There it is, lying on the bench in the tool shed where I left it 2 weeks ago. All the stuff I need to fix it is right there beside the thing, but I just can't seem to find the time to get the job done.

I have to walk past the bench to get to other more important things, but if I find something else to focus on I can somehow pass by without actually seeing it. I avert my guilty eyes as I reach over the problem on the bench and grab something infinitesimally more important. How hard can it possibly be to stop finding other projects, and just nail myself to the floor and face job the head on?

I have decided that this has really gone on far too long, and so today I will put an end to the procrastination. I vow to leave the cell phone and every other distraction in the house and concentrate on fixing the monster in the workshop.

Like most people a cup of coffee and a cookie help when embarking on a mission requiring some patience, so I made a generous pot. While it brewed I flipped through the latest Home & Garden magazine, and became engrossed in a feature article on submerged water sprinkling systems. As I grabbed a cup of coffee and a few cookies I jotted down ideas and contacts for some company in Maine, USA. Right next to that article was another on building your own composter. Fascinated, I got my project manager file from the den and jotted down a few more ideas. I was so excited at the prospect of building my own double compost bin that I didn't realize the coffee pot was empty and the cookie tin was heading in the same direction.

Hmmpfh! I shoved the chair back from the table, and with dark and furrowed brow I stomped towards the workshop, not to be detoured again. I stopped momentarily to prop up a tomato plant, and to deadhead some, well a lot, of flower heads from the feverfew in the same border. And I gave the plants a couple scoops of water from the rain barrel because you just have to be on top of green veggies all the time.

Ok, now I'm at the workshop door, and if I peek in I can actually see the thing lying on the work table, and it really is dead. Sigh. With just one step into the shop I know I can't do it. Somehow this kind of thing triggers a short circuit in my brain, and completion is hopeless. Fortunately, I keep all my exercise equipment in the same shop as the tools and fix it stuff, and it beckoned to me now.

When I'm stuck on something I come out here and work out for half an hour or so, and the solution to a problem often comes to me. I have an old TV and older VHS player set up in front of the equipment, so I watch a movie or something motivational to dull my pain receptors as I work out. I shoved in a remake of War of the Worlds, and got to work on the bow flex.

It worked! The solution to fixing the mess came to me and I flew to the bench.

Why I ever felt it was necessary to fix this cheap and nasty cuckoo clock disappeared with the revelation of the solution. At one time it was cute, but I remember how that blasted bird used to drive me nuts on the hour. Wonder how the cute little thing got broken? With a calm and steady arm I reached over to the wall that held tools. With cold resolve I chose my weapon, and with one mighty blow of a mallet, the clock and I were out of our misery.

Ha! .... that felt so good! The fragmented remains of the clock hit the dust bin in one swoop, and I walked out of that place with my back straight and head held high. Who says I don't know how to fix a problem, and do it pronto? Bring it on!

August 18, 2008