What IS so all-important, really?

This morning SDXB calls to tell me he’s decided not to drive into town and grace me with his presence half the day because it’s raining and too cold to sit outside on some coffee shop’s patio. He wants to reschedule for some day totally inconvenient for me, and as usual is consternated when I keep telling him I can’t do Thursday, I can’t do Friday, I can’t do….

It’s kind of comical. And probably it’s just as comical that I find it eye-rolling ANNOYING that he calls me up and announces he’s going to descend on me at some time and date of his choice. He seems to assume I have nothing to do but entertain him.

This morning I found myself wondering why I do find that trait so annoying. What on earth do I have to do that it can’t be put off to spend time with an old friend? What’s more important than one’s friends and family, anyway?

I suppose it’s the presumption that he can tell me when he’s going to show up here and I’ll go yup yup yup and drop everything for him.

So what did I do yesterday that’s typical of what I think is so damn important?

• First, the cleaning lady was here all day, so really, I needed to stick around. But that’s not what you’d call do-it-or-lose-it WORK.

• Wrote a post for Writers Plain and Simple, a lengthy one that required some thought and a fair amount of time.

• Wrote a post for Funny about Money, an afternoon bagatelle, but still: content added to a website that needs to be fed daily.

• Deposited five checks, one for the corporation, one laughable adjunct “paycheck,” and three from Medicare and Medigap. This turned into an inordinately time-consuming proposition, because my system and the credit union’s both work at the speed of a stampeding snail.

• Called the Mayo and remitted the amount paid by Medicare and the Medigap insurer, by charging it to American Express.

• Went back into the credit union’s excruciatingly slow site and paid that amount to AMEX, so as to fork it over before I get a chance to diddle it away on prime steaks from Whole Foods. Or some such.

• Entered deposits and payments in Quickbooks.

• Tested the chemical levels in the newly refilled pool; decided it would suffice until the pool dude shows up. Realized I’d better buy more acid, since Pool Dude knocked the lid off the last containerful that was out there and I had to throw out the remaining muriatic acid rather than let it sit there in the yard in an open jug.

• Calculated how long I think it will be before I can lay off Pool Dude, who’s nice but whose services are altogether redundant when I’m feeling well, which I expect to be along about the end of January. Not having to be subjected to radiation will cut a month or more of hassle, time consumption, and suffering off the ongoing boob horror show.

• Vacuumed up leaves off the bottom of the pool that blew in there as the present storm was wafting in on the wind. And cleaned out the skimmer basket and reattached Harvey the Hayward Pool Cleaner.

• Made an appointment with Mega-Client, who’s back in town and hot to trot. Sent him 100 pages of edited copy.

• Made an appointment with Financial Adviser.

• Added up 2014 expenses and income; then estimated the amount of drawdown from savings needed for 2015 — a frightening figure. Organized that data in an Excel report preparatory to the meeting with Financial Adviser on Friday. Have a bad feeling F.A. expects a market downturn, a sense gleaned from his rather antsy response to my phone call about the 2015 drawdown.

• Corresponded off and on through the day with Novel Author Client, who’s struggling with a scene that he can visualize but is having a hard time putting into words.

• Corresponded with my mastectomy buddy, who will be going in for her DMX shortly after Christmas.

• Corresponded with Windy City Gal, who happens to know how to make these amazingly cool fake boob insert things that Buddy and I both covet.

• Wrote three book reviews for Goodreads, leaving my sticky little fingerprints there in the form of ads for Slave Labor.

• Learned how to view Kindle’s sales record for Slave Labor and corresponded with the art director about the same.

• Corresponded with the director of distance learning at the college, regarding next semester’s workload.

• Took the three Goodreads reviews, converted them to blog posts for Writers Plain & Simple, and scheduled those posts to go up once a week through January 12. That will keep WP&S alive at the rate of one post a week until I’ve recouped from the upcoming surgery, I think.

• Explored the sites of several followers of Writers Plain & Simple and took note of their URLs by way of using them in a round-up, which I suppose I’m going to have to write today,  huh?

• Articulated, in writing, a broad outline for a book on the mastectomy/reconstruction/no-reconstruction drama and began gathering research for the same. Considered whether to seek an agent for this to publish through a mainstream press or whether to add it to the Plain & Simple Press publishing empire. Decided I lean toward the former. Put that thought on a back burner.

• Finally, walked a mile with the dogs.

Really, is any of that anything that could not be handily co-opted by a visit from His Nibs?

What would I have missed doing today had he showed up as announced?

• Write cover copy for PoD versions of Slave Labor and FireRider.

• Try to finish chapter 9 of FireRider, book II.

• Do the laundry.

• Try again to contact a local press that I would like do business with.

• Write and send out this week’s announcement to SBA members.

• Write a newsletter update for clients of The Copyeditor’s Desk; in addition to sending out season’s greetings, add a plug for Slave Labor by way of update, and clue them that the company is now in a position to help them with any self-publishing projects.

• Start working on incoming copy for current issue of Chicana/Latina Studies.

• Write a post for Funny about Money.

• Write the round-up post for Writers Plain & Simple; schedule it.

• Write a new post for Adjunctorium.

• Figure out how to get invited to present to a Chamber of Commerce meeting; begin groundwork for engineering that.

• Create and post a video for the spring-semester 102 sections on how to write a position paper.

• Dream up a subject I might present to my writer’s group and figure out how to get invited to do that.

• Do physical therapy exercises and figure out how to work a daily yoga session into the schedule. 🙄

• Chat with Cox tech CSR over the phone about the slow service (DONE!).

• Visit Cox website, identify compatible DOC 3 wireless modems, and identify retailers, preferably Costco or Fry’s electronics.

• Start nagging M’hijito to come over this weekend (or sooner,  if at all possible), install it, and configure it.

• Walk at least two miles, rain or no.

Huh. I’d better get to work on that stuff…