Wednesday, March 12, 2008

New Life!

Yesterday, I waited all day with giddy anticipation for my Relo-Cube. It didn't arrive until almost 3pm, which I suppose I should have expected, but I was hopeful that it would arrive much earlier. I can praise the Lord in that I was left with the perfect parking spot to put the cube. Anyway, I unloaded for about 3 hours and called it a night as the sun was setting. I resumed first thing in the morning and it only took a couple more hours to finish unloading. One of my upstairs neighbors offered to help, but I was mostly finished so I only took him up on his offer in so far as to be able to get my full sized mattress through the door. That is the one thing I own that I just can't carry by myself without simply dragging it and who wants to drag their mattress over the ground?

So the dumping of the stuff into my new apartment went smoothly. I broke for lunch and stopped at the 7-Eleven for a few choice items, where I was amazed that I could get some cheap plastic table cloths for this afternoon's project. That's right. The first thing I had to do was to put my Command Center together. I think most of you, except my friend John down in South Carolina, have seen this monstrosity of functionality. This time, I decided to cover the chip board with the tablecloths to make it look nice. Anyway, I have that all set up and it is good to be sitting in a nice soft chair in front of my computer typing this to you all now.

I have said this so many times, I may as well mention it here. Everyone knows that I am not a good tourist. I go places, even Europe, and I have little tolerance in looking at old shit. I can do it, but not for long. Rather than rushing hither and thither trying to squeeze in as much crap as I can on a vacation, I would do just as well sitting in a park reading. Perhaps relaxing at an outdoor café with my travel companions and talk the afternoon away. I like to take in the ambiance of the situation rather than try to overload my senses with things that will be quickly forgotten.

The reason I mention this, is that I almost always follow that discussion up with a discussion about how I can't stand to be away from home for much more than a week. I always say, "I miss my stuff." I am in many ways a homebody, but it isn't because I like being home, I like being around my stuff. I find them familiar and relaxing. I have found the past week to be very disconcerting and uncomfortable. I have been complaining about not having any furniture, and believe me that sucks, but I really have just missed my stuff.

I can finally call this home. I have my stuff.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Amen to that. As you know, I travel a lot. Not only do I miss my family but I sincerely miss my stuff too. It would make sense that the stuff that surrounds me is stuff I take pleasure in or it probably wouldn't be there. I wanted to ask you how you felt about natural landmarks when touristing? Do you hold them in the same regard as "old crap?" For example, a beautiful waterfall, beach or mountain.

Unknown said...

So, if I sent your command center to Venice, would you give it a fairer assessment?

Doc Brown said...

John: Actually, I prefer the natural landmarks to old buildings and museums. I find nature to be far more inspiring than bricks and mortar. I am looking forward to visiting the Grand Canyon now that I am out here. Of course, I am going to wait a while to see if anyone visits me, but if no one has by September or so, I may just have to treat myself to its visage for my birthday. All by my lonesome....

Kim: Here's a fair assessment of your proposal. My command center would then smell like a sewer.