Getting into Mañana

I wrote last week about thoughts that came to mind when a neighbor passed away. He was a pretty happy and successful guy, mostly due to his attitude and priorities, as far as I can see. Well, I posted that piece on the blog here nine days ago, and two days ago started stressing because I am not meeting my self-imposed schedule of one blog post per week.

There's lots of other stuff on my to-do list that isn't getting done, either, and I find myself worrying about it. It's part of my upbringing to meet deadlines, stay on schedule and accomplish things. This attitude is part of American culture, and one of the reasons that the United States has been highly successful in the world doing certain kinds of things. At any rate, lately for a variety of reasons, my days have been full but the long to-do list doesn't get smaller.

Let's see, yesterday, instead of folding a mountain of laundry that's been there since Monday, and buying glass for a new window, I spent a couple hours going over drafts of poetry translations for my friend Jonathan, and then spent a couple more hours, when he stopped by later, talking about them, drinking beer and eating spaghetti.

Today, when the guy who I pay to sweep and mop floors couldn't make it to work, I spent five minutes hitting the bad spots and decided the rest of the mess can wait until next week. Then I climbed on the roof. I have been planning for some time to re-coat the roof this month because this is the height of the dry season, the best time of year to do it. Trouble is, starting a couple of weeks ago, just when I was ready to scrape, clean, patch, and put down a new coating of waterproofing, or impermeabilizante, it started to rain. You can't coat a damp roof, so after it rains it's best to wait a few days. Each time I thought things had dried out enough to start work, it rained again.

This morning I was all ready when the temperature dropped and the sun disappeared behind gray clouds. Time to punt. I finished all of my preparation, quickly put a light coating of impermeabilzante on a couple of trouble spots, and left it for another day. I'll be optimistic and make the rain work for me. One more rain will wash away the last bit of dust up there, making the perfect clean surface for the new waterproof coating.

So today, I also have errands, banking, the blog...

Oops! I just got a call from Padre Luis, the beekeeping priest in Manì. He's starting his honey harvest in the morning, and invited me and a friend to come down and stay over a night or two to observe and help. This is something I have been looking forward to since meeting him last month. I've got to get clothes, hammocks and a few other things organized, and put gas in the car for a very early start tomorrow. And Jonathan told me he is looking for a ride out to the hacienda. That means picking him up bright and early and dropping him in Tekit on the way to Manì. The next three days are full. Looks like not much else will get done around here until next week.

One thing, though, I have something like 35 ripe tomatoes from the backyard garden and I can't keep up with them. I bet I have time to make a batch of spaghetti sauce this evening and put it in the freezer. I have onions and garlic. Good. That's important.

So today, laundry, window glass, errands, banking, the blog. Hmmm. The blog. Well, the topic I'd planned for this week will take quite a bit of time; I'd need to organize photos and my thoughts, and spend a couple hours at the computer. No time for that, so here is this week's post.

The rest of the things on my list? I'll have to get around to them mañana. And actually it looks as if mañana will stretch into late next week.