Getting Ahead of Myself

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I was famous at school for doing assignments ahead of time. It worked well for me, the only advantage being that I didn’t stress about deadlines. In my old age, I began to slip. Gradually I became aware that I told myself to do a chore the next day and occasionally let it slip two or three days. Neighbor Joyce, being cold-natured, has been watching and commenting on the temperatures going lower. I knew that the houseplants needed to be brought inside soon, although a hard frost has not been forecast yet. Yesterday I told myself to take in the biggest plant, the one that had belonged to Uncle Walter. John always took good care of that one. I wouldn’t put pressure on myself to carry all the plants in, just that one. I did something else, then told myself to get the plants that had their own stands. Done. Before end of day, all the plants were inside. This morning I looked at the two thermometers and was shocked. The one on the deck at the side of the house said 42 degrees, and the one on the back porch said 35!! Wow! 35 is only three degrees warmer than freezing! The photo of Holly’s house shows what must be frost on the roof.

Frost on Holly’s house
Plants now in the living room
Plants cast long shadows, photo-bombed by porch rocker

I was annoyed that the yard men blew all the leaves on the back gravel path into the plants beside the house. I’m sure they wanted everything to look good and were probably told to clear walkways. Well, the leaves wouldn’t age well sitting there. They would get wet and become matted down. It would be much harder for me to move them next spring than now. Instead of putting it off, I raked the leaves out from the house, clearing the mint plants and uncovering the garden wagon and two buckets. I thought about it the next day and raked the mounds into a line about a third of the way to the burn area. If I don’t falter, the leaves will be at the burn pile tomorrow.

Path clear; leaves smothering plants
Pile of leaves had been here
Leaves a third of the way to the burn pile

I am pleased that I did things ahead. If it brought enjoyment, I’d pat myself on the head and say what a good job I had done.

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Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

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25 thoughts on “Getting Ahead of Myself”

  2. Great idea biting your tasks into small ones that are more manageable.
    Man, I hate to see the frost knowing how many are without homes or power. I hope a hard freeze holds off for a while! 🙏

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  4. Way to go! So glad to hear that you are keeping on top of all the areas that are not easily takencare of! Keep up your good progress!!!!

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  6. I don’t like to put things off when I was at school I liked to get assignments done as soon as possible unlike my sisters who would put stuff to the last minute.

    Also I find there are a lot of idiots doing yard or lawn work

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  7. So beautiful Frost on Holly’s house! Very well done, Iam so happy! 😊! Keep up your good progress!!!!

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  10. I virtually patted you on your virtual head. 😁. Good for you for getting a jump start. Randy mowed today, and I started picking up the fallen limbs from Helene yesterday. Maybe I will pick up a few more this evening, but I am still pretty slow getting back to normal. The plants look very inviting inside in the sunlight!

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    1. I moved the long pile of leaves to the burn area, raking 2/3 in the morning and 1/3 in the afternoon. At least half the leaves of the old oak tree are still hanging on the tree.

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  12. Wow, frost! We haven’t even had any here in Montreal, yet! The weather patterns have been so weird, haven’t they?! This week here it’s quite cool, but will warm up by next weekend to 65F.

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    1. I saw and photographed frost. Just a few minutes ago I got a frost alert from the town for tomorrow morning. Already this morning I took the pump out of the waterfall and emptied fountains on the porch.

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      1. Ha ha – Marge used to have a huge area in front of her doorwall so all her plants flourished once she brought them inside. One or two years she kept my two Hibiscus that were in pots and also a pretty miniature tree with pink flowers (can’t remember the name) and they thrived. Then she got her dog and had to open/close the doorwall to let it go out so she said she couldn’t take them. I put all three in the basement and they were goners in a couple of weeks.

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          1. I am not good with house plants. I always bought two poinsettia plants around Thanksgiving – one for my mom and one for work. Mine would not last until Christmas, it would lose all the leaves – Mom’s would be going throughout the Winter.

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