To-Do List

Have you had your Covid-19 shot yet?

If not, are you signed up for your shot?

If you're like me, you signed up weeks ago through your local or state health department and you've been waiting to hear something from them. But I've heard nothing. This morning, my Costa Rican friend texted me and told me that my local CVS is giving Covid-19 shots. So I went to their website and signed up. I'm getting shot #1 this Sunday. Shot #2 will be 28 days later. My local and state health departments have been silent, but a friend living in another country can tell me where to get my shot. I find something just a bit ironic in that fact.

Butch, a friend who lives a few houses down the street, has been stopping by every morning this week to make some repairs on my ceiling, which was damaged by rainwater after roofers installed a new roof. You read that right: I paid for a new roof and after it was installed there were leaks all over the house. Ceilings in the living room and dining room, a downstairs bedroom, and the downstairs bathroom were damaged and/or stained by leaking rainwater coming through the new roof. I had to get another roofer to repair the leaks, and after a few attempts I think he did repair them — at least, I haven't seen any leaks after he did the work, but the damage to the ceilings remained. I live alone and the ceiling damage didn't bother me, but my lady friend prompted me to have the damage repaired. So that job is almost finished. Butch has been coming by every morning to work and I've been trying to stay out of his way. I would like to help him, but we both know that were I to help him, the job would take twice as long.

It's almost 11AM and the temperature outside is 43°F. There will be two more rainy days and then a sunny weekend. Hopefully, the major repairs will be done by the end of the week. But not all the needed repairs will be done. Houses always need repairs. As soon as you finish one repair, another part of the house needs a repair. There is an old saying about owning a wooden boat, and it goes: "A boat is a hole in the water, surrounded by wood, into which one pours money." The same can be said of owning a house.

I have a to-do list, but it is growing faster than I can check off the to-do items. As Pete Seeger sang in the late 1970s, "My get up and go has got up and went." Ain't that the truth, Pete, ain't that the truth!

The song of the day is Get Up and Go by folk music singer and songwriter Pete Seeger.