starting and not finishing

I have a character flaw.  I start things.  I start a lot of things.  I am not so good at finishing.  I have untrimmed kitchen cabinets.  I have a half painted back patio.  I have sheet rock that isn’t spackled or painted.  I have a book three fourths done.  I have two websites that I have left in disarray.  I have another blog that has only one post, so far.  I love the feeling that comes from a job that is completed, I just don’t feel that way very often.  I’m not lazy, I just get, well, distracted I guess.  You know how it is, you get a new car and promise that you will never let it get dirty and then six months later you take a 20 gallon bag of trash out of the back seat.

I might be getting better though.  I picked up all my tools and other junk from the kitchen and back deck.  I threw them in a big box in the garage.  Now I will spend 30 minutes looking for the tool I just used and probably expand my vocabulary by using some new swear words. You know, I think we need some new swear words.  I’m tired of the same old ones.  They get used so frequently that we become used to them and they lose their impact.  Maybe we should re-purpose some old words as swear words.  How about “raw chicken guts”?  That would relay a really gross image of a disgusting mess instead of our usual word for excrement.  Or how about “pressure treated lumber” instead of f$@).  That word is way overused.  It has been in use (in English) since at least the days of Chaucer, maybe even further back.  It is supposed to be the supreme swear word, but is used to denote everything from the act of sex to mild surprise that we have no milk.

I had a teacher (who probably stole the idea from someone else) who said that profanity was the last resort of a weak mind.  Okay, I did try to find it on the Internet and no one seems to know who started the saying, it could have been my sixth grade teacher after all.  Words are powerful things.  They can be used to build up someone or tear them down.  The old rhyme about sticks and stones is wrong.  More damage has been done by an unkind or ill advised word than all the guns ever made.

You see, this is why I can’t get anything finished.  I start to work on one thing and I get distracted by some other thing and by the end of the week, I have 6 projects started and then get so overwhelmed by the things undone, I just quit.  I think I have EDD (Easily Distracted Disorder) or something.  Or maybe I’m just allergic to finishing.  My spouse and I joke that whenever we finish a house, we move, so we leave something undone so we can’t move.  Maybe all my unfinished tasks are not a sign of some character defect, maybe it is a blessing in disguise.  As long as there are things to do, I feel needed and the sense of being needed overrides my need to finish.

This, though I am going to finish, otherwise I can’t post it so you can laugh with/at me or commiserate or just shake your head and wonder who let me loose with a keyboard.

Come back soon, I promise to post more in the future, unless I get distracted by a bird or a fish jumping or my other blog or my book.  If you follow me on Facebook, thank you, but Facebook has gotten hit or miss with some updates.  Please consider signing up for my email notifications on the blog, just click on “folllow” and you will get an email whenever I post something new.

See ya, I have to go “help” the men working on the dock.