Caregiving is many things but one of the side effects that you don’t usually hear about is the tedium. Maybe others don’t experience this but I can only run up and down the steps to fetch food and ice so many times a day before it starts to get tedious. Stress baking and cooking didn’t help much either this weekend. I’m even looking forward to going to the office. Yikes!
So I was thrilled when I heard from a girlfriend that her newest grandbaby came a week early and is healthy and at home already. Thrilled for two reasons: a healthy new grandbaby is always thrilling AND I now have a project to work on.
I’m making baby blocks and I have to know the baby’s name before I get started since the number of blocks and paper squares depends on the number of letters in the baby name. Once I got going on the blocks I remembered that I needed to make a couple of thank you notes for YA as well. I spent a couple of relaxing hours in my studio and now I feel better. Guess I need to come up with some projects to work on the next couple of weeks!
Do you have any go-to tedium terminators?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Shine Baboons,
Boredom has never been a big issue for me. There is always so much to do; however, this statement will soon be tested as I embark on rehab from the scheduled Knee Replacement on Wednesday. I have been hoarding Netflix and Hulu TV shows while I ice the knee and lay around with the leg elevated. A new show dropped yesterday starring Merit Weaver and Toni Collette as detectives. That one is my most anticipated. I also have my knitting projects ready to go for the recovery as well because knitting is pretty quiet.
Polymer Clay projects are also challenging and keep me occupied. And then there are the jigsaw puzzles. Love those. Ancestry threads online also are intriguing.
The Trail tends to provide and outlet for on-line interaction that is rarely boring.
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Do you consider boredom and tedium to be equivalent?
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I guess I do… will have to look them up.
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The better example I found unfortunately uses tedious, the adj., instead of tedium, but still:
bored: feeling weary because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one’s current activity
tedious: too long, slow, or dull: tiresome or monotonous.
https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/13672/what-is-the-difference-between-tedious-and-bored-are-they-identical-or-are
It seems to me that you can still be doing something you like to do that is tedious.
Tedium can caused boing bored?
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Maybe tedium is a better word, Bill. But then I’d need a new title for the blog today and Boredom Buster had such a nice ring to it.
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Tedium terminator?
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No one can say I’m not sensitive to my audience’s needs. Bill… do I need to give you a co-posting billing today??
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Not necessary. I’m impressed that you not only changed the heading but also swapped out the terms in the text.
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It’s as if boredom never existed…
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In simplest terms, I think of tedium as a condition and boredom as a response.
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Yes, see above.
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So many things in life that are necessary are also tedious. I found parenting a young child very tedious and repetitive, but the highlights were worth it. During those years I knitted A LOT and did elaborate projects.
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OT: I won’t be around much in the next three days. Friends from my college dorm are gathering in Saint Paul. As for what we will be doing, I don’t have many guesses. Guys our age don’t do much of anything.
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That sounds like fun, Steve – If it’s anything like when I get together with my college friends, there is wine involved… we just can’t drink as much as we used to.
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These guys didn’t drink in college and hardly touch alcohol now. I expect we’ll talk a lot about who we were back then (1960 to 1964) and how we got to what we are now. Maybe I’ll be asked about the party that got me banned from the graduation ceremony.
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Well, I certainly hope so. : )
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Have fun Steve! Sounds like a good time.
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hey steve
tell us about the party that got you banned from the graduation ceremony
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Kelly and I each had 2! TWO! glasses of wine one night. We fell asleep on the couch faster than usual. Woke up at 2AM and went to bed.
I mean having a beer makes me fall asleep too, but just not so fast. The wine was sure good though.
I don’t know what kind; I can never remember. Kelly picks it out. It was a white wine.
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white is a problem for me after the 4th or 5th glass but red…. watch out
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Nice.
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Brilliant songwriter. So good at catching the bittersweet moments of life. Just in case this shows up somewhere that I don’t expect, this comment relates to Loudon’s White Winos.
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He’s going to be at the Dakota in Minneapolis on October 24th.
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All those Iowa Boys were so wholesome. Have fun.
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Actually, they were all from other states. Now they live in DC and Boston.
