Friction Slows You Down

I was lamenting to the husband yesterday that I had such hopes that this would be a productive week, and here it was, Friday already, and it seemed like I had little to show for my efforts. He reminded me that I hit a big patch of friction on Monday and that slowed me down.

The two of us have arranged our lives and our schedules such that we maximize efficiency. We have lots of systems. We identify bottlenecks and eliminate them. We stay out of each other’s way and don’t micromanage (much). If we could be a closed loop, we’d be in great shape. Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of the rest of the world and occasionally, the rest of the world intrudes.

I made an appointment for a deep tissue massage next week. I don’t need it because of the accident. It just happens occasionally that my hips and spine get out of alignment and cause discomfort. I started feeling it last weekend, but I think the stress of this week has exacerbated the situation. If I don’t address the problem, it worsens to the point where I don’t want to twist and bend. I haven’t needed a massage for at least six months, so it’s probably time. I need to have flexibility and good range of motion if I am going to be out working in the garden.

The husband was able to fix DD#1’s Acura. The key fob needed to be paired to the car again and now the panic alarm doesn’t go off when the door opens.

I am giving the sermon tomorrow. Of the four lectionary texts, I chose the one on Ezekiel and the dry bones passage. I actually knocked out most of the sermon on Wednesday morning while waiting for our insurance adjuster to call me. That’s typically how I work; I do a lot of reading and gather resources for a week or two ahead of time and then spend a chunk of time synthesizing it into something (hopefully) coherent. I put the finishing touches on it this morning. Our congregation is currently without a pastor, so several of us take turns preaching. We also invite guests to come and have the sermon time.

It’s pouring this morning and is supposed to rain most of the day. I think I am going to go out and plant. I will start a few trays of tomatoes but I won’t go crazy. Sarah does a good job with tomatoes for our plant sale, so I am concentrating on cukes, squash, and and melons this year. I did succumb to the description for a new-to-me tomato variety called Thunder Mountain and ordered seeds. I can’t find a non-copyrighted photo of it, but this is the writeup from the TomatoFest website:

Created by Lee Goodwin, J&L Gardens. It is a cross of Big Rainbow, Cherokee Purple and Bosque Blue. Seeds sent to Gary Ibsen of TomatoFest. Compact indeterminate, Regular leaf plant produces good crops of 10-14 oz., big-shouldered, orange tomato with deep blue around the stem and faint yellow stripes. Lee Goodwin named this variety because the colors looked like the setting sun through thunder clouds, fruit ripening from gold to red-orange. The flavors are well-balanced and bold. RARE

I have no information on days to harvest, but we’ll find out if it ripens before frost.

Speaking of rain, I love this trench coat pattern in Simplicity’s new spring line:

Do I need another coat pattern? No, I do not. I might buy the pattern anyway just to have on hand.