Still getting ready

[ksmith]

I want STAFF, dammit. Someone to get the lawn mowed and the plants watered and do the last minute shopping and phone around to find a source for Mickey's special food when the primary source taps out and then go get that food and print out my schedule and make sure I have packed enough books and the copy of the Misspelled story and the right shoes and enough socks and help me figure out where the hell I put that shirt?!

I feel like I've been hit by a truck. My foot hurts. I need a nap. I still need to pack.

Comments

[devonellington.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

In the time it takes to instruct a staff, you can do it and do better yourself. Trust me on this.

Have a lovely trip -- hope you get your nap.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Ah, but staff, once trained, will *keep doing it*. For a brief time I had a half-time secretary and it was incredible...all of a sudden none of the mail got lost, my calendar was kept up to date, pleasant reminders arrived on my desk about replying to A and paying B. Any competent secretary can handle paperwork better than I can, in the sense of filing things promptly and knowing where they are.

Later, I knew someone who was trained as a butler and then estate manager, and the time he saved his employers was...incredible. (He's now freelancing the same kind of work in Florida.) When he was between jobs, we hired him to go with the church ski trip to companion our autistic son...we knew the kid would need one-on-one at times, and he already knew and liked J-. Among his earlier assignments, he'd said, was chaperoning an employer's teenagers at a ski resort in Switzerland.

Staff can have skills the employer doesn't (or doesn't do as well. D- could keep papers in order better than I can, and J- could carve a turkey far better than my husband.) And they can do chores you just don't *want* to do...chores that take time from productive work. I'm working towards getting the house to the point where I can have a weekly or at least twice monthly "staff" do to the housecleaning.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I hired someone to do the major lawn spring cleaning, and OMG. Let's just say they did a much more thorough job than I ever would have had the patience to do.

I'm still doing the routine yardwork myself, and well, just finished spreading some herbicidal soap and picking doggie mines off the lawn. Cleaned up the inside of the house *a little*. Now, to pack...