Mark, read your ed piece in the latest issue on your organizational skills.  The phrase "lighten up" came to mind, but that's just in fun.  I can briefly  imagine what goes into producing a magazine like M&F - you can keep that job.

I'm organized too.  Everything in the shop is in it's own pile, mostly.  Stuff I'm not using is stored in boxes that are clearly labeled, mostly.  My wife insisted that I do a spread sheet/budget for the new 351C I built in 2007.  I did and it helped - helped track the 30% or so that I overshot the estimate.  But the motor ran about 30% better than I anticipated, so I called that a wash.  I put a white board in the shop so I could write down the small stuff that needs doing.  It helps a lot, when I can find where I hid the marker.  

As schedules go, I fall back on the standard disclaimer that "life happens".  I did get the tranny mostly put together this weekend.  And the re-wire of the front of the race car is just about done.  It only takes a couple of hours to stick the motor and trans in the car when they're ready so it's not like there's big looming deadline.  The trim and that other door in the front bathroom got done, never mind it was 5 years and a second paint job in the doing.  

The leaf piles need something done about them, but it would be better to mulch them up than fill the trash can up and I need to change the oil in the mower first.  Those spots on the west side of the house need paint, but the wind would just blast the fresh paint with dirt today.  There's a bunch of other stuff to do, always.  I'm confident that it'll get done, all in good time.  Everything is in pretty good shape over all and nobody's going to die if the remainder doesn't get done today.  Or this week.

I'll pick at the list, but when my grandson comes crashing through the door hollering "Papa, let's play football!" all work comes to an immediate halt.  I'm just a guy that sometimes thinks the most pressing thing needing attention is a glass of iced tea and some time in a lawn chair or getting pounded into the ground by a healthy 7 year old.  

Morning F67...

Yup, while this is an interesting job and I get to do a bunch of cool stuff, the deadlines and pressure can be overwhelming sometimes. As I wrote in another edit column prior, most of my "projects" are magazine related, so there's no "oh, I'll just let this sit and wait unitl I have time to wire the gauges"...

Instead it's "Oh crap, this story is due in 9 days and I've got to get this gauge panel installed, wired, and photographed tonight!"...

Yeah, I guess I should try decaf, oh wait, I don't drink coffee!

No grandkids yet and right now with a 14 year old son and a 12 year old daughter I don't get much "come play football with me"...

It's usually "you got any money dad, I want to go to the mall and hang with my friends"!!

Thanks for the post!

Mark  

Maybe you should look into coffee.  It's full of anti oxidants, so it's not such a bad deal.  I have to pollute it with a couple packets of Splenda, but it's nice to have a cup when working in the shop.  My wife takes it straight - yuck.  Maybe that's why her reaction times are better than mine.

Deadlines have a way of changing your outlook on things.  When racing season starts in March, I get more "on point".  Making sure the cars are ready to go, keeping the support equipment ready to load, etc.  We handle the web site for the local track and it takes 2-3 days out of our week.  Shooting photos, producing the weeks race page with results write up, sending results to area media, keeping up with class points, producing fliers for events, keeping the site current, etc.  Pulled many way late night/early morning shifts in front of the computer to have results ready by Monday morning.  It's a little like producing a mini-magazine per week, except once the content is done it's published.  And that all comes on top of the normal day-to-day stuff.  

And somewhere between now and 3/1 I have to schedule a major house modification involving digging dirt, ripping up floors, making marginally functional plumbing completely dysfunctional and generally making a mess. But it'll knock about a 30' x 30' item off the to-do list.  I love the challenge of a big  home rework project but man it gets in the way of playing cars and generally being lazy.  I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a box of organizational fortitude today.