Well done ... er ... almost done!

Do you ever feel guilty about those unfinished projects?  We all have them … the room half-painted, the basement almost-cleaned, the closet still packed, floor to ceiling, with too-tight pants, ‘80s-era shirts, and scuffed-up, time-worn shoes … oh, so many shoes.

“By golly, tomorrow I’m going to clean this all out!”

Tomorrow never comes.

An abbreviated Bounty

Many years ago, when we first started going to the cottage together, Cindy and I worked on a model ship – the HMS Bounty.  We successfully glued its bow and stern, stowed the lifeboats, hoisted its masts and ran the rigging. 

For three years, during our two-week stays there, we dutifully pulled out TV tables, unpacked the box and laid out the instructions. Each summer we had to purchase a new tube of glue; the prior year's had dried up.  But we were determined to finish it.

Never did. 

It sat in the cottage with most of its sails unfurled – heck, not even attached – for about 30 years until I brought it home last October in the front passenger seat of the truck.  The truck carried other remnants of the vacated cottage – Dad’s old chair, the fireplace mantle he built, the Sunfish sailboat, the banged-up Weber ….

We unloaded it all into our third garage, where it still sits; the model ship, which is fragile, rests again in dry dock, though in the downstairs bedroom.

Occasionally comes the guilt about the mess in the garage.

“By golly, tomorrow I’m going to straighten this all out!”

Yeah, right.

An unfinished beauty

It’s part of the human condition, sure, to begin something but delay or never complete it.  And I guess sometimes half-finished is finished enough.

A number of composers left splendid but unfinished symphonies – Schubert and Beethoven, to name two.  Good company, there!

And there are glorious cathedrals still undone. Perhaps the most famous is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Started in 1882, it won't be finished until 2026 if they're lucky.  But who’s to deny it isn't beautiful right now?

Anyway, one of the projects I feel most guilty about is a quilt I’m making.  Readers of this blog know that part of my job is publishing books on how to quilt.  So two years ago, I took up the challenge of actually making one. 

It’s the fool who sees in a mountain only a modest hill.

Some day ... some day

I posted an update of my project on our quilting blog, Pickledish.com.  Feel free to check it out. 

Unless, of course, you’re busy finishing up something else.  Far be it from me to stop or delay you … to give you reason to say, “I’ll get back to that in a minute.”  We all know that minutes turn to hours, then to days and weeks. Maybe years.

Said Benjamin Franklin, “Well done is better than well said!”

Jeez … Ben was such a “get-it-done-guy." 

He makes me tired.