Sunday, January 11, 2009

Stuff


The word "Tidy" has never been part of descriptors used of me. Never.

I can hear the guffaws now.

George Carlin called it "Stuff". I've got a lot of Stuff. And I don't put my stuff where it should be all the time.

I like to think I'm better than I used to be - about putting stuff away, that is. I think it's an age defense thing; it's getting harder to remember where I left stuff so in self defense for the future it gets closer to where it belongs.

Sunday I was looking for something in my workshop (talk about the opposite of tidy!) and I KNOW it's in there. Somewhere.

Growing up, I marveled at my father's collection of stuff in his workshop. Stuff he had no use for, but might need it someday. And my (then) wife's grandfather died and we were going through his workshop and a lot of the same type of stuff was there. You know, old parts from electric fixtures; old plumbing faucets and so forth, parts from things broken that "might be useful someday".

Now that I'm in the middle-age 'plus' group I'm afraid I've got both of them beat.

And have a hard time finding any of it.


1 comment:

  1. Oh, you knew you'd hear from me on this one! The day my father-in-law learned I am a third generation packrat, he hung his head and moaned, "Oh, no, no,no. A packrat should never marry another packrat!" And it is true. I would sort through my spouse's stuff, and do a great job of thinning it out, but how does one deal with a heap of plumbing, electrical, or automotive flotsam?
    In my own case, it's stuff for entertaining, like 16 martini glasses so I can make a batch of cosmopolitans for a chick flick night. Or "artsy crapsy" stuff. I clean it all out, send junk to the 'pound' and then try to organize what's left. But it piles up anyway, and a hastily stashed bunch of stuff when the House Goddess is due becomes lost forever.
    There is no such thing as a safe hiding place when you reach middle age, but in my case, there never has been a safe hiding place. I lost my memory on Route 36 between Galesburg and Monmouth on June 2,1973 and I haven't been able to find a thing since.

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