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those boston boys are sleezeballs
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I get bored with routine rather easily, which I suppose is why I’m almost always willing to try something new – that and my curiosity being piqued. For instance, I’m tired of cooking with burger and chicken, so picked up a pork roast yesterday, and new need to scout through my Recipe Binder and see what shows up.
I also have an day free of outside commitments – I won’t be bored because I have a variety of tasks to accomplish, but some of them (cleaning the mini-blinds) may be tedious.
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Interesting the separate question of is boredom the same as tedium.
I don’t have time to get bored. I may get bored with a project, but that might more accurately be termed tediousness. and then, depending what it is and if it really HAS to be done, I just turn the music up louder. And have a snicker bar.
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Since I have unlimited time and almost no external directives about what I can do, I am close to having perfect freedom. If I ever “got bored” I would take that as a serious failure of character. I do not give myself permission to be bored. If the TV is boring, I can go to the computer. If the book I’m reading seems boring, I am free to put it down and pick up a different one. Nobody tells me what I have to do. I’m in charge here, and I’d be ashamed of myself if I ever felt incapable of taking an interest in something. There is little in the world that is actually boring, although boring people think otherwise.
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I have been quite busy today at work and with my regulatory board. No tedium, no boredom. It is tedious stripping 92 cups of basil leaves to make pesto. It is sometimes tedious to play checkers and other games aI play with some of my young clients. I figure if I am experiencing tedium, so are they., so I don’t play many non-therapeutic games.
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I just watched the second episode of Ken Burns’ “Country Music.” It is anything but tedious or boring. I am learning all kinds of things about 20th Century of American History through the lens of music. But then I love history.
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Love revisiting the music of this era. There is nothing on earth quite like Rose Maddox’s voice.
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my boredom exists when i am out in a room with people who talk around in circles for a long time on a short topic
weather
peoples names i know nothing about in stories about times gone by
my regular day is about as far from tedious as can be
i love all the fun stuff i get to find time for
if only i could delegate all the stuff i’d like
i do that with some stuff hiring people to do the time consuming stuff that slows me down but my dream is to let my finger snapping turn into completed projects so i can get 100 done instead of 20 but today 10 will do
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For me, everything moves too fast and too relentlessly for me to experience boredom. If I have a task that seems tedious, it’s almost a relief to engage in something I don’t have to think about too much. It’s a break of sorts. It only lasts for a little while, and then I’m back to trying to keep up.
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Sunburn
{ 6/7/19 } age 28
The mystery of Barbra Soars – when you hear few say’’ she lied too me’’!,
everyone laughed
near the street place,
Can you be alone
six months, eight days, twelve hours
Memories will forever soar, memoir
Shoulders goes on & on ‘ past angers humility ‘
I don’t want storied voices echoing anymore like adaptation,
you’re a Sunburn –
a famous actress settling a pen name &hair, whom fixed my broken heart- for life?
Only to clear – the shadows; your name, not my way; of getting
Paid of these
I’ll show you what scared is- a threat, no one believes making sure – questions a scientific lab testing piece..
Wanting & knowing a fuck
I’ll banish everything
Ladies buried with asked as died beside, little dog & one tranzgender killed
96 year grandma, shall granted neglect
A fake voice
switch house keys- forced publishing no book
Who loves me enough, night falls- tears of, missing? Salty how many, But yet no hands worth blood
Delusional joke
have bubly after work..
not vodka
Victimized? I’ll answer only if & when
Someone changes phones with differ numbers every two seconds
burdens ‘’strange fruit;
pack shoes after many death rank clues on Facebook; shall I never return.
Traveling naked in the dark
No longer my way
First do no harm, discrimination
College – who took advantage { may silents break } few understand { what shattered } report mandated bullshit..
No shoes you fill
Noted ghost’s’
Painting out a clouded picture, deserving rainn
Freedom screwed – game over –
Til it happens to you
All the code, I can speak in; wrote a place- someone lived out ways California #ME TOO
Your ques, let out early,disclaiming psychoanalytical project sunshine, a mistake
Half past let it go.
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