Getting stuff done

I used to be better about planning, organizing, making well thought-out decisions. It's easier to do when you're single and childless. When Rocket Boy and I got married, in 2002, we had to learn how to do this together, which was stressful because we are so different. But we did (eventually) find a way to work together, and we managed to make a lot of things happen, like home remodeling and interesting travel. Having twins. Moving to Ridgecrest.

Now we're older, and we have those twins, and honestly, we don't seem to be able to make anything happen anymore. Being unemployed and depressed and overwhelmed is all part of it too. All year long, since we've been back in Boulder, I've had things that I needed to get done and I've put them off, unable even to begin. When we sold Rocket Boy's father's house six weeks ago, I thought we'd pull ourselves together and start making decisions, but we haven't been able to, somehow. It's all just too overwhelming.

For the last few days I've been feeling awful about this -- the list of undone tasks is becoming unmanageable. So last night, in my misery, I decided that today I would Make Phone Calls (my least favorite thing to do in the entire world) and knock some things off the list. I woke up in a reasonably good mood, which was important.

TASK ONE: Make a doctor's appointment for Kid A. Planned for the past year.
Undone because? No money to pay the copay/deductible, status of insurance going in and out, stress over inability to deal with Kid A's issues with Ridgecrest doctor, worry over ability to engage Boulder doctor's interest in problem, feelings of being a bad mother, basic procrastination.  
Steps to accomplish: Sign on to Kaiser web page. Check to see if we still have coverage (we do). Make online appointment for next week (took maybe 5 minutes). Start practicing what to say to doctor. Pray we still have coverage a week from now. Whew.

TASK TWO: Find out why we don't have dental insurance anymore.  
Undone because? Have worked on this off and on, gave up because too frustrating.  
Steps to accomplish: Call dental insurance company. Following their advice, call Kaiser. Kaiser said problem will be fixed in 24-48 hours. Call dentist to tell them to check our coverage again next Tuesday. This task isn't necessarily done, but it was all I could do today. Whew.

TASK THREE: Make an appointment to have my car looked at.
Undone because? No money to fix car, not sure where to take it, afraid to call new place and perhaps get cheated (and laughed at, always a worry) by evil car repair people, car runs OK, have been getting along OK with minimal maintenance for years.  
Steps to accomplish: Research Subaru repair in Boulder online. Read Yelp reviews of various places and try to determine which are genuine and which are from flakes. Check a place I'd heard of from neighbors. Decide it sounds best. Take a break and do laundry and grocery shopping. Eat lunch. Decide it's now or never and dial the number. Speak to incredibly nice sounding person about what we need done and probable costs. Make appointment for 12 days from now (this is a busy busy shop). Whew!

TASK FOUR: Do something -- many things -- anything -- about our house.  
Undone because? No money, too many things that need fixing, don't know where to start, don't know who to work with, entire task is Completely Overwhelming. But listen... this past weekend, when my sister was here, there was a Home Tour in our neighborhood (a fundraiser for the kids' school). I personally adore home tours, getting to go inside people's houses and look at all their stuff. (When you visit someone, i.e., a social call, you can look a little, but it seems impolite to make a thorough examination.) Since our neighborhood is middle-aged (50-ish) and funky, the houses on the tour were not necessarily showcase quality, just places people live -- except they were a lot nicer than the place we live. After the tour, Rocket Boy and I had a couple of long talks and decided to give one particular firm a call (we've admired their work for years). So, you'd think this task would have been easy, but of course it wasn't because I hate phone calls. However, after my successful morning of making other horrible phone calls, I felt I was ready.  
Steps to accomplish: Make phone call. Chat with guy for a few minutes and make an appointment for 13 days from now for him to stop by and take a look and talk further. Start thinking of questions to ask him. No, we're not done, we've barely begun, but this was a huge first step. Whew!!!

TASK FIVE: (related to Task Four, but a separate issue) Replace our single-pane, broken windows. Yes, our house has broken windows. Several of them. Not just a cracked seal, honest to god broken windows. Here's an example (see the big X of tape across the cracks?). There are others (storm windows) with actual holes in the glass.
Undone because? No money, not sure which house task to do first, not sure whether other fixes will change windows in some way so waste of money to replace now, not sure who to call, deep shame about being the sort of person who lives in a house with broken windows.
Steps to accomplish: Decide to replace 4 windows with zero chance of being affected by any remodeling (including the one above). Plan to use any unbroken panes to temporarily replace other broken windows which might later get caught up in remodeling, thus Killing 2 Birds with 1 Stone, always a good thing, though not for the birds. Research window installation companies online. Discover our first choice went bankrupt a few years ago and is now owned by someone else with worse reputation. Discover our second choice has lots of questionable reviews and BBB complaints. Find a good third choice and call them (RB actually made this call). Wait for call back. Still in flux, but we've made a start. Whew!

There are still a lot of icky things on my Get It Done list (different from a To-Do list, because more horrible), but I really did make a good start today. Rocket Boy also took care of a nagging issue -- getting his laptop upgraded from Windows XP. He's also working on re-doing the destroyed-by-flood rock garden in our front yard and has started working on a repair on the house next door. Plus, he's waiting for a quote to repair our back fence (also damaged in flood).

So, stuff is happening, even though it all still seems completely overwhelming. Every time I turn around I notice something else that needs fixing. For instance, here is a picture of rain and hail flying off our gutter-less roof yesterday.

We NEED gutters.

We also, of course, need a new roof above all else (ha ha). Here is our roof with its tarp (over the roof leak), held down by carefully selected flagstone pavers which Rocket Boy purchased from Home Depot because the original rocks kept flying off the roof during wind storms and one day one was sure to hit and kill our cat. Or a passerby. Or one of our children. The pavers seem to stay up better than rocks. Still, this is obviously an untenable situation, and I told the design/construction guy about it -- we have to save enough money to get this done even if it means we can't do anything else. Roofs are important.

All today's progress does not mean, I should note, that I will get anything else done tomorrow. I'd say it's likely I'll spend tomorrow in bed, overwhelmed from all the accomplishments of today.