check on food in solar ovens

I know this looks like a long list but each thing on it is a rather easy task that won't take much time or effort. And, believe it or not, this is a much shorter list than I have for a normal day. I also won't sweat it if a few things don't get done. It's okay if the box doesn't get unpacked and the squash doesn't get cooked. The rest I would prefer to get done.

40 minutes later

The problem with sitting down in the office to make up the To Do list is that you can't see all the little tasks that you have forgotten you need to do. So far that includes hand-washing the bras left to soak overnight, rinsing them, and putting them out to dry; bringing in the last of yesterday's laundry that finally dried overnight; dumping the collected water in the shower on the little mesquite tree (so it will grow up and provide some shade!); vacuuming the rest of the dirty vehicle, not just the laundry soap; and bringing miscellaneous stuff in from the vehicle. All this when I hoped to spend 5 minutes vacuuming up the soap...

Hours later

Well, flexibility is important, right? I did not get any solar cooking done because I was gone much of the day on errands. At this point, I don't have a good location outside of the fenced yard to set up the ovens where they won't be disturbed (or peed on) by the resident coyote and loose dogs. So, no solar cooking got done.

However, I did pick up a number of things from craigslist. Driving to get them, loading & unloading took much of the day.

And now the vehicle needs to be vacuumed again. I'm going to wait, though, as I still need to pick up a bale of hay for mulch.