Perfection Is the Enemy of the Good

So the saying goes.  That compulsive, Type A personality thing that drives one to achieve and accomplish the ideal that one is able to dream up, conjure up, believe to be possible - it is a double-edged sword, for it also sets standards so high sometimes that to do less becomes an internal disappointment.  When all along that slightly less would be pretty damn good by someone else's standards.

The key is setting the parameters - the goal is not just to do the best possible, but to do the best possible within the allotted timeframe.  That latter criterion has always been a tricky one to gauge - the reckoning with reality.  My mama always said, all the years when I was in school and a procrastinator trying to get things done at the last minute, "Vua phai thoi" - roughly translated, "Just what's enough."  The opposite of the Tiger Mom - because her girls already had internal standards that were higher than anyone else's.

Key is to balance, right?  Perfection is the enemy of regular blog posts (sheepish grin).  So, in an attempt to just go ahead and post something, now that Fall is already upon us....

Last Saturday, on a positively summery first of Fall weekend, Guest Roommie suggested a sojourn in the park before his planned shut-in to watch his alma mater's football game.  Much as I had to do for work, it seemed like such a lovely plan.  So I joined him, and his sweetest doggie, Broadway.

Looking south through the "Matted Angel's Hair" cardinal vine to Long Island City.  Mother asked for seeds when last we walked through here, so I was scoping out some possible sources.  The seed pods are not yet mature, but in a few weeks, should be ready to harvest. 

Through the flowers, the buildings under construction in Astoria that now obscure the uninterrupted sweep of the Triborough.  Why didn't someone organize to protect our view like the Brooklyn Promenaders?  Of course, they weren't fully successful in protecting their view of the Brooklyn Bridge "necklace."

Mr. Butterfly - how gorgeous is he?!

Mr. Moth - less showy, but a hard worker nonetheless. 

Matted Angel's Hair cardinal vine close-up.

Broadway close-up.

Broadway's bowl, stashed on a tree limb. At first, there was water from a fountain.  With her recent cancer diagnosis - ver sad - and her tendency to over drink to flush out the excess calcium, she'd been having pee accidents. Her daddy wanted her to pace her drinking, so the bowl that had been partially drunk got stashed in the tree out of her reach. Then it toppled, into some mulch, and was overturned, with bits of mulch stuck within. To avoid Broadway's being tempted, and ingesting mulch, back in the limbs it went. 

View up into the tree canopy from the blanket. 

Broadway relaxing, possibly looking for her bowl.

Through the Matted Angel's Hair cardinal vine toward south Astoria and the lighthouse on Roosevelt Island. 

It was a lovely, slow Saturday.  On the walk home, we returned dad's at the rental place, picked up some new ones, stopped at Glaser's Bakery for some treats, and got home in time for Guest Roommie's football game.  And that evening watched "Shawshenk Redemption," which I had never seen.  Yes, I don't see many movies. 

Then Sunday, the drive to accomplish SOMETHING during the weekend kicked in. The super had sent a rather rude and critical email on the state of my housekeeping in light of a little mouse issue, so I decided the stove needed to be tackled.  Guest Roommie did most of the hard scrubbing on the stove surface. I tackled the detail work of the burner grates, knows, etcetera - and spent way more time than intended.  He came in, worried - teasingly, but belting some truth.  That OCD thing.  And then decided just enough was good enough.  The stove top is as clean as it has been in ages.  And really, who is going to look so closely to find the straggly heated on bits that refuse to yield to the Brillo pad?

As good as it gets.