myrddyn

reflections from the kiddie pool
2002-05-17 16:18:11 (UTC)

Weekend ideal vs. actual

Actual weekend plans:

(1) More clean-up/organization of my computer/hobby area.
It is an area that seems to get smaller and smaller with
the passage of time. The real culprit is that the basement
cannot stay organized for more than a couple weeks at a
time. My wife didn't want me to build any shelving in the
basement but I insisted so we could get stuff off the
floor, but it hasn't helped. For all the shelves I have
put up, we just have more stuff to put on them, and the
basement is still a cluttered mess. I have built a number
of metal shelves, a simple wooden set for my wife's kid's
books, and a plastic stand-up cabinet. There is marginally
enough room to pick your way around most parts of the
basement. I would like to point out that the vast majority
of stuff down there should either be thrown away, given to
charity, or burnt. We are entirely too young to have this
much shit. SOmetimes I ask, what happens when the kid
comes? I think my wife has pinned her hopes on having a
bigger house then, but that won't be happening in the near
future unless I change jobs to work in the city and/or in
computers. Besides, a bigger house just means more room to
put more stuff in, it doesn't solve the basic pack-rat
syndrome that my wife suffers from.

Anyway, I try to keep my 'area' of the basement as picked
up as reasonably possible given the amount of stuff I do
down there. I have a 'big box of computer miscellany' that
is just a jumble of parts, but at least it is in a single
box that I can put on the shelf. Sometimes I have a hard
time keeping my CD-Roms in any discerable organized spot,
but who doesn't. I also try to keep enough 'other' stuff
out of my area so that I can set up my small bench for any
working out I do, but as noted in prior entries I have had
mixed results with that endeavor of late.

(2) Clean R/C car. It got muddy last weekend when I went
out for Friday practice. The motor and moving parts need
to be cleaned. I was going to do it upstairs on newspaper
until my wife caught wind of it and told me to take the
whole thing downstairs. Yah, because getting a little dirt
on the carpet that I would vacuum up would be a big
disasater.

(3) Laundry. I admit, this is a weakness of mine. My
laundry has taken over the second bedroom, which doesn't
get any use anyway so it hardly qualifies as an emergency.
Also, when all my laundry is clean there isn't room enough
to put all the clean clothes away.

-----------------

That's it. Those three things. No friends to make plans
with. No places to go.

-----------------

Ideal weekend plans:

(1) Friends call (note: friends rarely call), excited
about seeing Star Wars or going out for a
drink/band/dancing, whichever works. Must move laundry
plans.

(2) Saturday weather clears up, we decide to take the pups
to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore trails (wife has
never been there), about 30/40 minutes away. A good trail
walk tires the pups out, they sleep on the way home. R/C
car does not get cleaned.

(3) Clean/organize basement area Sunday, laundry, and do
other house or yard work.

------------------------

Was talking to my brother-in-law on IM yesterday, he lives
in the city of which we live in a suburb, he just got a
bike. Mother-in-law and her boyfriend live about 5 hours
away, they like biking. I have a road bike I used
extensively in college and law school that has sat in my
garage for about 4 years. So he is chatting with me and
says his mom and her boyfriend want to bring their bikes up
to bike up the lakeshore, and if I could get my bike in
running shape I could come to. He doesn't make any mention
of my wife in these plans, mostly because he knows, like I
do, that she not only probably isn't interested, but also
might be pissed that basically he and I and her mom and
mom's boyfriend would make plans that we all knew she
wouldn't be interested in.

I passed this along to my wife anyway, because quite
frankly it sounds like a lot of fun. The lake shore is
pretty and has many sights and has been designed so that
people can bike for miles up and down. I would probalby
take my camera, get some good shots.

Her response of course is that it sounds hot and sweaty and
she isn't interested.

. . . . That just baffles me. Anyway I'm going to go
since I was invited and it sounds like a ton of fun, if
they really do come up here.

Anyway I pass this along not becuase I'm pissed at her or
anything, or even that it bums me out. It's just that I'm
not going to let her keep me from going, and I'm going to
have a fun time.




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