Attack the Stuff

Two major themes are running through my community now. It is happening to other people as well as our family. Here they are…

1.) Weight Loss
2.) Clean up

Quite simple really and both seem to be at the heart of our complicated lives.
The Holiday Season for most of us brought more food. With food comes the weight – for me at least. And I have to do something about it.

The Holiday Season also brought more stuff… stuff that was in need of being stored, being put away, being sorted, being taken care of. In our home over the years we have always been in a rush to get to the next thing that we are in need of doing. Now we need to deal with stuff.

But there are huge issues in dealing with Number 1 and 2… at least for me there is... I HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT! I HAVE TO START. THEN I HAVE TO KEEP GOING and not get sidetracked.

My weight loss will come as I get back on track with the exercise and food consumption…! Grrrr… I will do this! Cut back… the Christmas cookies are almost gone – just a few more to eat… that rich Egg Nog is almost gone (nobody liked it except me…)… and the chocolates are almost gone… and only one jar of nuts left to go through.

Personally I have just passed the 17.5 mile point of walking and running in 9 days. That is one notch on the belt since last week. As soon as I get rid of the extra food the next notch should come off too.

Yesterday was “attack the stuff” day. Both my wife and I went at it. Talk about sneeze a lot. There was stuff in my small office that I lost five years ago. What a gold mine! I found computer programs buried in one corner that will only work on Windows 98 or earlier – “Microsoft Vista” my present operating system won’t accept it any more. Then there was a box of computer parts that fit machines I threw away two years ago… Humph!

When I crawled into bed last night my wife was still looking at old photographs. She has uncovered bags and bags of photos that were never put into any albums. The photos of our girls when they were little are so cute. Then there were bags of the ones of the grandkids when they arrived, when they came home from the hospital. Emma will turn 10 this next month… and there was her photo just at the moment of delivery. Come to think of it – I cannot remember having ever seen that one!

The great danger with our “attack the stuff” policy is… we slow down when we start to read everything and consider everything and stare at the photos every time and giggle over what we see…. And some times cry over what we read.

Giggling is easy when you discover the piles of Grandkids old drawings made for Grandpa. There is that one special one, unsigned… of dinosaurs… two of them in the drawing… I am not sure which Grandkid did this one… except for one important clue… the drawing is very detailed and very well developed … with each dinosaur with a pile of poop behind it. That has to be “…….” His drawings are always detailed and he tends to concentrate on weird things – then laugh like crazy at your reaction!!!!

Now I know how and why Value Village started. People like me got tired of sneezing and simply got rid of good stuff… or tried to get rid of good stuff… then couldn’t … so their kids did it for them after they died.

We were in Value Village the other day… you know the store that sells all that “old dead people’s stuff”. As I walked up and down the aisles looking for my wife I touched some of the stuff in the men’s department… sheesh – the stuff was good… some had some stains on the front… some were older looking… but they were good. Then over further were the odds and ends stuff… kind of like the stuff in my office… old outdated and no one would ever buy it kind of stuff…

I stood there quietly and felt the aura around me. I am sure there was “dead people stuff kind of angels” hovering over us… seeing what would be picked up and by who…

There on the book shelf was a book that looked just one that I used to have… I opened it… and IT WAS MINE! Holy Cow… how did that get in that bunch of stuff… and they wanted $16.95 for it…if I bought it back! Imagine a good hard cover book about things that people collect – now for sale again! I think I was given that book by some one’s daughter after their dad died!!!! Apparently we had GIVEN IT AWAY in one of our throw outs and clean ups!!!! Grrrr….

Sorry I have to cut this a little shorter today. There is way more stuff to sort through… and I made a promise to myself that it would be done this week… or sometime soon.

Does anyone want to go for a coffee?

~ Murray Lincoln ~
(no… the Photos are not ones taken in my office… )