Stuff

So, here it is a week! I haven’t written in a week and I feel the need. Yes! The need to communicate. I don’t have anything in particular to say but I feel the need to say it anyway.

Years ago when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was the president of the local Mensa group for a year . As such, I had to write a monthly column and get it to newsletter editor in a timely fashion for publication. This was probably the hardest part of the job for me. I was working and in general taking on a lot more than I was able or had the time to do. This meant that the column always came skidding in just under the wire or in this case over the wire from my modem to the Editor’s modem. JoAnne was always good about not goading me to get it in on time but I always suspected she must be wondering if I would come through. One of the problems that came from this was that on occasion during that year I sent out words that I would eventually have to eat, or at least I would wish I could eat. That’s what happens when you write first and think latter. I still do this occasionally but not so much now that I am in my fifties as I did in my thirties.

I am planning on going on the road as soon as I am able, but right now I need to stay put until a few things get settled. One is my application to the VA for Service Connected Disability Status, and another is getting rid of a whole bunch of "Stuff" that I don’t want or need. The "Stuff" ranges from a group of about 100 antique cameras to a 1988 Cobra Motor Home.

Did you ever get the feeling that you were owned by your "Stuff" instead of you owning it? I feel that way and have for quite a while. I had the cameras put off on a friend who was going to sell them on e-bay but he never did and he finally sent them back to me at a cost that may well have exceeded their value. I’m getting a mental picture of an albatross hanging from my neck. There is no way in the world to tell a friend that you don’t want them to do something for you that they consider a mitzvah and you consider an addition to your problems.
Dave and Charlie, the two good friends who did this were being wonderful friends for shipping me the cameras (and I love them for it) but in reality they have inadvertently added to my burden at a time I really didn’t need any more "Stuff" to have to deal with. I should have made that clear to them, It is my fault for not doing so.

Oh well, I think I have gripped enough for one day.

Later folks,

Uncle Dave