preparedness vs readyness

I've been doing some small jobs on a motorcycle of mine.

Everything could have been done in an afternoon.

That is, if I had been prepared for the work.

Days have stretched into weeks and before too long weeks will stretch into months.

Now then, I was ready for the work but readyness is different from preparedness. Being ready is a matter of confidence. There was nothing about this work that I had not done before and I had all the tools I needed.

I wasn't prepared for the work.

First of all the bike is in a distant garage. And that garage has been hijacked. Rather than being a place for tools and the work they do the garage has been severely imposed upon by other things.
There are now three other bikes in the garage.
There was a stack of boxes in there belonging to one fellow and upon the removal of the boxes more moved in from another fellow. The bad example had been set. Since then another stack has appeared but it should leave soon.
There is a lot of other stuff, normal stuff, like the boxes that actually belong to the household.
Outdoor furniture, lawn mower and tools and clippings blowing around.
It is the start of the virus I call stuff.
The obsessive gathering of things that might be used someday, but probably won't.
Stuff infects a great many of us and few are cured.

Then we must compound these issues with various stops along the way.
These O-rings are no good, order more.
These O-rings are the wrong size, order more.
This part is missing, order a new one.
This retaing ring is lost, go get a new one.
Oops! Should have done that step before the one I did do.
It just goes on.

More recent experience would have helped here.
A space would have been prepared, tools laid out on a bench, parts all set down in order.

So there you go. It is one thing to be ready to do a job, it is another to be prepared to do a job.

I'll be back in that garage tomorrow.