Spring Cleaning in Winter
I've finally cleaned that damn garage. Make that two of those damn
garages. Not completely. There's still stuff to dealt with. There's
a footlocker to which I don't have the key, for example. When I was
fourteen, I could pick the lock with a paperclip, but the talent seems
to elude me these days. There's a Japanese-made tea set, but it's
made for Western-style tea. It would look very cool and asian, save
for the little hearts cut into the outer layer of the ceramic. I don't
know what my grandmother was thinking when she purchased it, and I don't
know what I was thinking when I chose it from her estate, but
there you go. Eventually I'll get rid of the rest of the dross. In
the mean time, if anyone wants a kind-of-funky looking tea set...
The important thing is that two garages are clean(er). One is here in California. One is my mother's in Colorado. I've temporarily convinced myself that garages and plumbing are the two things about our dwellings that really show what we're up to. If the garage is neat, then the rest of the place is likely fine, or at least fixable. If the plumbing all works, then there's something fundamentally sound about the structure. Thus, if the garage is a mess, and it's cleaned, it's more satisfying at some deep level than cleaning out anywhere else in the house.
Had I stables, I suppose this would be about the metaphysical benefit of shoveling horse dung.
In any case, I'm back in California after a long absence, and one of the first things I've accomplished is to get that damn garage tidied up, something that's needed to be done since midway through the Clinton administration. Feels good. Probably finish it just in time to find out I'm moving.
The important thing is that two garages are clean(er). One is here in California. One is my mother's in Colorado. I've temporarily convinced myself that garages and plumbing are the two things about our dwellings that really show what we're up to. If the garage is neat, then the rest of the place is likely fine, or at least fixable. If the plumbing all works, then there's something fundamentally sound about the structure. Thus, if the garage is a mess, and it's cleaned, it's more satisfying at some deep level than cleaning out anywhere else in the house.
Had I stables, I suppose this would be about the metaphysical benefit of shoveling horse dung.
In any case, I'm back in California after a long absence, and one of the first things I've accomplished is to get that damn garage tidied up, something that's needed to be done since midway through the Clinton administration. Feels good. Probably finish it just in time to find out I'm moving.