Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot...
We've been under a heat advisory for a couple of days. It's supposed to expire tonight at 11. Which yay! But it will still be a little warm after that. Unless you get a good rain the heat doesn't just disappear. It has to fade away. But tomorrow will be like 15 degrees cooler than today and that's wonderful.
But before that we're dealing with heat. And it's not just the heat, we've also got a lot of smoke in the air from the rest of the state being on fire so it makes the hot air really thick to breath. And we've got a bit of humidity as well, which is not normal for us either. So basically it's just icky. I'm pretty sure that's the official term. Icky.
I've talked before about how perimenopause and menopause just took out my ability to deal with heat. I'm actually better than I was at the start (yay for HRT!) but still it's not great. What that means is when it gets hot I make sure to keep an eye on how I'm feeling and adjust. Or actually I pre adjust knowing how I will feel if I don't. Once I get nauseated it's too late.
But it's all about resource management. Look at the day, see what is on the schedule and prioritize. Not just what but when. My preference for doing everything early in the day becomes even stronger.
This week I'm also doing cat visits twice a day so I'm looking at how everything fits around those. Otto would like me to prioritize those even higher than they are. Basically he'd like me to ignore everything else except him. The same as Tig and Tux would like me to ignore everything else, including visiting Otto, and just sit on the couch making myself available to snugs on demand. Sometimes what others' priorities are should be considered but not completely tied to...
Today the list got pared down to breakfast and smoothies, take Brent to work, visit Otto, water the plants, clean the kitchen, clean the bathrooms, write because I'm too hot to workout already, read and be the snugs on demand location, pick up Brent, visit Otto, pick up dinner because it's too hot to cook, go to the Fire basketball game. If I can get them corralled I'll probably trim the cats' nails as well. I've needed to do that since Sunday and it keeps getting pushed, eventually I'm going to bleed out and miss my chance...
I'm writing this as a reminder to all of us that managing resources is important. On days when you can't even, then don't. It's okay. I'm not doing the laundry today because I don't want to add heat to the house, you know what? The laundry will be there tomorrow. I just did the surface cleaning of the bathrooms instead of a deeper clean. And you know what? It's fine. They are clean enough for a week. I didn't work out because once I'd done the other chores I was already hot and sweaty. And that's really what I want out of a workout anyway so DONE!
BUT...and here's the important part. This is about managing resources. Tomorrow, or the next day, or next week, I will make up for the things I knocked off the list for now. It will all get done and taken care of, just maybe in a different order.
Yes, it's also a thinly veiled metaphor the world right now. It's icky. That's the technical term for it as well. And there is a lot to deal with every day, week, month, political term. Prioritize, manage your resources, don't wait until you are completely burned out and can't figure out what happened. What's important RIGHT NOW? Brent calls it the "closest shark" you don't have to worry about all of the sharks, just the one closest to you. So make your lists, know what your priorities are, and don't let anyone make you feel badly about your priorities not being theirs.
Except for the cats of course, they get to shift the list.
