Twice a year in Tucson your house gets a brush and bulky pickup. Stumps, couches, bushes, old wood, piles of dirt, whatever you need. The last cycle came and went before I even noticed, and I was pretty frustrated. So when the notice came a month ago I decided to bust my hump and make a stash worthy of taking.

Of course, in Brett speak, “bust my hump” translates to “delay indefinately until the last possible moment and then work twice as hard”. It also means, “halfway there think of something else to add to it”. Scope creep will kill you every time.

So I sez to myself, “trim the trees, remove the vine, remove another vine, cut the rotting table in half, toss the old cabinet you never used, and throw in the kitchen sink. But wait! You were going to put in pergo in the living room someday, right? And all that carpeting, that’s certainly bulky, why not pull it out this weekend?”

“Why not indeed?” I sez back to myself, without doing any requriements gathering at all. Maybe because there are 9 pieces of furniture on it. Maybe because 2 adults 2 kids 2 dogs 2 cats and a fish need to use the room. Maybe because there really isn’t enough time to do it all.

“Pshaw!” I sez to my internal project manager, who is one of the smartest but least influential members on the board of directors.

So now we have a half naked living room. Not fully exposed concrete like I was expecting, but some fairly decent, if extremely old, tile. Next weekend we lay the new floor. “And hey, why not put in some crown molding to match the baseboards,” I sez to myself…