Outsourcing my life
Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of purchasing my house in Green Lake.
When I first moved in, my infrequent attempts to cut the grass with a manual powered lawn mower were generally thwarted by the many ruts in the yard, making it hard to maintain contact with the ground, and, hence, torque to the blades. (These lyrics, incidentally, were cut from the original version of Phish’s “Contact”). Also, there are a number of nice flower beds and shrubs, which I had no desire nor ability to maintain.
Enter Mr. Vo. I didn’t think I could afford regular yard maintenance, but I didn’t want to see the nice yard go to crap. It turned out hiring someone to keep up on things wasn’t as expensive as I thought, and hiring Mr. Vo was one of my better decisions over the last year, helping to prevent the responsibility of my house from taking over my life - one of my main requirements of home ownership.
I continued this trend today, finally breaking down and hiring someone to clean the house. A busy “professional” (sounds sketchier and way cooler than “software manager”) who likes to do things and travel and a full-time medical student don’t always make the best house cleaning team. I’d rather live in a messy house than not go snowboarding, but despite our best efforts (it really wasn’t that bad), enough dust piles and cobwebs inspired me to seek professional assistance.
I wish I did this a long time ago. Two hours, two people, what a difference. What can I outsource next?
Amidst all this self-important yuppy analysis of my house (c.f. Stuff White People Like…), I feel compelled to mention that I’ll sadly also remember tomorrow as the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech Massacre. I really have it quite lucky and hope all the families are dealing as best they can with that horror.