Just some stuff

Today’s posting is brought to you by SiSi and Harry, our two rescue dogs. SiSi’s continuing existence is somewhat miraculous, in light of how much she sheds I wonder there’s anything left of her. Harry, on the other hand, does a better job hanging onto his hair but does his best to destroy his crate every time we have to go out. SiSi necessitates ownership of a heavy duty vacuum; Harry a handful of cleanup tools to deal with the residue on and around the carpet outside his crate. Having dogs means having dog stuff like leashes and toys and food and dishes and collars and combs and crates. You get the picture. If SiSi could learn to run the vacuum and Harry the rug cleaner, today’s posting would be very different. But needing that extra stuff, in large part on their behalf, brought me again to wondering about how much stuff we have. (At the rate I’m exhibiting male pattern baldness, I soon won’t need a hair brush but I’m not shedding on the carpet.)

SiSi and Harry overseeing stuff

Photo by J. Harrington

So, it’s been quite a while since I watched The Story of Stuff. I’m overdue for a re-view. The Better Half and I have reached a point at which we need to start downsizing, No, not beginning with the dogs. At one point, we operated a home based business. We now have an accumulation of file cabinets and desks that don’t get nearly the use they once did. How long should we keep old files and insurance policies? Has a “Downsizing for Dummies” been published?

A decade or so ago I was much more active in fishing and hunting than I am now. I have duck decoys and a duck boat that haven’t been used in years. If I get rid of them will that trigger a sudden desire to take up duck hunting again? (I’m well qualified to write “Duck Hunting for Dummies,” I’ve lived it.)

At the time I acquired everything I now own, it seemed like a good idea but I hadn’t considered ultimate disposal. The Daughter Person and Son-In-Law have expressed no interest in ownership of any part of the three belly boat / float tubes the Better Half and I have acquired over the years. And let’s not even touch on the library of books about fishing, hunting, nature, etc. and -- poetry, that are overflowing shelves and stacks. I have a partial excuse in that libraries frequently fail to carry much of what I’ve wanted to read. So, I’m hoping for some inspiration when I rewatch The Story.... I’m beginning to feel more and more like an old Scandahoovian uncle with newspapers and magazine stacks filling the house with narrow passageways between.

The Green Stamp Book

Susan Wheeler
1955 – 

Child in the thick of yearning. Doll carted and pushed 
like child. The aisles purport opportunities — 

looking up, the women's chins, the straight rows 
of peas and pretzels, Fizzies' foils, hermetic 

boxes no one knows. I'll get it! What thing therein 
— bendy straws, powder blue pack Blackjack gum — 

will this child fix upon? On TV, women with grocery carts 
careen down aisles to find expensive stuff. Mostly, 

this means meat. This, then, is a life. This, a life 
that's woven wrong and, woven once, disbraided, sits 

like Halloween before a child, disguised in its red 
Santa suit, making its lap loom the poppy field 

Dorothy wants to bed. Can I have and the song's begun. 
O world spotted through more frugal legs. O world. 

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