The Visible Woman...September 5, 2003

My visit to Dallas this week, my visit with Dad this afternoon, my own silly joy at a bit of clean floor in my office, discussing cleaning out with an aunt on the phone. I've seen and heard about the winnowing of stuff (or the unbridled accumulation of stuff) from a lot of angles. I have come to realize that it is something you have to address with a combination of amusement and ruthlessness.

Aunt Sally, Uncle Johnny, Bob, Kenda, Dad, Aunt Dottie, Mom. All these relatives of mine accumulated stuff. The older ones are having to figure out how to get rid of it. The ones with kids away at college have all this precious stuff the kids left behind.

Dad is sitting in his easy chair with a glass of juice and a book and the TV when I get over there today. He gets energized by packing stuff, though. I have brought a couple of special boxes for packing domes that I had to buy. Little miniature things fit under the domes. I wish, in a way, that we hadn't given away so many of the boxes we used when they moved a little over three years ago. I consult a list my sister has provided of things she really wants (and a few things she doesn't want) and I try to pack those things. Sometimes I can leave the little furnishings inside because they are secured well enough. Other times I have to pack up some of the tiny things. At least my sister wants these things. We have no idea what to do with those she doesn't want. She wanted the house with the ping pong table in it that you see in the picture today. At a scale of 1/2 inch to one foot or something...that table is only about three inches long.

Dad and I pick out some things to give away to his friends, too, and he cheerfully packs them into the van. There are all these 'hobbies within hobbies' to ponder. Mom collected turtle things---figurines, useful objects that happened to be turtles. So, of course, she took some smaller ones and made a store called 'Turtles and More' and filled it with tiny turtles, seashells, etc. And her weaving hobby made her make tiny bedspreads and rugs on a loom with sewing thread to fill the tiny rooms of her displays. And, of course, she had a tiny weaving and spinning room. Yikes. A collection and hobbies gone mad.

Of course, I have boxes and boxes of bendable, posable figures in the garage. And my 'accumulation' just required wasting money.

A couple of my aunts are 'downsizing.' Trying to get their kids to take things, throwing things away. Forrest and I talk about downsizing. We even discard a few things. But we talk about remodeling to add some room to our master bedroom/bath. I try to reason that we aren't just adding space for stuff. We are modernizing, making the house more marketable. And we will have to clean out the area in order to do the remodel and throw stuff away, won't we? I hope so. I really do want ot have less stuff. But I'm just like everyone else. There is a love of attractive items, a love of items with sentimental attachment and a tendency to look at stuff that one no longer uses or needs as stuff we might need or want later. In my heart I know that the trick is to get rid of a lot and keep the right things.

Friday, September 5, 2003

A Journal from Austin, Texas. A Project of LBFFP Stealth Publishing.
food	reading	writing	time	exercise	health and mood

a house on a tiny scale...and chock full of junk	at war with the stuff My visit to Dallas this week, my visit with Dad this afternoon, my own silly joy at a bit of clean floor in my office, discussing cleaning out with an aunt on the phone. I've seen and heard about the winnowing of stuff (or the unbridled accumulation of stuff) from a lot of angles. I have come to realize that it is something you have to address with a combination of amusement and ruthlessness. Aunt Sally, Uncle Johnny, Bob, Kenda, Dad, Aunt Dottie, Mom. All these relatives of mine accumulated stuff. The older ones are having to figure out how to get rid of it. The ones with kids away at college have all this precious stuff the kids left behind. Dad is sitting in his easy chair with a glass of juice and a book and the TV when I get over there today. He gets energized by packing stuff, though. I have brought a couple of special boxes for packing domes that I had to buy. Little miniature things fit under the domes. I wish, in a way, that we hadn't given away so many of the boxes we used when they moved a little over three years ago. I consult a list my sister has provided of things she really wants (and a few things she doesn't want) and I try to pack those things. Sometimes I can leave the little furnishings inside because they are secured well enough. Other times I have to pack up some of the tiny things. At least my sister wants these things. We have no idea what to do with those she doesn't want. She wanted the house with the ping pong table in it that you see in the picture today. At a scale of 1/2 inch to one foot or something...that table is only about three inches long. Dad and I pick out some things to give away to his friends, too, and he cheerfully packs them into the van. There are all these 'hobbies within hobbies' to ponder. Mom collected turtle things---figurines, useful objects that happened to be turtles. So, of course, she took some smaller ones and made a store called 'Turtles and More' and filled it with tiny turtles, seashells, etc. And her weaving hobby made her make tiny bedspreads and rugs on a loom with sewing thread to fill the tiny rooms of her displays. And, of course, she had a tiny weaving and spinning room. Yikes. A collection and hobbies gone mad. Of course, I have boxes and boxes of bendable, posable figures in the garage. And my 'accumulation' just required wasting money. A couple of my aunts are 'downsizing.' Trying to get their kids to take things, throwing things away. Forrest and I talk about downsizing. We even discard a few things. But we talk about remodeling to add some room to our master bedroom/bath. I try to reason that we aren't just adding space for stuff. We are modernizing, making the house more marketable. And we will have to clean out the area in order to do the remodel and throw stuff away, won't we? I hope so. I really do want ot have less stuff. But I'm just like everyone else. There is a love of attractive items, a love of items with sentimental attachment and a tendency to look at stuff that one no longer uses or needs as stuff we might need or want later. In my heart I know that the trick is to get rid of a lot and keep the right things.
JUST TYPING It's not about owning. It's about creative discarding.
		Food Diary. *About 8am* sausage and egg breakfast taco *About 1pm* pimento cheese sandwich About 6:30pm [Clay Pit] samosa with meat and cheese, a Jack and water bites of various things like cucumber salad, crab cakes a lamb curry and some rice A little red wine About 11:30pm [bar at Stephen F. Austin IH Hotel] Jack Daniels and water I didn't pay much attention to my diet today...I just ate what came my way. FFP bought the taco at a new stand in our neighborhood. Oddly, he didn't get one...he fixed eggs himself.
		Time flies.... I spent a couple of hours packing up stuff of my mother's. I am getting the stuff cleaned out, but slowly, so slowly. I spent a whole evening socializing...from early dinner to late night drinks.

		Reading. Reading a collection of The New Yorker Profiles...just getting started. Great collection. I'm also listening to an abridged version of Amy Tan's The Bonesetter's Daughter on tapes in the car.
		Trying to catch up the journal. I figure I'm not going to get quality time for writing until I am done with a visit to relatives and this round of giving away Mom's stuff.
		Exercise Twenty-two minutes on recumbent bike. Stretching and ab exercises. Upper body (chest, back, shoulders) exercises. Thirty-two minutes on recumbent bike.
		My mood is oddly dissatisfied although I think it's improved by not having as many piles in the office. 101/64 83