Getting ready to get ready...Checklists

So lucky is this woman who gets up to a table prepared! My husband likes to rise ahead of me and do his "check list" which includes turning on my computer, getting my glass of orange juice and vitamin pills ready beside the computer, and putting slices of bread in the toaster and a mug of coffee in the microwave -- at the ready for the grand entrance! When he hears me stirring upstairs he warms up the coffee and toasts the bread, presenting it to me as a "blue plate special" (on a certain old cobalt plate that is held as "special" in our house.)

The business of checklists is vital for pilots like he is. I am not so good at it, but have my own anti-system done inside my head and filed somewhere in the archives of my brain. The cucumbers must be watched-- they may be planted too closely and I may have to pull out a plant or two for maximum success. It was not as rainy last night as expected, so the morning watering will be necessary. I can do a quick number on those weeds standing rather saucily in the midst of my vinca bed. I can break off some stringy shoots of vinca and tuck them in where the vinca bed is sparse. Gotta watch those bugs on the tomato plants. I may have to do a soapy washdown.

Such things pass through my sleepy head while I'm still in bed. I think sleep time is when your brain gets defragged. But being a human brain, it gets to pause on things that are of special interest-- contemplate them a bit before filing them in the proper folder. The array is wonderful sometimes. This morning I dreamed about a big museum installation in charge of which was a bright girl I knew in high school in the 50's. She is now deceased, but she did cut a big swath in her time on earth. In my dream she was the very very important figure in all the grandiosity of big-time arts scene stuff: There were mighty machines moving floors and walls in a large city museum, and when a hush fell over the place and the workmen breathed "Ms Daly's coming..." I realized that if I went into the work area to greet my friend, I would be crossing lines and might get in trouble. Someone warned me that Ms Daly would have a fit, but I thought I could get away with it--and if not, I would survive Ms Daly's wrath.

She was splendid -- a small energetic figure with a crown of white hair and a glam white cape over her little black dress and heels. A Grande Dame. I passed through her awed and cowed work crew and put my face up to hers and identified myself by my maiden name. She was surprised and delighted! "Who could have guessed," I said, "that it would come to this?" She looked very proud/humble and a lot like her childhood self. Then it was back to business. Later I watched her bring up the rear after a large mob of museum-opening celebrants paraded by below the grandstands where I sat. She was such a VIP, and I was so glad for her. I was so glad for me, too, that I was just me-- proud of her, and myself, just a backyard gardener.

So where does that all fit in my today's checklist? Oh I don't know. Maybe it's going to fit in something else another day. But I enjoyed it.

On my checklist for today is: Enjoy it.

It's cool today, the peonies are quite ready for dead-heading, and the cat is looking out the window wishing that there were still birds feeding on sunflower seeds as in winter. Now it's just a garden.

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