Intermittence

No, you sicko. I’m referring to my Moleskine notebook.

I bought one (to my wife’s initial delight and subsequent disappointment) a month ago, and have so far written in it exactly four times. That’s about to change, as I think I’ve found a place for it in my life. Or, rather, I’ve found a way to augment it so that it may fill the place in my life that I wanted it to fill in the first place.

Inspired by the idea of the Hipster PDA (a low-tech, index card-based personal organizer), I found the templates for the D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition and am putting them to use. At the present time, I have small quantities of the Note, To-Do List, and Project cards tucked in the front of my Moleskine, and am considering adding a Contact card or two.

Now that I have a place to put temporary bits of information that likely won’t mean anything valuable in a month or two (like shopping lists, or the tasks that led to the completion of a project that’s long since done), I feel much more comfortable using the Moleskine to produce mind-clutter dumps. Creative stuff goes in the notebook, but portable ‘ticklers’ go on the cards.

I think it’ll work. Actually, I might end up getting a package of Moleskine Volant notebooks and rubberbanding my Hipster PDA cards to the front. Far easier to carry around, and more flexible than the bigger Moleskine Pocket Notebook…

So, last night I finished my usual ten minutes or so of reading and laid down to go to sleep. Then, the unthinkable happened.

‘I wonder,’ I thought, ‘if I’ll fall right to sleep tonight.’

Fifteen minutes later, trying my best to not think about falling asleep, I lay there awake. An hour after that, I found myself awake (had I fallen asleep in the meantime? who can say) again, thinking ‘Dammit! I’m not sleeping!’

I was awake at 3:34 AM. I was awake at 5:10 AM, and decided then that I was going to sleep an extra twenty minutes. I awoke at 6:12 AM, startled myself awake thinking that I’d overslept, and fidgeted for another 18 minutes until the alarm went off.

I am exhausted. To the bone.

Insanity reigned Wednesday night at the Carlson household.

First, the good news: I didn’t wound the dog.

However, the following did occur:

• I learned (the hard way) that wiring two GFCI receptacles in line gives you two useless receptacles. Time wasted: one hour, to go back to Home Depot to buy a standard outlet. It’s wired in with a GFCI in the kitchen, so it’s still protected should a major spill occur.
• We found where mice nest while they’re visiting during the winter months. The evidence? Little nuggets of mouse poop in a hollow beside the stove.
• Determined that a single tapping block cut from scrap flooring will last approximately 300 square feet before shearing off above and below the tongue, thus splitting a plank that we’d precisely cut to accomodate a floor vent neatly in two. Thirty minutes gone.
• Found that shoddy mobile home construction means that you can’t trust anything to bear the pressures necessary for tapping thin pieces of flooring together. Filling in the space which will be occupied by the stove took all ... freaking ... night, and it still looks like crap. I’m concerned that, due to the separation between planks that we couldn’t close up, the floor there might not properly bear the weight. I might fashion some feet to distribute the weight.

And that’s it. We were hoping to do the entire kitchen, but now it looks like we might have two more days ahead of us. I don’t want to lay floor beneath the dishwasher (as it wouldn’t fit properly afterwards), but I’m not sure how to make everything fit otherwise.

I thought the hard parts were over earlier, but now I see that they might just be starting.

I ran across this earlier this morning. A great story, and a cool synopsis of Buddhism.

It resonates with me.

This is quickly turning into a fiasco. A debacle.

We’ve completed the living room, and it looks great. What I had hoped would be a very productive evening (finish the living room! start on the kitchen!) ground to a halt as we reached the peninsula of the kitchen counter.

Y’see, there wasn’t enough space on the second-to-last row of living room planks to tap in (damn us for not getting the more expensive laminate that actually draws itself in tight), so we had to fabricate a lever of sorts to tighten it in. Then came the notching of the last row, and devising a sort of splitting wedge/spreader out of scrap pieces to pack it in tight.

We ended just shy of the linoleum in the kitchen, and need to decide if we’re going to pull it up or just lay floor over it. I’m leaning towards leaving it down—it’s very thin, after all.

Tully doesn’t like the floor at all. She had a couple of scary moments when she couldn’t tell that she was about to step on a scrap piece, and went sprawling. Add to that four paws with nails that are way too long, and you have a dog that just can’t walk around. I set out to clip her nails, and actually ended up cutting the quick. It’s amazing how much blood can come out of a dog’s toenail. To her credit, she didn’t get too worked up, although I suspect she thought I was punishing her for something. We take her to the groomer this weekend to have them professionally trimmed. I hope she gets used to it soon.

Tonight, we start work on the kitchen proper. The oven comes out for a while, and I dread the cleaning that will require. Hopefully it goes quickly, as I’d like to get the island up and the replacement floor receptacle in place.