ARNOLD AND I CLEAN HOUSE

17 November 2003

This cleaning jazz can really get out of control.

Since I'd taken the weekend off, essentially, the plan was to get back to the task at hand today. My goal for the end of the day was to have "found" the top of the dining room table (I remember from last December that we actually have one).

But you know how these things go. That's where I started out. The back of the house is relatively decent these days, but only because the "throw away pile" had been moved to the living room, so I pretty much hadn't touched the living room and it's just been getting worse and worse.

So I started cleaning off the dining room table and came to a pile of "bike stuff"--gloves, that hood thingie that I wear when it's cold, a light, and all the stuff that I haven't touched since my accident in June.

It would be really nice, I thought, to have all this stuff in a drawer somewhere...easily accessible, but out of sight. (This "out of sight" concept is a new one for me and I'm kinda liking it, but it sure is challenging when your entire life has been spread on "flat surfaces" all of your life!)

There was a perfect drawer in the family room for the biking stuff. The only problem was that it was full of Christmas CDs, because the CD holders that we have are full of non-Christmas CDs. This was a challenge.

I spent a lot of time just looking at stuff. What could I move where? Ultimately I decided that if I moved all the Star Trek books and the David Gerrold books off of the bookcase, I could put the Christmas CDs and the "loose CDs" that didn't fit anywhere else in there. That was the easy part.

Finding a place for the rest of the stuff was more of a challenge.

There was a lot of moving this here and moving that there and rearranging this and that and tossing away a lot of things and ultimately, the CDs were on the bookshelf, the Star Trek books were with the Star Trek memorabilia in the living room, the David Gerrold books were in my office, and I had a whole drawer that had been neatly arranged, using boxes as separators, into nice little compartments.

I'm getting good at this stuff!

Then there was the rest of the stuff on the dining room table, most of which, I am embarrassed to say, is Christmas decorations from last year. They go in the coat closet, but when I opened the closet, I decided that what really needed to happen was a major clean-out there, so I took everything out, left it all on the floor of the front hall and went off to Long's, where they were having a sale on containers. My lucky day! I could buy stuff to put my stuff in!

I bought 2 sets of containers (24 plastic boxes in various sizes) and returned.

I am happy to report that I finally have put away all of the Christmas decorations. (Shut up--I know I have to take them out in about 3 weeks. Let me enjoy the moment...)

I've also put blankets in bags, moved my shoes into the closet and out of the family room, filled lots more bags (including putting a broken garbage can in the garbage can).

At the moment it all looks like a cyclone went through here. This is nothing new, but what is is that it's all as organized as I can get it and there is a plan. I should have my living room back within 2 days. Be still my heart. I might even be able to invite some folks over for a holiday dinner before Christmas!

There is a tremendous feeling of accomplishment in hauling trash out to the curb, knowing it will never come back, ever, ever again.

All the while I was doing this, the television was carrying news of California's historic inauguration. I suppose that since it has made the international news, I should mention something about it.

I didn't vote for Arnold. In fact, I made sure they sent me a ballot in Australia so I could vote against him (or against the recall). I suspect he's going to quickly find that he's in over his head, but he gave an impassioned speech today that at least sounded good. I heard comments on the radio that of course it sounded good--he's an actor. Yeah, but he's not a very good actor! So I believe he has the state's welfare at heart.

We don't have much choice, so I'm willing to give him a chance. Who knows--maybe a total novice to politics can get something done that all the seasoned veterans can't. Hopefully he won't screw things up any more than they already are. AT least it will be interesting watching him learn the job.

Arnold and I are both trying to clean up horrible messes. We're both novices at it. Mine isn't quite as far-reaching as Arnold's, but I'm learning as I go...and with luck, so will he.