The First Quadrant

I am waiting for the AAA guy to come. 3rd time in less than a week, I think. Battery. The thing is, as of yesterday the battery was, no bones about it, dead. As the proverbial doornail. So this morning I installed, myself, personally, a new battery. Which I felt very good about until the car again would not start. I think -- I hope -- the problem was that the battery was sitting around so long in my car since having bought it that it lost its charge.

My life is an ongoing mess. My fiancee says (she gets this from "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" course, which she taught while working at Livermore National Lab) that I deal only with, um, I think it's called First Quadrant issues. That is, the stuff that has to be taken care of immediately. I'm not proactively on top of anything. If I, like, installed a battery at the first sign of trouble, or paid my taxes in advance, those would be Second Quadrant issues. The thing, I guess, is to keep your life in the Second Quadrant. Not a great skill of mine. Lynne's somewhat better -- OK, infinitely better, by my standard.