Thursday 2 February 2006

Pic of the day: So we're back to chaos again. Luckily most of this will be gone in a few days.

Cluttered

I simply did not lock the door to my old apartment, so the washing people should have no trouble getting in. They promised to call me when they were finished, though. This was before 10. It is now 11 hours later, so I sincerely hope it hasn't taken that long. Then again, 20 years of bachelor habitation... perhaps they need the whole weekend? No, seriously, it's not like I used to trample banana peel into the carpet. Actually there wasn't carpet, but I wouldn't have done it anyway. The water did get really opaque black when I washed some of the floors, yes. But it won't continue that way all day. So they probably just forgot to call, or something. I should check on it tomorrow, I guess. Perhaps call them first.

The other important thing that happened was that I got the stuff from the smaller apartment I meant to rent. The landlord there drove it all up. It took only one turn in his rather large van, but the place is now utterly cluttered. I had to put the books in carrying bags and the clothes in large black garbage-style sacks. My wall sections with bookshelves are still disassembled. I simply am not very good at putting things back together. I started with the tables, but when I tried to screw the legs together with the metal braces, they somehow did not fit together. The shelves should be over there again. I am using a table now that is not fastened, it just rests on the legs thanks to its weight. It is quite stable but not really a permanent solution. Once I get the shelves up, I should be able to file away a lot of stuff.

Also about a dozen carrying bags were comic books that I had packed for delivery to the second hand book shop / swap store in the city. The owner (and only worker) has taken a week off because he and his beloved have their first baby. So the place has been closed. That's not as huge a problem for me since my comics have anyway been locked in the apartment I have paid for but never moved into. Now they are in the hallway here, and my intention is still the same: To carry them off to town, one bag a day, for the next couple weeks. Then I may just go through the ones I intended to keep, and think again.

***

I am starting to think that my calling in life is not to keep a small library of comic books and fantasy novels. I think instead it may be to become a sage or some such. You know, a wise man. There are so many knowledgeable people but so few who are wise. It is not something there is a demand for ... there is a need for it, yes, but not a demand, more's the pity. Here's why: You can only order wisdom for yourself. Others can see that I need wisdom, but they cannot give it to me, even should they have wisdom themselves. Likewise I may see that others need it, but I cannot give it to them. Only when something happens that reveals our own foolishness – and this whole botched move thing has surely done that – do we have an opportunity to extend our wisdom.

***

Even apart from the temporary clutter of comic books, however, there is a lot of stuff. I intend to continue to put away things for the next days. Hopefully my pious friend will be back for the electronic organ and snowshoes, and to help me put back together the wall sections. I am starting to think that the lack of the three storage rooms I used to have may more than outweigh the extra cabinets and cupboards. Or it could just be the fact that I am leaving the living room – the largest room in the house – almost untouched, rather than filling it with stuff. Remember, I used to have a big table in my living room, and on it several years worth of magazines. Those are thrown away, though, so that's not it. The comic books were stacked in plastic bags in one corner of the living room. Most of those are going too, but there are still two large cardboard crates... for now. We are going to have a talk, my comic books and I, I think. Still, this living room is so pretty, I hesitate to have two crates of comics in it. Or the old spool tape recorder which I used to have under my table and never used for perhaps a decade, and rarely most of the time before that. Oh well.

You know, "living room" may be a bit misleading if I don't actually live in it. Right now, the "home office" is the actual living room when I come home in the evening. My Sim is still making his way through college (second year now) with very little help from me. Even though he is largely made in my image... I just looked and noticed that he has 1 "have a party" want and 2 identical "have a party" fears! I guess my Sim is just as schizo as I was at his age. Oh well. I am saying "oh well" a lot lately, am I not? That and reading Lao Tzu. After what just happened, accepting small things seems a very easy thing to do. Add some hot soup on a cold night, and it becomes very easy to imagine that all is right with the world.

All isn't right with the world, of course. But we're working on it.