I’s early, 23 minuets after 6 in the morning and I’m not in the pool. I’Ve been puttering for hours, not useful puttering, just my digital dailies of the NYT and the Manchester Guardian that not only wake me up but upset me. I’ve had tea, then a Mandarin orange, and then a soft-boiled egg and now coffee. Soon I will be sleepy-tired enough to go back to bed.

I’ve been barred from the pool for three weeks. I had another thing excised, this time from my upper arm, and while the wound heals and I’m waiting for the results of a biopsy, I must not swim. Not only annoying, but quite disruptive of my routine. I think I must go to the gym regularly now. I was beginning to, for the fall season but now it’s an imperative. Have you heard of sarcopenia? (From a digital daily - might have been Jane Brody in the NYT.) It’s muscle loss after the age of 50. It was previously thought irreversible but new experts say not.

Now is my chance to search out senior exercises to reverse (?) my sarcopenia. I wonder if I can find a fitness trainer who specializes in seniors. And maybe get a new can-opener.

I call them fiddlies - all the irritating things on my list that mount up and must be attended to. Not all the irritation is caused by me and my ineptitude; a lot of it is due to human error (other humans) and arrogance. In any case, they take a lot of time to fix and set right.

Here’s what I have to do, sooner than later:

1 Write my dentist a farewell and condolences and thank you.His mother died, he hurt his back, he’s quitting dentistry.

2 Book a timed entry to the AGO exhibit of Anthropocene. I keep pushing the wrong buttons.

3 Get my Optimum and Master cards linked. So far I have spent 6 hours on 3 separate “chats”. My computer message says I have rewards points. The cashier’s bill says not. The weekly e-letter invites me to see my current rewards but when I register it tells me there’s another person of the same name - so buzz off. The other person is me, I keep trying to tell them. AArgh. (See what I mean about irritating?)

4 Put the balcony to bed. This makes me sad. It’s my summer home and I spend a lot of time oiut there. The weather forecast predicts two more sort of warm days this week, so I’ll wait.

5 Change to my winter sheets (flanelette) and duvet. i have a new mattress, thicker than my old one, so I’ll have to buy new fitted sheets with deeper pockets.

(You know that line that says “before you do anything, you have to do something else first”? That’s irritating, the fact, not the line. It’s true and pity ‘tis, ‘tis true.)

6 Clean out the pantry. I’ve been seeing pantry moths flying around. Ugh.

7 Wash my duck ornaments. Years ago at the cottage I had a plethora of ducks: fridge magnets, sheets and pillow cases, letter openers, baskets, a Scotch tape dispenser; a paper towel holder, light swtich covers, door knocker (quacker), telephone (audible quacker), and tschotcshkes ranging from a genuine old wooden decoy to an ivory netsuke to a Cloisonné miniature, plus papier maché, ceramic, driftwood…you get the picture. The little ones are on two shelves above the sideboard and fortunately above my eye level so I don’t see the accumulating dust every day. Twice a year I wash them and the shelves whether they need it or not.

MORE TO COME. DOING MY LAUNDRY…..

8 Try to return a DVD to Rogers. I watched a film on Rogers on Demand and then I received it in the mail. I must have pushed the wrong button.

9 Deal with the Paper Desk (as opposed to my Computer Desk). I can’ t begin to describe what’s in, out and around it. I don’t know whether my attitude re the actual desk is dependent or me.

10 I’m going to bed.