My Christmas tree

I bought a $10 Christmas tree at Produce Junction this year and forgot that I don't own the screw-in kind of tree stand anymore but the kind with a dowel sticking up in the center, which requires that you bore a hole into the tree.

I knew I had a power drill somewhere in the basement, but the basement is a little shop of horrors, and who knows where it would be. And that would be just the beginning. The task seemed like a mountain to climb.

So I delegated the job to my son.

He didn't get around to it the first day I asked him to. And since I have to go down to the basement anyway to do laundry, I looked for the power drill. We have two, it turns out. I wasn't able to locate drill bits. But I did spot the Christmas tree base in another part of the room, so I brought that upstairs along with the drill. I placed both drill and base next to the tree.

Well, there was a step gained.

I had the thick orange outdoor extension cord already out because I had strung Christmas lights on the porch railing, so the tree job seemed yet one more step closer to completion for when my son would get around to it.

What the heck, I thought. I drive past Glenside Hardware everyday anyway, so I'll just stop in and get a set of drill bits. I discussed the tree issue with the clerk and he told me I needed a larger bit called a spade. So I purchased that and tossed it on the ever-growing pile of equipment near the evergreen, so that when my son got home from work he could do the job.

But by now, of course, I had the tree, the base, the power drill, the spade, and the extension cord. So it would just take five minutes more to do the job myself.

The moral of the story? If there is a job that seems overwhelming or unpleasant, don't think about doing the whole job. Just do the next little thing that needs to be done to prepare, and you may trick yourself into accomplishing more than you thought you could.