Spoon calculations
I've been very unwell the last few days and unable to do much of anything at all. This morning I felt a bit more human so I contemplated the possibility of going to hydrotherapy today. Chances were reasonable, and I was excited by this - hydrotherapy is an energy-intensive but highly attractive and rewarding activity. But I really needed to get to the supermarket. OK, it closes by 9pm, there's a good chance that I'd get there by then *hugs longer trading hours*. But then there was the matter of a small laundry crisis - could I squeeze in a load of laundry as well? No.
This is where spoon calculations come in, and since this is a fairly typical and relatively straightforward situation I thought I'd record it for illustrative purposes.
While I was thinking this through Husband was pottering about getting ready for a late morning shift, which sometimes means he has to catch a bus to the train station. I was ready to offer him a lift to the train station because that meant I could do the shopping on the way home. But if I did the shopping first there's no way I could do hydro later, although the laundry might happen, and I'd want to pick Husband up at the end of the day which would be stretching things a bit. Picking him up is optional but there aren't many buses at that time of night so I try to do it when I can. Hmmmm.
I was rescued from the Husband variable by his announcement that he wanted to drop his trousers (hur hur) at the dry cleaner's first. So that left me with the following energy management scenarios:
1. Do hydro (I really WANT to do hydro). Do shopping (I really NEED to shop), and laundry too (I really NEED to do laundry). Unlikely.
2. Do hydro. Maybe do shopping, and possibly laundry. Risky.
3. Do hydro. Quite likely do laundry, but probably not shopping. More risky.
4. Do shopping, and quite likely do laundry. Most likely to produce critical outcomes, but less happy-making. *sigh*
I went with #4 - the shopping is done and the laundry is in the machine. Hanging will just have to happen because it does - I can crash later. No hydro today, and because I have a dress fitting tomorrow, there'll be no hydro tomorrow (a dress fitting is a 100% spoon effort for the day). But maybe I can get to hydro on Thursday or Friday if I have the energy then (which is entirely impossible to predict) and can make one of the narrow windows of opportunity between Babyswim classes.
The rest of my energy scraps will go on taking care of the pets, general pottering about and tidying, maybe some reading if I feel up to it, but today not enough to play with the microscope, although there's a chance I'll publish a picture late in the evening. The very idea of wrapping a present or doing anything else on the list feels impossible. Ironically, writing this has probably used up the spoon that might have gone there, but it's a task that's not yet time critical and I miss blogging.
Good time to finish - the laundry's ready to hang.
...laundry hung, pond topped up and cleaned, fish fed, cat trays done, and now I lie down because I have to.