3:22 am Cat pawing my face. “Mama, I hungry.” Get up and feed the cat. No, I am not spoiling him. I gave him the drug to make him hungry. Why drug the cat? He was losing excessive weight. Which he can not afford to do. He is one day shy of age 19. Cat Mama.
3:47 am Can’t get back to sleep, might as well start the day. Behind on my gardening website anyway, time to be a writer. Garden Writer. (the plan anyway)
3:52 am Internet and computer all kinds of upset that I had not paid more attention to it. Can’t get into my website. Start troubleshooting. Upgrades to do. IT Person.
4:01 am Kettle clicks loudly from the kitchen. Easily heard in the blessed silence of the early morning. Time to make some coffee while the upgrades load anyway. While in the kitchen, notice that I should deal with the fermenting on the counter. Feed the sourdough. Check the fermenting almonds. Go to stir the apple scrap vinegar, no - wait, need to record it. Food Preparation Agent.
4:07 am Find the phone, and the stand. Record the “Day 3” video while I stir the apple scrap vinegar. Website post needs a video. Videographer.
4:30 ish Sit in the comfortable chair with phone and hot cup of coffee. Upload the video I made and saved yesterday to my TikTok account. Input all the captions, hashtags, music. Social Media Person.
5:30 ish Social media is about being social after all. Check and respond to comments and notes on prior videos. It’s not “doomscrolling!” I was watching funny cat videos, homesteading friends, gardening friends, garden writer friends, and Siegfried and Joy because they always make me smile. Human Being.
Fast Forward
Not to bore you with the entire timeline. Here are some of the other things I was on that palindromic day. (If you write your dates either military or like the rest of the world: 25 April 25.)
Major Appliance Repair Person. Replace worn drum bearing and belt in 17 year old dryer. Not to mention a through cleaning. Yikes! So much lint inside! I’m lucky the dang thing didn’t burn the house down. And while YouTube was helpful, no one had my exact model of stackable dryer. Once I got it open it was easy, but getting it open while it was up in the air was a great deal of work, with words not suitable for PG13.
Short Order Cook. Cooked breakfast and dinner from scratch. Breakfast was eggs, homemade dark rye toast, and tasty homemade applewood smoked bacon from store-bought pork bellies. Lunch was yogurt and (home canned) fruit. Dinner was “Slumgullion Stew” (tip of the hat to Charles Leland). This is made out of jars of this and that in the pantry. Stuff I had canned earlier. There is no recipe despite what the interweb might tell you. Slumgullion eschews recipes.
Gardener. Water the newly transplanted plants because forecast says 90’s and windy. Checking the fenceline for rabbit burrows. Cut some fresh oregano for cooking.
Exterminator. Empty the garden rat traps and rebait them.
Vet Tech. Give the cat his drugs. Clean his ears (weekly).
Cat Parent. Clean the litter box. Refill the medicated water. Groom the cat because his arthritic self can’t do it very well any more.
Garden Communicator. Yes, I did get the post up. Finally. All 1890 words of it. And that was more IT with the website, and images, and marking images, and crafting the SEO comment, etc. And before the “publish” button, running outside to take one more photo of the plant in the garden. Plant Photographer. Also Designer, because you want the post to look nice and be easy to read.
Parent. Called our son on his birthday. He was in Aruba with his wife and 2 sons. As brokers he and his wife are financially able to fly off on family vacations. Their job is one I could never do. I’d rather have a garden and some time to putter in it.
Spouse. ‘Nuff said.
Self Nurturer. I remembered, at least twice, to pay attention to the fact that I felt thirsty and needed to stay hydrated. Didn’t do my morning stretches due to hungry cat, but I did do my hand exercises later in the day. Not going to knock myself out for what I didn’t do. Going to pat myself on the back for what I did get done.
How many different jobs do you do in a day?
Do you remember to take the time to take care of yourself?
Gardening with Soule. And soul.
