Something

You only thought I gave up on this whole thing. Truth is, I've been busy. Doing something. Now I have to do something else.

Did I recall something?

I managed to let one of those scary thoughts enter my brain at some point during the last few days. One of those thoughts that I have spent years and dollars working to remove, recognizing that thoughts of this sort propel me down the dark alley of depression and negativity. Reeking of futility, these thoughts muddy up the reflection and cloud the perspective. The good part is that I know now how to handle these thoughts, but that doesn't make them easier to accept. The thought, in particular, is that I just as well forget about One Room given that it has been nearly a year and I've yet to finish one room.

As I look around me, I see that I've not come very far in my project. I can count on one hand the reasons for this, with the quickest to surface being the laziness factor. Follow that with obsessions (and compulsions) of various natures, and the joy of MS-related fatigue, and not much time is left in the day to accomplish any task, let alone making progress with One Room. I have to make some change in myself, again, if I want to see success. Change, however, brings fear. No, not because of any LCMS affiliation issue, but more for the general fear of change that comes with the human wiring. In my case, it is high voltage wiring.


Change stomps upon comfort. Lack of comfort brings out lack of control. Lack of control brings out futility, which contributes to depression. Hence, the entire scope supporting the One Room project is inherently depressing. Medications are helpful, but there is no "clean up my mess" medication. Hmmm. There's a money-making idea. A pill to remove the clutter. Riiiight. I know better. So, lacking the magic pill, I have to do it the hard way, which is harder than most would think. And recognizing that talking about the problem is the first step to combating the problem, I will take a deep breath, take another look around me, and see the potential for success rather than the overwhelming lack of progress.

Did I forget something?

Age, a disease that eat brain cells, replacement addictions, non-replacement mental health issues, new household distractions. I suppose I can up with any number of justifications for my lack of posting. I can even say that I was just plain lazy. That hardly gives people anything to read, however. Did I mention that I've been tired lately? Or that people keep wanting to overeat out and all that food makes me lethargic? Maybe I can use the monthly milestone as a springboard for motivation and get some serious stuff done. Or I can go back to bed.

A round hole

Yesterday I found an example of just how muddled the efforts of a clutterer can turn, when said clutterer wants to create a justification for keeping something. It came about after I decided to spend a little time clearing clutter away from the exterior of the garage, given that the weather was fairly decent for doing such things, and since I was tired of looking at that particular clutter, but mostly because I found the ground ivy was attempting to take over the lawn…again. The origin of attack was the area just under the clutter that didn't cover the ground, thus the focus of extermination had to be that same area. You see, I don't much care for ground ivy. When I smoked, I would go out and pull ground ivy up by hand on a daily basis, but I haven't been out for some time, and the ivy knew it. And once ground ivy gets a mind to take over a lawn, it gets the job done. Thus, I needed to get busy before it did.

I faced a choice I similar to ones I faced in the past. Where do I put this clutter I've kept whilst I terminate the growth of the ivy? I thought about putting it inside the garage, but given how long this clutter had been outside, I wasn't sure I wanted the accumulated bugs and slugs to join the accumulated interior garage clutter. I thought about moving it around to the other side of the garage, but the new grass managed to establish well on that side, so I didn't want to kill it off by cluttercation, a most deadly form of clutter suffocation. I thought about the spot on the other side of the shed, but the fencing awaiting a more proper location (for example, around the yard) is stored there. I finally came up with the novel idea of figuring out why I had collected the clutter and then actually tend to that 'why.'

Right.

Some of it was obvious. Screens kept from window spaces that had new combination windows, giving the screens new futures as screeny things. Therefore, screens were to be disassembled and the screen material rolled up nicely and stored. Glass kept from the same window spaces, primarily because it was old glass, the wavy, bubbly kind that comes with older houses, and just so happens to match the glass in the built-in cabinet doors. Therefore, glass windows were to be carefully deconstructed, the glass cleaned and carefully stored. Those were easy enough. More challenging were the long pieces of 2x2 that came from some deconstruction project of days past. Long past. So long, in fact, that the pieces of 2x2 barely resembled pieces of 2x2 and were more like 1.5x1.7x1.88x2 instead. And full of holes, those little kind of holes which explain why old wood is so light, the kind of holes that generally come with little piles of chewed up wood. As I looked at these pieces of wood, I realized that they had long passed the point of reusability, and there had to be some other reason I kept them. It might have been hardware related, as I had other items amongst the clutter that were the keepers of hinges and handles holding out hope for new homes. As I reflected upon this possibility, it hit me that 'hardware' was close, if you consider that nails and bolts and such are also considered hardware. Indeed, I had kept these 2x2 boards because of a discovery of a certain kind of hardware, a square head nail.

