Eaten By Clutter

I was up for work at 515am and ready to start my day. Once again, Mindy was taking the day off work. She made arrangements for a substitute the evening before. That changed my morning little. I exercised then walked Ykraps. It was clear and about 42 degrees – pretty nice really. I had plenty of time to play on the PC after walking Ykraps – about 25 minutes. Again, Mindy didn’t need to be up until 630am or just before leaving for a run. Getting really close to buying a new PC, I decided to use some of the time to give Dell one more try. I pulled up their webpage and built a system similar to what I’ve constructed through HP. I get a decent discount with both. The price was close. I’d ponder it further during my run. I spent a considerable amount of time meditating and stretching. Both have become necessary to my day. We spend quite a bit of time on the physical body, one must also spend time on the mind. As planned, I delivered Mindy’s coffee at 6:35am, just before heading out for my run. I wore hand and ear covers and two wicking shirts. And no, not to deliver the coffee, but instead on my run. It was a comfortable run. I ran four miles for the fourth day in a row, and five out of the last six. I felt pretty darn good at its completion. Mindy was up making breakfast when I returned home, but headed back to bed even while Bella and I finished our breakfasts. Just before she headed off, I asked about Rachel coming to clean. She shared that she thought ahead and canceled this week’s cleaning. She’ll come next week instead. It must’ve been a little before 7:30am when I headed up to get a shower. The kids and I were off to the bus stop at 7:55am. Jacob was much nicer to his sister this AM. He even found some leaves to add to her collection. Bella asked me to take them back home and add them to her bag as she boarded the bus. I shoved them in my pocket. They were retched brown, crunchy leaves. Before shoving off for work, I went to the basement and fetched the nearly empty can of Sherwin Williams Blackberry paint we used in our family room. There wasn’t nearly enough to cover the wall repair, so I needed to get another gallon. I wanted to take the nearly empty can with me since it has the color recipe on the label. I shouted a goodbye to Mindy then scurried off to work. My morning was really busy. We were still working a complicated issue from late last week. We had our usual Wednesday staff meeting, too. It lasted until almost 1230pm. Come 1pm I left for Sherwin Williams. During my drive, I called Mindy who had just gotten up. We chatted about a number of things, one being whether or not we’d be doing Barley’s later. After all, it was a kidless evening and I would be off work on Thursday. For the time being, we left it up in the air. Rebecca was the sales associate at Sherwin Williams. She seemed knowledgeable and quickly got busy mixing my paint. She was curious what we were painting that color, sharing that she has always liked it herself. I asked about using primer. She recommended it highly. I ended up buying a gallon of drywall primer too even though the area in question could be covered in a pint or less. She recommended tinting the primer gray since we were using a dark color. Made sense. I was shocked when she quoted a $64 total. The Blackberry paint was $40 a gallon, but it’s their best paint. I saw they had a stain display too, that had all the various colors applied to small pieces of pine and oak. I took notice of the two or three that most closely match our trim, at least from memory. I wasn’t surprised to find that the two colors that looked closest were the two I already have. I planned to test the stains that evening on a small piece. I still had plenty of time, so instead of heading back to the office I headed further south to Dick’s Sporting Goods. I browsed their snow ski apparel but bought nothing. I pretty much have everything I need, just looking at comfort-type stuff. However, I need to buy some new running gloves. I checked those out too but again bought nothing. Back at the office a little after 215pm. I spent my entire afternoon working that same issue still lingering from late last week. This time, though, I think we finally got it resolved. Taking care of business, I wasn’t able to get out of the office until 540pm. I didn’t mind. I felt good leaving knowing we’d solved that lengthy problem and that I had Thursday off work. Wahoo! I talked with Mindy during my drive home. She reported feeling much better – rested. And perhaps even more telling, she was game for Barley’s. The kids were already gone by the time I arrived home. In fact, according to Mindy, they were gone by 430pm since Jimaken had Veteran’s Day off work. She had already walked Ykraps. After allowing me a few minutes to freshen up, we bolted for Barley’s. Last second, I took an empty growler just incase they had a new batch of Centennial IPA on the tower. Like the last few Wednesday’s, the lot was chalked full of cars. We took a spot in the back lot. But even more surprising was the bar crowd. There wasn’t a stool to be had. Janet spotted us amongst the standing throngs and took our drink orders. I went off the table and ordered an original Pale Ale. That hasn’t been available on the tower for some time. Mindy went with a Pint-of-Joe, a rare offering as well. We stood for the first 20 minutes or so until a bar-side table opened. Once seated, we ordered some food, me Gates of Hell wings and sauerkraut balls, Mindy, a half-chicken and side salad. I failed to mention that I took the dive and bought a new PC earlier in the day using our employee discount with HP. That saved me a couple hundred bucks. Although the complete system won’t ship for a couple weeks yet, I was very excited. It’s a sweet machine with lots of bells and whistles. In turn, Mindy & I discussed what to do with the current PC. There are a few good options, but given its 512meg RAM limitations (SDRAM is ridiculously expensive) it’s not going to be of much good to anyone for long. We’ll sort it out when the time comes. Somewhere our conversation went south. We started discussing organization in the home. Mindy didn’t care much for my criticism about our ever growing kitchen clutter. Still, I kept pressing the matter revealing how suffocating I find it. The thing is, we do 90% of our living in the kitchen & family room. In kind, I want them to be clean, open, airy, and tranquil. We decorated and furnished both rooms with this in mind. However, over time, we’ve managed to put ‘stuff’ anywhere there’s an open space (I.E. top of the refrigerator, counter by the coffee maker, counter by the phone outlet, and now it has even trickled onto our lovely dining room table). I liken it to a depression era mind-set. Hoard. Stock up. I know for some it serves as a reminder of their success, their ability to provide. Look at me – I am a good provider. Fact is, though, we have way too much food and not enough space for it. To put it in perspective, I’ll bet we have 40 different salty snack options to choose from and ten different bread types. As a solution I offered that we do an inventory then purge. Then there’s the matter of the daily clutter that quickly builds, you know, the stuff that comes home from school and in the mail. That bothers me too. I want to find a way to manage it better. I suggested we clear out and dedicate a cabinet for it. Anyway, Mindy took it personal and was chilly for the remainder of our dinner. I’m not sure that it bothers her, or that she even notices it. It’s the boiling frog phenomena. I had Janet fill my growler with Pale Ale. I picked up the check. We headed home just after 730pm. We were home just a few minutes when the kids arrived. It wasn’t long before all of us were in our PJ’s. Bella and I snuggled up on the sofa and popped some popcorn. Mindy joined us too. Jacob was in his room watching some TV. While Mindy put the kids away, I fetched the two cans of stain from the basement that closely matched our trim and took them to the garage to apply to a small piece of new trim. I left it to dry before making any final judgment. Mindy headed for bed sometime after 930pm. I planned to stay up for a while relaxing, enjoying myself. After all, I didn’t need to be up. I eventually fell asleep but woke around 1130pm and headed up to bed.