Holy Cow, Look at the Time!

I just realized why I have not been sleeping lately.

Let's just take a quick look at my calendar..

May -
4/29- bring wine to wine tasting and dinner at friends house.
4/30 - spend day with brother in prep of the wedding.
5/3 - mother arrives from Florida. Pick her up at the airport.
5/4 - mother is hungry, take her to dinner. print label for big bottle, clean bottle and label it.
5/5 - rehearsal dinner. get home at 11pm.
5/6 - DIAW's wedding.
5/7 - wedding brunch at brothers.
5/8 - host dinner for Irene (DIAW's sister and Vice DIAW {or VDIAW}).
Today - Take wife and mother out to dinner.

Now the future...

Got the call yesterday. My Chilean grapes are in! Also, we have an event in NYC on 5/23 which will bring a large part of the wife's family up to stay with us. In advance of that, the house needs to be brought up to "House and Garden" standard. The "Honey-do" list has been steadily growing for the last 3 weeks unchecked due to the DIAW's wedding.

The wife is rather "gung-ho" about getting the house ready, and now I had to tell her that we are having a mini crush on top of it all. I spent the drive home from work worrying about how to break it to her and just how MAD she is going to be.

Employing the "just rip the Band-Aid off" method, I did not beat around the bush. Just came out with it, closed my eyes, and braced for impact.

No impact came.

Slowly, I opened my eyes to see a smiling wife! Confused, I waited for her to speak.

"That's OK", she said. Your Niece, Irena, is short on cash and willing to help so I hired her. I collapsed! When I came to, I gave my VDIAW a BIG hug and called her a Godsend.

"Also", she said, "if you crush this weekend, and press next weekend, you will be free up all of memorial day weekend.". Still in shock, and still trying to process what had just happened, all I could manage as a response was an "I love you".

So the future looks like this..

5/10 - start pulling out equipment and cleaning.
5/11 - attend brother's birthday.
5/12 - have to work late. get home and clean/organize winery
5/13 - pick up brothers van, make the 4 hour round trip to pick up grapes. Be back at the winery by noon. Crush and then take crew out to dinner.
5/14 - work on a few items on the (greatly reduced) honey-do list then have Mother's day dinner with mom.
5/15 - 5/19 - Pitch Yeast, Punch downs, etc.
5/20 - press, put away equipment, and clean up.
5/21 - Complete the honey-do list.
5/22 - Wife's family arrives.
5/23 - Event in NYC
5/24 - 5/26 - Continue to Host Wife's Family.
5/27 - 5/29 - memorial day weekend. Wife's brother, wife, and two nephews are visiting from Virginia. I Plan to also rack the Chilean.
5/30 to 6/2 - Put house back together. Prepare winery for the next bottling session.
6/3 - My wife's birthday and also the Garden Club's 50th anniversary gala (the wife is the garden club president). Need to arrange to get a b-day cake for her and also figure out what gifts to get her as well. This gets harder and harder each year.
6/4 - Head up to brother's house for a project he has been working on.

Far-future: The minute the snow melts in the spring, I worry about getting wine bottled in time for fall crush. I have a number of wineries in the area that have events and also a blues fest to attend.

I do not sleep because I worry. Just one little mishap and my whole schedule will go up in a puff of smoke.

I realize that my problem is the 60 hours a week I spend at my job. I really need to do something about that. Perhaps I will pick up a lottery ticket on the way home tonight...

“Our life is frittered away by detail...Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let our affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand...Simplify, simplify!”

“That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. ”

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Of course in our society and in this day and age a lot easier said than done.

JohnT said:

I realize that my problem is the 60 hours a week I spend at my job. I really need to do something about that. Perhaps I will pick up a lottery ticket on the way home tonight...

Click to expand...

I retired 6 years ago. I still stay busy but everyday seems like a Saturday.

Just be careful! Lousy time to break something or throw out your back. P.S. tell that woman you love her a bunch, seems like a keeper!