Grown Up, Level 2

     The wife and I spend at least half of our weekends working on the house or the yard. Between normal maintenance chores like gardening and house-cleaning and big projects like painting and patio-rebuilding¹, there’s almost always something “in process.”

     That’s not the point of this post, though. I might be willing to write about some boring crap, but going on about yardwork is even beyond my ability to alienate readers. No, what struck me most about today is that I was looking forward to it. I’m one of those people who likes to accomplish things, and getting a lot of things in one day makes me feel like I can slack off a bit more the rest of the week². There’s nothing quite like checking something off a to-do list.

     Which is such a classic thing for a boring adult like myself to say. And I wonder when that changed. In high school and college I was clearly not interested in getting much done. I skated by on the bare minimum of school work, so there wasn’t a lot of extra time being spent there. I didn’t work much; in high school I only worked during break, and in college I worked a grand total of ten hours a week. I look back now and I wonder what the hell I spent my time on. Obviously, a lot of video games were played and a lot of TV was watched. Sadly, I was also able to get a lot more reading done than I am nowadays. But was that really it? And if I grew up living such a leisurely life, why do I now get excited about the idea of working on one of my days off?

     Well, if Fitocracy has taught me anything, it’s that we gamers will be willing to do almost anything if you give us an achievement to unlock or a quest to complete³. And that’s all a to-do list really is. Gaming also plays a role in motivating me to keep the house clean, since I have guests coming over every week and I need to keep things in a presentable state. And, if I want to get sappy for a minute, I also like our “chore day” because I can spend it with my wife. Often we have projects that we can work on together, and that always makes even the hardest task more tolerable.

     I guess everybody’s priorities shift some when they get older. I just hope that I don’t continue down this road and become one of those old guys who don’t know how to do anything but work. I mean, I like the idea of being old, but mainly it’s just the part about yelling at kids to get off my lawn. But when I retire, I hope to be able to adjust to get back to spending my days not doing anything.

¹ The house we bought was built in the eighties, which means it is old enough to need some care to keep running properly. Additionally, the previous owners were about as competent at DIY home-projects as a thumbless orangutan with ADD.

² After my 9-hour workday, that is.

³ And also that the definition of “gamer” has changed in ways that make me a little unsettled, but that’s a post for another day.