"Reframing" My To-Do List

#73 - I “get to do” my chores rather than “have to do” them.

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“Reframing” My To-Do List  

I “get to do” my chores rather than “have to do” them.  

I’m flexible, and I can rearrange, or put off, more accurately, my to-do list as I see it. Most of the time.  

But not now. It’s time to do the outdoor chores. Time to “reframe”. (Tom Sawyer has convinced me that my chores are fun to do.) 

It’s supposed to rain.  

Fall, and November, has arrived with cooler temperatures and soon, our first rain of the season will be upon us. It rarely rains here from late April/May to November. Another above average rain year would be nice.  

I finished the patchwork on our roof leak a couple days ago, “reframing” all the way. 

Like all the houses around here, our house is built on adobe clay. It expands when wet and shrinks when dry. It causes ground movement that puts strain on the house and foundation. The drywall around the windows and doors sport hairline cracks.  

It also pulls at the seam where the sunroom joins the house.  

This is job 1. A two-foot swath about fifteen feet long along the seam is the target area. Somewhere in this area is the leak(s).  

Patch it up. It’ll be okay. It’s worked well these last few years. At minimal cost and effort. Besides, I like being up on the roof. A deck up there would be nice. 

It’s no big deal. I use elastomeric acrylic roof seal. I put down a base coat then a topcoat. It takes a day for each coating to cure, then it’s good to go. It’s not a long-term fix. 

The patchwork lasts through the rain season. And until the summer sun and wind work on it. 

In a couple of years, the roof will get a professional job. But not this year. 

Up on the roof, looking from the right angle through the Pistache tree, I can see Mt. Diablo. The newly refurbished searchlight at the summit is lit November 11, in honor of Veterans’ Day. It is lit December 7, for Pearl Harbor Day. There may be a couple more occasions throughout the year. 

And there is, “the new cat in town”. I’ve seen him hanging around as of late. Expanding his territory. A big silver short hair. Nice looking. A young male, I think. Don’t know if it’s a pet or feral. Probably why our cat, Bobbie, is staying inside more. She is getting older. 

I’m at the table in my back yard with a cup of coffee. It’s midmorning, and the sun is warm. It’s a beautiful fall day. 

I’ve got a good start on my list with the roof leak patching done a couple days ago. 

So now I sit and ponder, and take a puff on the cigar. And “reframe”.  

I get to do the gutters today. Then trim the bushes and the tree and clean up.  

The tree is a Chinese Pistache tree. It has deep red and bright yellow leaves in the fall and are the last trees to lose their leaves. The mockingbirds love its red berries. 

It would grow to 30 – 35 feet if I let it. I’ve cut it way back. 

Plenty of leaves are still on the tree. This coming rain won’t knock off many. I’ll wait till the leaves have fallen. I don’t rake them up, just let them go back to the soil. 

I keep the branches trimmed to what I can reach on a ladder. It puts out a bounty of new growth over the year. Enough to block out a lot of sun during winter. 

I might just go ahead and cut back this year’s growth, just to get it done. Of course, cleanup is more work with the leaves still on the branches. Geez, always a tradeoff! 

As carefree as I am with the backyard, the opposite is true for the front. It looks good.

For now, the gutters get the nod. I can do them in a couple of hours.  

The screens over the gutters are showing wear. The sun has really worked the plastic over. They are warping and brittle. I don’t see that the screens work that well anyway. A lot of debris gets through. I’ll go screenless this year, and just clean the gutters when I see them overflow. 

Most of the leaves blow in from our neighbor's trees, sycamore and elms. Once they are down, we’ll have even more sunlight. 

It doesn’t take long to do the gutters, especially since I’m not using the screens again.  

My priority chores are done. Maybe this “reframing” works. Truth is, I don’t dislike my chores, I just have a hard time getting started. The coming rain provides the start.

I’m back at the table with another cup of coffee.  

The red and yellow-gold leaf color of the Pistache tree clashes with the blue of the sky. 

Low in the blue southeastern sky, are two jetliners with their contrails trailing to the horizon. They parallel each other as they head for Hawaii. One, from Boston, a Hawaiian Airlines, is flying at 40,000’. And a United, from New York, flying at 36,000’. They have almost four hours to go before they land.  

This info is quickly accessed courtesy of the FlightRadar24 app. 

Another mid-morning departure, from L.A., the United Arab Emirates, King of the Sky Airbus A380 is at 38,000’. It flew over earlier, flying north toward the arctic on its great circle route to Dubai. About fourteen hours of flight time left. 

I have yet to fly on a big jet like the Airbus 380, or the Boeing 747.  

That reminds me. I need to get my passport renewed. Never know when it might come in handy.

George, the squirrel, appears at the side fence. I think he’s a he, but I’m not sure. Nor is he the only squirrel. They’re all named George.  

He’s stopped at the fence corner. Checking to see if the path is clear. He’s still looking for Roscoe, though Roscoe’s been gone a year. 

Oh, they had a long-running game going on. Roscoe would lay in wait, under the table. George would venture out on the fence a step or two at a time. Once George is out far enough, Roscoe bursts from his cover and the race is on, up and down the fence line. You never know what direction George will go. 

He may go back and forth a couple of times with Roscoe just below him before reaching the trees at the far end of the fence. It’s a scramble. Then he leaps to the safety of the trees and chatters at Roscoe. Angrily or mockingly, I can’t tell. Of course, George, or one of his friends, would again run the gauntlet on the return trip. 

Roscoe was always up for the chase. Looked like he was smiling. 

But that was then. We sure do miss him.

Now, to trim, or not to trim, is the question. The forecast calls for a stretch of dry days after this coming rain runs its course. I think I’ll wait till then to decide. I may have to “reframe”. 

For now, we’re ready for winter.

  

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