Aug 30, 2026
Summer is coming to an end.
Yup, and by now you’d think my to-do list has slimmed down too, but nope! I haven’t sat down to work on any craft projects, though they’ve been floating in my mind’s back burner; a branch fell (It was HuGe!) out of one of my pine trees and took out my shed roof last winter, the metal roof is currently being held up by jacks; I had a tree come down in July that tore down my electric line mast on my house and nearly took out my car, gas tank, and underground gas line with it…the pieces are still sitting neglected in my back yard, patiently waiting to be added into a nicer fire wood pile; the three bags of mulch to go around Mrs. Maple’s base are still sitting in my porch; my sump pump recently stopped working and I have yet to go down and fix or replace it.
What have I done? Well, the yard got mowed…when it started looking like a green extended version of Shaggy Doo’s hair; the tree did get cut up and moved off the car, driveway, and underground gas line area; the car windshield that got broken by me when I went to buy the new PVC mast for the electric line was replaced; the car (Itty-Bitty) got new brakes and a week later new Tiger Paws; today I will go downstairs and bail water from my basement before it becomes an underground lake. It won’t get much better than that though, time is limited and I have other things to squeeze into the day yet.
Work Work Work
My routine is four days a week at the Outpost job, 10 hour full time shifts if they don’t make me go home early (hey, a fox has to pay her bills here!!). That’s followed by a night at the Warren because, even if it is one night a week, the buggers are counting on me to be there for them…and no offense, but a lot of job places seem to be undervaluing their experienced employees lately! Currently this job is at 12 hours so I’m pulling about 52 hours of work in each week…I feel like that’s a legitimate excuse to be suffering from some serious to-do-list social jet lag here!
I’ve often realized throughout my life that often there are people that offer to help you out supposedly when you need it, but when it comes down to it, that offer rarely turns into action…not always due to lack of effort on their part. I’d say 98% of the time I’m on my own. I’m a mechanic, a handy fox, a plumber, a pet groomer, a vet (as long as it’s not too serious, there are times I need to step up and grasp that horrendous financial bull by the horns), a librarian, a house cleaning fox…the list goes on. Foxes like me are a dying breed.
Relax…What’s that?
So two days a week easily gets narrowed down to one day a week due to sleep schedule shifts and recuperation needs…to fit in house cleaning, monthly marketing (oh, that’s for The Hollow Ledger I forgot to mention because it’s still in…well, marketing for clients mode), laundry, whatever handy fox things hit the metaphorical ceiling fan that didn’t land on me already, mechanical upkeep of Itty-Bitty, yard work because if Mrs. Maple and Mr. Oak are Ents…they are still in nap mode, and again the list goes on.
I feel that I relax too much when I shouldn’t, and not enough when I should. I go through days of work thinking of all the things I can get done on the weekend only to knock a couple things off the list, because if motivation is real it has faded away over time and I cannot seem to revive it. And I take care of what cannot be avoided (the pets fed and their boxes cleaned, the laundry washed, the dishes washed…) and neglect the rest (the toilet can be scrubbed out next week, I’ll sweep the floors tomorrow, sometimes even the dishes can wait another week…).
Guilty As Charged!
So, there you have it, I’m lazy, neglectful, burnt out, irresponsible. But I’m here, trying, and not giving up. I have dreams turned goal that I’m working on making happen, I have pets that don’t care if I skip dishes for a week because they are loved…and most importantly this fox still takes a moment every now and then to enjoy her two favorite trees (that would be Mrs. Maple and Mr. Oak out front guarding the entry) in her yard at the Hollow…to take a few deep breaths and try again.
Thank you for hearing me out and connecting to my reality.
Blessed Be my friends,
The Copper Fox