My ‘To Do’ List

My phone is out. I spilled water down the wall with the phone jack on it, and now my phone doesn’t work. Luckily, my internet’s still working, and I have my cell phone, so I don’t really have to do anything right now. I’m going to wait to see if the water evaporates and solves that problem. And yes, I’ve wiped it out with a tissue and stuffed a Q-tip in it, so I’m pretty sure, unless I want to pull out the hair dryer, that I’m going to have to wait for the evaporation thing.

I like problems that have the potential to solve themselves. Of course, most problems will solve themselves if you give them enough time. Well, either they’ll cure themselves, or the problem will get worse and become something that you have to deal with, or the problem will go away.

Most problems end up on my ‘to do’ list. Maybe I put things on this list with the hope that the problem will be solved without me. Maybe I put it on the list because if I stopped to do everything that needed to be done I’d never get anything done. At least not anything I planned to or wanted to get done.

I keep a running ‘to do’ list. It’s kind of depressing and certainly overwhelming. Things shouldn’t break. They should simply keep working. I have enough to do with the things I decide need to be done, but no, things break and then they get on the ‘to do’ list.

My ‘to do’ list is sort of like a bottomless pit. Most things eventually get done. (“Yes, I can do it all, it just takes longer.”) But some things drop of the list into the great abyss of the undone and forgotten. Sometimes to be rediscovered later, and cursed. Or to be forgotten.

Unfortunately, my phone will not be one to be forgotten. If the problem doesn’t solve itself then I’ll have to start making decisions. The first decision will be whether or not to call someone for help. The answer will be no. Then I’ll start the process of disassembling things, trying to find the reason and replacing or repairing whatever it is that doesn’t work. The good thing about phone lines, most of the parts for inside your home are at Home Depot or Orchard Supply. Hopefully, this won’t be like fixing the plumbing. Always a guaranteed three trip to the hardware store.

Oh, wait, I need to replace the valve in my toilet too. And the list continues ….

Copyright 2009 by Judy Kane