Today’s Daily Stoic writing prompt: What small stuff should I sweat?

I think the point here is understanding what small stuff rolls or contributes to big stuff, and that’s the small stuff that’s worth getting right.

The house metaphor works for me: You can’t just will a house into being. You have to build it, and no matter whether it’s hand-crafted and traditionally-built or a pre-fab, assemble and go home, it has to be done right, and cutting corners at any point can result in not just a shoddily-built structure, but actual danger to the people using the structure. So it’s worth getting every single nail and measurement and installation of wiring and plumbing correct–and it’s vital. That’s the small stuff that you sweat. The small stuff you don’t sweat when it comes to a home? The decoration. (That’s not to say the decor is unimportant–but just that in comparison to the structural integrity of the home, it’s not worth actively “sweating” over).

*****
The driveway is in the process of being ripped up, and the contractors have already taken the grass off our tiny front lawn. This was originally going to be in June, but it looks like a slot must have opened up early, and unlike the last time, it was excellent timing for us (we’d just done a large grocery run yesterday, so no need to have to put the car on the street for the several days the driveway will be inaccessible). UPDATE: Apparently, this is just the rip up the old driveway phase. We’re still two or three weeks out for the actual paving, which means we’ll have a gravel driveway for a couple of weeks.

Removing the grass will be the first step in transforming the front yard–it’ll be replaced with river stone, along with plantings and likely a large shrub or small tree. I already have the six hostas I got last week ready in the back, I will likely divide the perennial geraniums (which have been very enthusiastic) and I’m currently looking at some additional soil (to raise up the area where the plantings will be a bit), the stone, and some bricks to line the side of our driveway and to divide our yard from the one adjoining it. Quite a few of the townhouses similar to ours have done similar projects. I’m very much looking forward to no longer having a scraggly front lawn that is massively susceptible to weeds. Given what we just found out about the paving, we’re checking to find out whether it’s OK to start working on the yard now.

That leaves the internet issue as the other thing to be worked on today. Tech has been here, replaced some kind of splitter, moved some things around, and has noted that there is definitely some interference on the line. We’re going to watch it this evening to see if we have the signal drop issue again, and if we do, we have the tech guy’s card so he can check to see if there’s anything he can see happening on the network.

Fun joint Toastmasters meeting tonight with my evening club. Not used to having “best….” awards given, but I was named Best Evaluator, so woohoo! And the internet behaved itself.

Interesting observation: I’ve covered many of my embroidered pieces with clear plastic (I purchased a clear tablecloth to acquire said plastic) and now they have the feel of a glossy photo, which works particularly well with the ones taken from black-and-white images. It’s unintentionally cool.

Second day at the Russian. The conversational stuff is much harder than the reading, which, as I think about it, has always been true for me for languages.

COVID cases are have now been in the low 1000s the past few days, which is good progress. We’re about a week out now before the stay-at-home order expires. The province is still sticking to the idea of starting the reopening a couple of weeks into June (the 12th or the 14th, can’t remember which). I have no problems with that at all. If we could get those cases down even further, that would hopefully mean a better chance of not having to close again..

Off I go to embroider. It’s 9:23 and the internet hasn’t borked yet…..