Your house is full of lists.

With both you and your wife working from home these days, the number of tasks that you tackled those first days was impressive. The lists initially started because you were thinking of selling your home when things get back to normal. In addition, you needed some things to keep you busy during your social distancing time. As a couple, you generated a list of projects that you would tackle, some individually and some alone, when you needed a break from work. Here are some of the items that were included:

• Clean windows, inside and out.
• Dust furniture.
• Wash curtains and draperies and rehang, ironing if needed.
• Clean light fixtures and ceiling fans, replacing any burnt out light bulbs.
• Clean baseboards throughout your home. A vacuum wand worked great for the dust!
• Wipe down kitchen cabinets, appliances, inside the microwave and inside the fridge with a wet washcloth, using soap if necessary. Wipe down countertops and backsplash.
• Clean floor vents and return air vents, bathroom vent fans, the vacuum wand came in handy here again!
• Clean carpets.
• Clean out your closets, donate any clothing and shoes you haven’t worn in the past year.
• Move unnecessary furniture or other items out of your home and into the storage shed you have in the backyard, while at the same time giving the items that you do not want a charity. You know that the less lived in you can make your home look, the better it will show. You also know that too much furniture in a room can make it appear smaller than it actually is.
• Freshen up interior paint. Repaint any rooms that may have bold colors with an earth tone color.
• Freshen up exterior paint. Scrape and repaint any areas where paint is peeling.
• Repair or replace any window screens that are torn or missing.
• Clean out your garage, donating any items that you have not used in the last 12 months.
• Plant a variety of colorful flowers.
• Trim any overgrown trees and bushes.

The list was exhausting. Making sure that you were a part of the process, however, has set you up perfectly for the next step. While you were tackling so many of these projects on the days when the weather was less than ideal, you were really dreaming of your ultimate hobby: fly fishing.

Your wife was happy for the help, and if she realized your ultimate plan she kept those feelings to herself. There is not doubt that she noticed you in the basement cleaning and reconditioning some of your favorite and oldest fly reels, but she simply smiled when she walked by. She has her own quilting and scrapbooking to keep her occupied and she, like you, enjoyed those pastimes even more when she knows that her to do list is taken care of.

Now that you have both been working from home for most of two weeks, your two person household is all caught up. And while you, too, can spend an entire day making sure that the fly reels and other pieces in the fly fishing tackle bags are ready, you also like the feeling of knowing that you have everything that needs to be done completed first.

You read an article last month that indicated that an estimated 51.59 million people went fishing in the year 2017 alone. And while you know that there are many whose lives have changed so drastically that they may have had to shelve all ideas of any time with fly reels, you are in the spot where at least for the next two months you can partake in your favorite activity. And given that more than 60% of recreational fishing participants were under 45 in the year 2017, you know that you fit into this fly reel community perfectly. The great outdoors can serve as the perfect equalizer, and the fact that you have land rights to some of the best stretches of fly fishing water in the area means that after a couple of months of tackling the necessary items around the house, you can now enjoy the fruits of your labor. After a weekend of fly fishing, you will be ready to tackle another week at the home office.