Yesterday was reasonably productive, but not in the things I needed to get done. I blame the rose project. My obsession has grown to the level of total infatuation. It’s a thing now; just like investing, cooking, writing, and music. At least it’s not a really expensive hobby like horse racing.
To give you an illustration of how much I want to throw myself into it, the significant other and I had a conversation – an actual, serious conversation – in the kitchen last night about whether or not it would just be easier to go buy a few acres of farm land, kick it into a new company, and run all of our gardening experiments there. I don’t have time to be thinking like this. It will escalate. Suddenly, I’ll be putting in a log cabin with a water wheel, and figure, “Why not add an orchard?”. It has to stop. I have to go back to work. No more roses for awhile.
[mainbodyad]I am going to find some design software, or, if I have to, use Photoshop, to start laying out what I would want such an arrangement to look like if I were to ever go through with it. I keep an entire set of “contingent project” files like that so when I get in the mood to work on a certain subject, or come across something interesting about it, I can pull the file and pick back up where I left off earlier. That way, if I ever do decide to do something, most of the work has already been done. I think that’s why it’s so easy for me to move quickly when I make my mind up on a course of action. By the time I take out the pen, I’m already prepared, familiar with the topic, and know what I want.
It’s not like yesterday I was lazy or anything. I spent at least 3 hours going between 5 or 6 different nurseries and home improvement stores (I’m sure they are starting to recognize me), bought several new urns, researched lanterns for the exterior landscaping, finalized notes for a written piece that will be featured by Western Union in one of its business resource sites, I moved forward with refinancing my house by sending off a packet of information (the economics of the transaction are interesting so I’m going to write about it in the future – after tax adjustments and inflation, I’ll be paid real purchasing power of between 1% and 2% per annum on the mortgage balance, which is why I won’t pay it off early, instead shoving the money into other investments), worked on a few draft essays that will be published in the future on this site, went over the disbursements for one of the LLC’s, checked the portfolio and researched a few stocks, made a large breakfast-for-dinner (which was delicious), approved a newsletter for About.com, watched some Japanese foreign film, made the list of replacement teas for the pantry to be ordered tomorrow, played my Bloons HD Tower Defense game on iPad, read for awhile, used the home gym, promised to review a book, responded to some reader comments from the past, worked on a technology project, and put two of the new roses in giant pots after seeing this picture from a grower who perfects his plants this way to see the actual flowers and use them for cuttings.
So, yeah … there was a lot off stuff accomplished, just very little of it related to my businesses and investments so I feel like I wasted the day because the important items on my checklist weren’t completed.
Speaking of roses, a couple of days ago when I was reading about silent trust funds in New Hampshire and wondering whether a family could use them to sidestep all sorts of things such as the FAFSA requirements for college aid, I neglected to mention I made the first cuttings from the roses I’ve been growing. I took only one deep pink, and one light pink rose from the knockout bushes, while the Dick Clark and Cherry Parfait roses have not yet blossomed and won’t for awhile. The pink roses smell much more fragrant than the others; very light but still definitely a rose.
The first roses from my house … the light pink one has a really pleasant scent. Had I known it before hand, I might have swapped 13 dark pink rose bushes for the light pink, instead, so the air constantly smelled like that during the summer. It’s subtle, but definitely there.
The first cuttings from my own property … I can’t wait for the more exotic, harder to grow roses to start blooming.
I’ll make up for it today. I’ll actually do work; productive, real work. I’m going to make myself. Yes. Focus. Just focus.
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