I do it, you do it, in one way or another. Some people are really bad about it, some of us try to hide it and some of us don’t even realize we do it. It usually drives us crazy when other people do it, while we smugly think “I never do that”. What is it? Procrastination. Here is my story.
In the beginning…
Last spring a customer came in with a bag of weeds. A common occurrence around here and we love playing “ID this plant” . The problem was, (insert the beginning of Beethoven 5th symphony) we didn’t know what “it” was . The customer said “it” was taking over his yard and was spreading through his neighborhood like crazy. After a few days, “it” was discovered to be Lespedeza striata. I dubbed it Spawn of Satan #2 (Virginia Buttonweed is #1) and hung it on the wall of shame for all to see.
Life goes on…
Here is where I started to procrastinate. A few weeks went by and I notice this funny colored patch on my lawn, but being in a rush, I just made a mental post-it to look at it later. Yeah, apparently the post-it in my brain with that particular note got covered up by a bunch of others. Weeks pass and I walked across the yard and eyed the patch. Voilà! the Spawn of Satan #2. “Oh, that is what it looks like all fresh and growing.” , “What a beautiful shade of green it is.” and “I will need to do something about that!” all flutter through my mind. I create a new post-it for the bulletin board, in my head. A few more weeks go by. I start thinking that maybe the heat will kill it, or maybe the drought. But, the spot has become larger. I couldn’t figure how it was spreading, I never saw it flower. It began to call my name, every time I walked out the door. Everyday, I pulled the post-it from the bottom of the pile and stick it back on top.
Not so cute any more…
I procrastinate long enough that it is now too hot to spray a weed killer on it. The cute little spot now has invaded 25% of my front yard, or so it seems. I decide that I will just pull it up, a little every day. I quickly find that if the lawn is dry, it can’t be pulled, root and all. So, I water, then pull. My next discovery is you must grab it at the soil line and gently (but firmly and evenly) pull…each and every one. There must have been thousands by this point. It is so mixed with the grass, it is hard to tell. I try bending and squatting, but my back and knees protested. Finally, the only comfortable way pull this monster, was to sit and slowly scooting myself along the damp grass. I tried to set a goal of 15 minutes a day. The weed laughed at me…the procrastinator with goals.
Laugh, blame and pull a lot…
After about a week, of my new part-time job, a neighbor stopped by to see what I was doing. She laughed at me too. My lawn guy laughed and suggested Weed and Feed. I came undone. I started to explain the evils of Atrazine and realized I was getting that blank “your out of your mind” stare from him. I went inside to hide while they mowed and blowed. The committee in the back out my head voted to blame him for the weeds. He must have picked it up from another lawn and brought it with him. I didn’t realize that my procrastination had probably spread it to all his other customers. I vowed to get rid of it once and for all. On my next day off, I put my head phones on and got busy. Eight hours later, my kids were giving me the evil eye and mumbling something about dinner. By the middle of the next day, I proudly claimed victory and crawled to the tub for a hot bath.
My battle goes on…
Two days later I start checking to make sure I didn’t miss any. Those little demons were hiding from me, I just knew it. Everyday I slowly strolled back and forth across the lawn, head down, searching. I could feel a disturbance in the force when I got near them. I know the neighbors would peak out their windows and whisper about my sanity. Weeks passed, everyday searching, finding, pulling filling an old kids beach pail. I could have gotten it over in 10 minutes, when I first saw Satan’s little minions, but my battle continues. Weeds are the one thing I promise never to procrastinate on again, how about you?