Sunday's "Yard Work High" remains with me. I was thinking about why I'm so jazzed. I think it's because the yard was both a messy, unpleasant task I had to face up to and a symbol of the many other things that aren't so open and obvious that I also must address to get myself together to face the future. Could it be that this is what motivation feels like? It's been years since I felt motivated, it's hard to remember.

I hope I didn't offend people with my "sit on my ass and knit" comments of the other day - I didn't mean that as an indictment of knitting, but I know that for me, it has been an escape that became a tool of procrastination. If procrastination was an Olympic event I'd be a gold medalist - not really, because I'd never get around to entering. I returned to knitting as a way to kill time on business trips, then it became a sanity-saver in endless hospital stays. Lately it became a way to eat an entire weekend and get nothing else done, and THAT is the "sit on my ass and knit" behavior that must quit. Anyway, I'm not giving up knitting. I am within inches of finally finishing the Silk Garden Multi-directional scarf, it'll be done tonight, probably, just in time for the next cold spell coming our way. I will gamely plug along on the Einstein, and finish Bardot in time for Christmas. But I'm really looking forward to another session with rake, pruning shears and saw this weekend. Now I'm thinking I can have the backyard done in time for Christmas. Then the kitchen cabinets. Then the master bedroom gets a makeover - I want to rework the vanity area, which means bringing in professionals. My two favorite stores, Target and Lowe's, are going to be seeing a lot of me this winter.

It feels good.