Back when I was working at a job outside the house, I used to say life was a whirlwind. It seemed like that most of the time. Now, in my fifth year of retirement, life is still a whirlwind.

Oh, at times all is serene. I have time to do all that I must do, much that I want to do, and even things I hope to do. From that point, life is good. Take this year and yardwork. I was quite diligent with keeping up with yardwork almost daily, a half hour to an hour after breakfast or, during the hottest part of the summer, a half hour to hour first thing in the morning. That got me to the end of September with all routine work done and one huge special project complete. It really felt good.

But sometimes it’s a whirlwind. I hit October with only one of the home improvement projects planned for the year done. That was replacing the ancient burner in our propane-fueled fireplace. That was done in early August. Item 2 was to have our old deck flooring/handrail removed and replaced with new, synthetic material. I was finally able to get this underway Oct. 5, and it was completed Oct 14. Good, huh?

The third project was to replace our ancient wall-to-wall carpet in our common areas and bathrooms with some kind of tile or synthetic flooring. I had planned on getting that done close behind the deck.

Well, not so fast. The deck demolition showed some water damage, stuff that needs to be remediated before we go with anything else. Scratch that. Before those repairs we need to replace some defective/worn out guttering, which had caused some of the damage. While we were looking at that, we found other places with water damage. So the priority of projects has become gutter replacement, followed by water damage repair, then finally new flooring.

All of this has been disconcerting, due to 1) I hate spending money, and 2) I hate dealing with contractors. I’d rather do almost anything but those two things. The budget has sure been blown for this year. But, on a 37-year-old house, you can expect to have capital maintenance projects every three or four decades.

But all of this is a whirlwind, having to find and deal with contractors. I just want to put it off and sit and write and do my other favorite things. I needed to overcome inertia.

Last week, on PBS, we watched a four hour show about the American bison, two hours on two consecutive nights. It was a great program, as all Ken Burns films are. They showed how the slaughter of the bison was as much to control the Indian population as for the sport of killing. The second night was mostly about preserving the bison after they were about wiped out.

As part of that, they showed how bison did in a snowstorm. They turn into the wind and pretty much stand pat. That’s as opposed to our domestic cattle, which turn away from the storm and allow themselves to be driven with the wind, often to disastrous results. The bison can survive even major blizzards by turning into the storm.

The day after that show aired, I was in The Dungeon, at the computer, thinking of what a whirlwind—a storm—I was in with these unexpected repairs. Not wanting to spend money, not wanting to find contractors and deal with their lowball estimates followed by price hikes. Not wanting to think about what repairs would be needed in a couple of water damaged areas. A whirlwind indeed.

Then I thought of the bison and how they dealt with a storm, and decided I needed to do the same. I had to turn into the storm and face it, rather than turn away from it and be driven to disaster by circumstances. I started calling contractors.

Our deck guys also do gutters, and they are tentatively scheduled. I found a recommended remediation contractor and they will come out today to assess the damaged places and prepare an estimate. And I called the flooring contractor I’m hoping to use, one I’ve dealt with in my engineering career. He can’t get out to us for estimating for two weeks due to some time off. I said that was perfect, as his work was likely more than a month out.

So all the major projects, both the planned ones and the unplanned ones, as in the works. I must admit that feels good. My bank balance won’t thank me, but perhaps the house will when it realizes it is back to a sound structural and cosmetic condition.

Turning into the storm, in this case by making the calls and doing the things that needed to be done, has at least had some early benefits. The storm continues. But just like the bison, at least I’m headed in the right direction.