Dump the Chump

Procrastination is not all bad. I learned at work that taking no action often led to the problem going away one way or another. The pandemic has allowed me time to tackle the projects on my to-do list. I have scratched off many actions and not because I did them. The item to “fix cracked windshield” is moot because I long ago traded in the vehicle with its unfixed window. The plan to “buy tricycle” is unnecessary now that my nine year old granddaughter is riding a bike. I guess she did not really need a trike. I was going to resume searching for a proof for Fermat’s Last Theorem that no three positive whole numbers solve the equation x to the nth power + y to the nth power = z to the nth power for n greater than 2. Pierre de Fermat posed the proposition around 1637, but I thought I could do better than mathematicians who failed to prove it if I could disprove it with one example that worked. While fiddling with numbers to the fifth power, I discovered that Andrew Wiles had already solved Fermat’s enigma and published a Final Proof in 1995. This demonstrates how long items linger on my to-do list and how procrastination saves time and effort. If you wait long enough, someone else will do the dishes, launder the clothes, and take out the garbage. I was disturbed when I stumbled on my wife’s to-do list with the item: “Dump the hubby.” Luckily she is a bigger procrastinator than me and will never find where I hid her list.

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