OK, so it is more rectangular-headed than square-headed, and it resembles a miniature railroad spike more than a common nail, but I was (at one point) fairly certain that it was old. Maybe even worth something. And where there is one old nail there has to be more. Thus, I kept all of these 2x2 boards until such time that I could cut them to a reasonable size and check them all for nails of a similar style. I obviously found one in the past, which explains why I kept the old wood. I have no idea where it is at this point, but I must have found one, and that is precisely what I found yesterday in that large pile of cluttered used-to-be 2x2 pieces of wood prior to tossing them into the trash bin. All of them, or at least nearly all of them, all saved for one purpose, all becoming clutter for one reason.

One old square nail.

Yet another

Motivation is a wicked thing, especially when it seems to only run in streaks and is easily distracted. Lately, my motivation has been distracted by creatures of a furry nature. In fact, as I type this I find myself attending more to the little four-month-old feline attempting to type for me than I do planning out my efforts to get the guest room finished off. Some who know the situation know that Chester is a rebound kitten, with Noodles fast becoming a memory. The whole story is addressed elsewhere (and I will attempt to get the URL up for people to go read), so I won't spend any more time on it here. Having observed the little guy interact and acclimate to his new surroundings, I am quite certain we ended up better off with this little orange tabby. Could do without the nose chewing and sneezing in my face, but he is still very adorable. Might even get a picture up…as soon as I get my camera back.

OK, so Loki, Smudge, Mickey and now Chester are all waiting for a new place to nap, so I reckon I'll need to get working on that room. That is, if I can find the motivation.

Thwarted by constraints

Now I know why there are so many three-quarter-dollar stores on half.com, and I will state on record that it seems conspiratorial. It seems there is a lower pricing limit of seventy-five cents. Thus, I am now one of those hundreds of virtual street corner vendors competing for attention with the lowest possible price I can place on my items. Yep, time for a different means of getting the attention of the many out there who have no knowledge of One Room.

Life is a cheap paperback novel

The Mrs. has held for some time now that used books don't sell. I would have to grant that used books don't sell fast, but I think they do sell in the right markets. Sadly, I haven't found THE right market. I mean, there has to be more than a handful of people who actually know how to read the printed page, or that paper is used for some purpose other than wiping various orifices. When questioned why I was even bothering listing books on sites like Swap Simple or half.com, I reminded the question poser that books were part of the clutter. I have books, the Mrs. has books, there are books left about the house that prove we blended our genetic material a few times. I even have the blessing of inherited books from Dad and technically inherited books from Mom. [chuckle] Don't even get me started on the Stephen King novels, all hardbound, all in new condition, and probably never read, but MUST be kept. Where's that train?

So, anyhoots, where was I? That's right, books.

I listed a number of bound paper gems on Swap Simple, and have even swapped at least one away, which was the subject of a previous post here at One Room central. I have listed a number of old fashioned communication tomes on half.com and actually needed to send a few to new owners. I know there are people out there who want the tactile feel that only a book can provide, or have some space on their bookshelf that needs filled. I know there are people out there who want the books I can provide to them. Finding these people, however, can be a challenge. I have embraced this challenge. Well, that and decided to tackle the lowballers.

You know them. The street corner sellers who price things cheaper than the stores. Those folks who help make the great american way what it is, a vicious economic wrestling match to get the almighty dollar. The almighty dollar that will never make it into Heaven, I will remind you. The same almighty dollar that has storefront operations named after it, where you can find all manner of cheaper things at cheaper prices. On a certain half-sized web site, there is an equivalent of the dollar store, or rather MANY dollar stores. Technically, seventy-five cent stores, but what's a quarter? I reckon the main objective is to make the elusive profit via volume. Not that this is a horrible thing, as I am a consumer who loves bargains like anyone else. I am also a clutterer who needs to get things out of his house. And, in some regards, I am much like the street corner vendor competing against the storefront operations. Thus, I have resorted to a temporary tactic to move things and bring in browsers. I have taken on those other street corner vendors and will see just what they do in response.

You hear it here first, folks. I dropped the price on a great number of books I have listed on half.com, some at half dollar prices. The reasoning? Uhm, have you not been reading? I just wonder how long before I just have to mail the books to random people. Hmmm, that gives me an idea...