there are ... four... cups

After this morning's episode with tears, I needed to do something restorative to my soul.
Casting about for an idea on how to best get my groove back, my eyes fell on the clutter of breakables on the kitchen counter.
As I tend to do, I started counting the types of items and realized, with a smile, that I had found a task that needed doing.
Moreover, this was a task that is relaxing for me:
washing dishes.

How had the Universe known that i would need such an activity at this moment?
It isn't as if I wash dishes daily, like some folks do.
My Aunt Barbara actually washes dishes after each meal!
However, that is not the frequency at which I do this task.
And, in this time of pandemic and crisis, one lesson I have learned is the importance of doing normal things when they are normally done.
So, that begs the question: when do I normally wash dishes?
Well, time of day has nothing to do with the task.
Sometimes I wash in the morning, sometimes before bed, sometimes in the middle of my day.
So, what is the deciding factor that lets me know when it is to be done?
The number of coffee cups.
Seriously.
Four is optimal, though I have been known to do so as early as three or as late as five.
Why is four such a magic number?
That's the number of cups that can be placed into the right row of the dish drainer.
Remember, I wash dishes by hand, so the dishwasher is just useful as a drying rack.
By routine, the coffee cups go into the right row, the drinking glasses go on the left.
As I use a fresh coffee mug each morning, then I know that if I have four cups on the counter, then it must have been four days since I washed dishes.
In other words, I wash dishes, as a rule, about three times over a two-week span.
That is my normal periodicity for the task.
And, thankfully, when I looked on the counter about thirty minutes ago, I saw four coffee cups needing to be submerged in warm, soapy water.
i thank You, God.

As for the post title, that's paraphrasing a line uttered by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, a line about being true to himself even though a lie would have freed him from torture.
Good episode!

One last word about the cups: their identities.
One commemorates my stint as a pirate with Christina two years ago.
The one next to that is one she "gave" me in a Christmas raffle later that same year.
The beaker mug was given to me at SERMACS last year.
The fourth one, with the orange handle, was one I bought as a memento of the inaugural Georgia Elvis Festival, for me and for Brunswick, back in 2013.
The Elvis in my house definitely approves - he was bought that same year!
Okay, time to leave this laptop alone!
Bye!