Caffeine is no match for housework

Joe is not allowed to have caffeine after 8 p.m. The first time he did, he wanted enough energy to get through his self-imposed list of tasks that evening, which had five items on it. Shortly after he'd had his caffeine fix, however, he happened to walk past his guitar and was struck with a sudden interest in playing it, though he hadn't touched it in several weeks.

"Oh, I wanna play my guitar!" he said. Whereupon he did, for the rest of the night. Not one of his five items even got another thought.

So much for the energy inducer.

The second time he had caffeine later in the evening, he couldn't get to sleep. After tossing and turning a while, he finally begged me to tell him a story. "Maybe that will help make me sleepy."

I had the perfect "story." We had recently had some discussions on the amount of work to be done routinely around the house (a lot) and who seemed to be the one always doing it (me), and he had been telling me that really he had no idea what all was involved so I should write it down for him so he would know.

"Okay, I'll tell you what I do all day long," I said "in addition to working."

And so I started with getting up and making his lunch, cleaning up after the whirlwind he created in the bathroom, sorting through the clothes and taking a load down to be washed, washing the clothes, ironing his shirts, putting away the clothes, doing errands, putting away groceries, working in the garden, making dinner, etc., etc.

"Then on Saturdays," I started -- but he had been sound asleep since "washing the clothes."

And then I was the one wide awake, thinking of all those tasks to be done the next day.