The Emerald Rose

       Today’s thought for the day,…Oh shit, it’s tomorrow already! That’s what it feels like in terms of time flying by. Think if I stick my finger in there the second hand, hence the minute hand, and subsequently the hour hand will all stop for a while? (Naw, I didn’t think so either.:(

       Time to clean “the Pit” again. It’s sort of a repeating Christmas, or Easter Egg hunt. “So that’s where that went!” It is a complete physics lab in that some of my “piles” absolutely defy Newton’s laws of Gravity. But seriously I have a problem letting go of any old stuff. Like how many of you still have your first Credit Card bill? I know, but they are all like my children. It usually goes like this, 1. Great intentions- “Yup, gonna dig in and pitch all the old crap out, got an extra strength trash bag all set up,…let’s start with this pile,….Oh wait a minute, that article in the 2002 July Issue of left-handed tools was great,i can’t part with that. I’ll just put it over here. Oh look it’s my notes from that class on “Getting organized for Success” from 1997, I should review those and all just to be sure I retained the concept correctly. I’ll just put that over here too. ETC. ETC. ETC. for three hours, until I have successfully found a new place to move the pile to, the trash bag MAY have a few old pieces of mail marked “Occupant”, and it’s same place different pile! BUT I have cleared enough space on the desktop, couch, tops of the bookcases, and all that the “perception” of organized can be felt, kinda, sorta.

        I know I don’t need to keep all this “junk”. My paid telephone bills for the past 12 years, who cares! At least six or eight old empty ink cartridges for my printers, that I thought I might think about having refilled when they expired years ago. And of course the computer “stuff” you know, the leaflets, instruction manuals in six different languages, the “freebies” CD that comes with the new computers, let’s face it I give new meaning to the term “Pack Rat”!

        But I like my “stuff”! But reality sort of tells me the structural beams of the house are in all probability inadequate to the weight load and distribution in “The Pit”.

      (Sigh!) Ok I’ll start cleaning it out, I promise, right after I finish my coffee, and this blog entry, I probably still have George Bush election stickers around here (That’s George Bush SENIOR!) Logically I can’t defend my position, rationally I can’t defend all this “stuff”. I suppose there is only one option left,…..go into a monastery where you get a bed, a mattress, a kneeler, and a candle (If I save the candle stubs I bet I can put them all together and….) It’s a bloody disease!!

      Do you hold on to stuff too? Please tell me, or am I the little old man  they are eventually going to find, whose dessicated body was behind a pile of magazines from the 1980’s fiercely clutching an 8 track audio tape in one hand and an i-Pod in the other, wearing a “Nixon for President” hat, sitting on a Tele-Tubby emblazoned stool with empty Ring-Ding wrappers scattered around him.

       Help me. I know i can;t take it with me, and although I love my kids and they love me, and the wife also loves me, they will be forced to hate me when after the services they come back to the house and someone innocently says, “Well let’s start cleaning out Dad’s old office upstairs.” Weeks later they will be cursing me, and one will suggest they just put a match to the whole thing and watch so they can get home before the winter. (sigh)

       “My name is Mr. Guinness, and I’m,…well,… I’m a Pack Rat.

      “Hi Mr, Guinness.”

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