Crammed Week

Some middle of the night insomnia got the better of me.  I arose to My Space.  It had been my intent to plan out my week as I do nearly all Sundays unless pre-empted by yontiff or travel, but being awake anyway I took out my new multicolored gel pens, semi-annual initiative affirmations, and markers to get a head start.  There's a lot for me, much of it not discretionary.  Sukkot arrives this week.  With it, a sukkah to finish building, a dinner at somebody else's sukkah the first night, special guest with special menu at my sukkah for shabbos, a Torah reading done twice, and a haftarah reading done once.  I will need to get a better folding eating table for the sukkah, using the current one for serving.  We have a fly infestation, far less severe than our last one, but it needs some attention.

On Thursday evening I make a public medical presentation via Zoom.  My monthly Medscape submission needs writing with a few days out of action for yontiff.  This will be the first sent to my new interim editor.  Expenses get logged this week, and it being the end of the quarter, an Excel summary needs to be created for review.  My financial advisor thinks we should get together.  

Monthly donation day arrives right before yontiff.  OLLI has a full schedule this week.  Our congregational President tossed a verbal gauntlet that needs a response, a very mixed response.  The bank branch that houses our safe deposit box will be closing within a few weeks.  Need to make a transfer.  I think I know where I keep the key.  Have lost any recollection of what the box houses, but it's a good opportunity to reconsider what it should contain.

And then the ongoing exercise, tidying, reading, writing, medicines, and thinking.  The special initiatives eventually resolve.  These don't, as it is never really clear what determines their completion.

And before you know it, we're into next month, with its typical daily and weekly cadences. The Hebrew month which almost coincides this year, is called Mar Cheshvan, or Bitter Cheshvan, since it the only month without a special calendar event other than Rosh Chodesh.  Between Holy Days, travel, and preparation for arriving commitments, I'm ready for a month's activity reduction, or really replacement of this surge in committed days with something more discretionary.