Dickin' 'round

In the South it is called “dickin’ ‘round”. In the Midwest, the term is “piddling”. I am unsure if folks up North have a go-to word to describe it. And, I am relatively sure people way out West don’t have a clue about what I am describing. Dickin’ ‘round is bucket-sitting with occasional flashes of inspiration followed by bursts of activity. A full day of dickin’ ‘round usually results in a long list of small jobs accomplished, much to the surprise of dicker. Yesterday is a good example. Up early as usual and I knew in my bones that it was a day made for dickin’ ‘round. I even blew off Mass in anticipation of what might unfold from the bucket’s prospective. Sure enough, I had not been sitting long until I thought, “well, I might as well cut down the privet near the chicken house.” That job done, I returned to the shade of the tractor shed and had my first beer of the day. Then, why not hang the mop and broom from hooks off the back deck? While looking for hooks in my loose stuff box, I sorted nails, bolts and screws into like groups then rigged up a dandy storage arrangement using jelly jars. Found the hooks and created a home for the tools of household cleaning. By that time, it was time for another beer and more bucket-sitting. Why not clean out the bluebird houses since the birds have migrated for the summer? That job done, another beer and more shade. As part of my campaign to keep the tractor shed neat and orderly, I rearranged some planks. It did not escape my attention that there were a number of salvaged 2x4s in the pile. Why not do something with them? That lead to some nail-pulling and paint-scraping. After some quick sketching on the back of a feed sack and some Pythagorean math, I pulled out the saw and whacked the boards into suitable lengths. Further scrounging uncovered the perfect sized wood screws. Within a couple of hours, I constructed an ideal work bench to accommodate the potential of fixing things. Strong, stable, utilitarian. The last screw was tightened as the sun dropped below the horizon. If I had sat down Saturday night and made a list of things to do on Sunday, I would not have included on it privet eradication, mop handing, screw sorting, birdhouse cleaning, lumber stacking or work bench construction. That is the genius of dickin’ ‘round. It invites free association and creativity. It makes plenty of room for beer-drinking, listening to country music (thanks to a previous dickin’ ‘round session in which I ran an electrical line to the shed), shade enjoyment and unpressured effort. Yet, at the end of a wandering day, the accomplishments are impressive. And, none of it was planned. People need to spend far less time working and a hell of a lot more time dickin’ ‘round. They’d get more accomplished.