PREPARE TO BE BORED!

Dear Fellow-Travelers:

First thing tomorrow morning we have guests arriving; dear old friends from California. We haven't seen them for several years.

This means I am rushing around doing those little things that sometimes get swept under the rug for years. Ooh, no, why did I mention that? I will not look there.

And I have three weeks to finish a book. Ta dah!

I'm hungry but nothing appeals to my stomach, hot but can't slow down to cool off, tired but have hours of work ahead, and ratty because I want to be writing my book.

My well-loved terrace is torn up because someone-who-shall-remain-nameless decided this was the time to get the railings painted. And it's pouring with rain so there will be no painting in the near future and all the pots containing the results of my hard work are higgledy-piggledy everywhere. They're very heavy so that's where they'll have to stay.

It's not going to stop raining.

Possibly never, ever.

Waaa. I'm way out of control. And I'm a control freak. This is terrible. The sky will fall--together with the economy, and the moral fiber of the nation. Hmm, forgot, that final disaster I mention may have happened a long time ago.

I've got a priority problem--but you've probably noted that by now.

What upends your equilibrium?
Do you have any really good ways of bringing yourself under control--other than reminding yourself that there are people starving in the world (I never forget this) and horrible stuff happening everywhere (I never forget this either)?

Fondly for a September Monday morning when I'm so grateful to have good friends and safe places to be,

Stella