"Over and Over"

If there is anything in this world that I hate, it would be repetitive tasks.  Those things that must be done "Over and Over" (and over and over, ad infinitum).  There are soooooo many of them....dusting, paying bills, taking minutes at meetings, polishing silver, laundry, the list is pretty much endless.

It seems to me that once you do something, it should stay done!  Every Friday I sit down and pay bills, every week, four times every month, 52 times every year.  Wouldn't it be nice (if one could afford it, and we certainly cannot) to pay bills once and be done with it?  I know that lots of people sort of do that, but that is for those who have a lot more discretionary income that I do!

And what's up with cleaning your house??   I dust, I vacuum, I scour, I polish, I scrub, but no matter how good a job I do (or how bad a job I do for that matter), after the passage of some period of time, it all needs to be dusted, vacuumed, scoured, polished, and scrubbed AGAIN.  Why is that?  We live in a "hermetically-sealed" home; our windows are never open, we have very little traffic in and out, and when its just me and the Big Guy at home, we barely move!  He sits in front of the TV and I sit in front of the computer.  We can't be stirring up and dirt and dust,  we're still as statues.  (Okay, that's an exaggeration, but we aren't like Peanuts' Pigpen either!)

Doesn't matter.  There is a layer of dust or fingerprints or lint or some dumb thing that has taken up residence on top of my furniture and can only be removed forcibly by me and my trusty microfiber tool!

Another one that used to drive me absolutely nuts when I was working....taking minutes at meetings.  Over my 40 year career I took minutes at 73,293 separate meetings (or something like that ;), and trust me, after 2,478 times (or something like that;)  of writing essentially the same thing for every meeting you attend, you begin to be able to take the minutes without really listening to what's going on!  In fact, I have upon occasion, actually written minutes for meetings I did not attend!  This is because the essence of taking good minutes is not to say much of anything!  Truly.  And the farther up the corporate ladder you go, the less you say!  Really, no joke.  At least from an attorney's point of view, the best minutes would look something like this:

1.  Meeting called to order.
2.  Discussed ongoing issues.
3.  Agreed upon actions to be taken.
4.  Meeting adjourned.

No detail, no identification, no names,  no opinions, just "they met, they talked, they agreed to do something, they left!"  This little talent of mine shaped my career as an excellent recorder for meetings, which is how I got to attend those 47,339 separate meetings (or something like that;) and why 67,479 (or something like that;) of the sets of minutes sound pretty much the same.  Over and over and over again!

Polishing silver is another one that just gets on my nerves!  I polish, I de-tarnish, I use, I wash, I cover it all with a "tarnish-proof" cloth and store it away in an enclosed space where it is not exposed to air, light, or things that go bump in the night.  But does it stay polished????   Ooooh Noooooo!  Not even close!  The next holiday comes along and I want to use the good stuff but when I drag it all out, instead of the beautiful patina of old silver, I discover a bunch of cruddy, tarnished, ugly, dirty-looking icky!  Again.

Laundry?  Same thing.  Wear, wash, wear, wash, wear, wash, forever or until the fabric positively falls apart after a gazillion wash and dry cycles.  Arrggh!

And then there's eating.  What a waste of time!  No matter how much I eat at lunch, by the time 7:00 rolls around, I'm hungry again!  Hey, I ate yesterday.  I was full, and now I'm hungry again??  Over and over and over again....

I wonder how much of my life has been wasted....uhhhn.... spent doing these things that just won't stay done?!!