Published: October 16, 2009 10:38 am      

Lee Ward: 10/18/09 — Painting bigger job than expected

Still in recovery mode, I have made some progress toward cutting back on my activities.

After being sick for months and spending six nights in the hospital, I vowed to do better for myself by taking all my medicines on schedule every day; to eat three healthy meals a day; to get a little exercise every day; and to cut back on my activities until I’m truly well.

I have found the most difficult part of my new plan is to be less active.

While I was home for two and a half weeks, which seemed more like six weeks, I decided things around the house needed to be done, even if they aren’t done by me.

Most things I hire someone to do are things I wouldn’t do if I were at the top of my game, so I decided that’s what I’d do: I’d hire someone to paint. I’ll never paint. I never have and I’m sure I’d goof it up if I tried, so I hired some indoor painting to be done.

I won’t lift a finger, I thought, especially since it would be an insult to a professional painter if I tried to “help” him.

It was difficult at first to restrain myself, but I had the painter wash the walls before he painted. I even let him move all my stuff out of the way. That was no small task. Being married to a pack rat for 10 years, my house is pretty full of junk. I’m not that sentimental about keeping things, so I wouldn’t mind getting rid of some of the loot, but I haven’t been up to the task. So the poor painter moved stuff out of the way and painted, eventually covering the kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining room and halls.

I was even comfortable with doing nothing, that I was able to relax on the couch while he painted around me. One of my friends called me while this was happening and asked, “Do you feel like Cleopatra?” I answered, “Yes. Yes I do and I like it.”

The worst of the junk to move was the short wall in the living room that consists of two built-in bookshelves and a fireplace, all of which was to be painted.

There were books, knick-knacks, record albums, photos, candles, oil lamps and baskets full of generic stuff.

I attempted to clear those shelves myself, but I just couldn’t finish the job, so I called a friend who had the shelves cleared in minutes. I was grateful to have a healthy friend who would do that for me so the painting could stay on schedule.

However, the next day, I realized the ugly truth about having the bookshelves painted: all that stuff had to be put back on the shelves at some point.

I could have called the friend who emptied the shelves to come back and restack everything, but I decided this was the time to get rid of some things.

I began going through books and papers, discarding some things and piling up some things to be donated to a fundraiser later in the year. I didn’t get very far because I remembered my decision to not overdo. Doing through stuff sounds easy, but when you don’t have much energy, it’s as trying as any household chore.

Each day, I just worked on it as much as I felt like, leaving piles of books and albums scattered through the living room.

Weeks later, there still piles of books and albums in the living room, but I refuse to worry about it. I’ll get to it when I get to it.

LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.