Word of the Day: Procrastination.

I just read a glider buddy's comments about a hard lesson she had learned, and she felt horrible about it. Well, each of us has been guilty of procrastination, at one time or another. Sometimes, it's just the littlest things, and we mean to do them, but we just forget, or say, "Next time I'm in town" or any number of other valid reasons (or, yes, when even make excuses "just because we don't wanna, or aren't ready - and there is a difference between reasons and excuses). Still, when "it happens", whatever the resultant problem is, we beat ourselves up over it, which rarely, if ever, does any good, so we might as well move on, anyway. However, griping about how and why we've procrastinated and caused our own problems, though, does help us to move on - if only to serve as a warning to others what CAN happen when we fail to act when we should.

This week, especially, with all of the storms out in the midwest (yes, we got hit hard here, even in my little po-dunk nowhere town), we need to ask ourselves, "What would I do in the case of (fill in the blank)?"

In my case, June 3rd, at about 12:30 a.m., we got hit so hard with a severe thunderstorm that the power went out (this has happened before), but I FORGOT to buy a backup power source to keep my sump pump on in the event of a power failure. Guess what? The basement flooded, and we had water up past John's knees (and he's 6'1"). Now, I'd been talking about cleaning out my basement for forever, and I have been - a little at a time - but when you have over 14 years worth of "stuff" - it's hard to do, either because of sentimental reasons and keepsakes, or TONS of books, and, well, these things just take time.

Now, cleaning my basement has been "expedited." There's a whole lot less to think about and worry over. Now, I have to just throw most of it out. That's this weekend's fun for me.

So, what do you want to do, need to do, or have been putting off for whatever reason?

By the way, this is a great time to think about what you would do in the case of an emergency. How would you take care of your pets in the event of an emergency?