I've a strange trait that has either got worse over the years or more noticeable or perhaps both.
I have a list of jobs to tackle, generally repair jobs around the house or filling tax returns or some other task and I will selectively delay some and move others up the queue. I don't necessarily reject or tackle or put off jobs based on unpleasantness either. Seems kind of random to me like whim or some strange mood that drives me.
For example. 6 weeks ago our 5 year old washing machine started tripping the power. I took it apart bypassed the fuse board and wired it straight to the main fuse. Motor had shorted so I ordered another on ebay and replaced it. Whole thing took about 6 hours or effort. It worked for a few days but then started tripping the fuse again, so I ran an extention lead to the main circuit breaker box instead of powering it from the smaller box in the garden annex. And that worked. So I told my wife to carry on using it like that, since it was now working. There are plenty of sockets in the house and all she needed to do was run a cable through the bathroom door or window when she wanted to use it. The washing machine was now washing clothes. Major problem fixed.
Being a woman, it soon bugged her that she had an "ugly" wire powering the washing machine which had to go via the window or open door when she wanted to do a washload (she does about 10 washloads per week) and she started to nag me over the next 4 weeks to get the socket in the bathroom working again. I couldn't call an electrician, firstly because I am too alpha to even contemplate that, secondly because I kinda sorta knew it was something to do with the wiring under the raised decking, since I'd tested all other points of failure. That was the only thing remaining.
It's kind of damp and spider's webby under the decking, (not that I really mind, just painting a picture here) the washing machine was functioning albeit in a less than athestically pleasing way to my wife (I would use it like that until Doomsday if single) and I had some sort of mental block against finishing the job. Meanwhile I mowed and reseed the lawn, fixed and cleaned the gutters, climbed on the roof and cleaned both skylights and even washed down my white plastic guttering and soffit boards, installed a new shower bar, but the wiring fault kept slipping back. I even bought another washing machine for $8 and fixed it one sunny afternoon just for the heck of it. I'm going to give it away to my brother to keep as a spare. In short I did a whole bunch of other jobs and left this one alone.
Finally, this morning after 4 weeks of "reminders" I got my screwdrivers out went down the wire and digging around in a junction box found a loose neutral wire at the back. Screwed it down and the washing machine now powers from the wall socket in the same room without tripping anything. Was not a particularly difficult job, didn't take long, was not unpleasant.
Anyone have similar experience of selectively procrastinating on certain jobs and not even understanding why that particular task was delayed?
