non-lucid thoughts on possessions, spelling accuracy not guaranteed

I hurt my back on Monday putting on drywall mud (joint compound). I spent two hours at the urgent treatment center and spent about 5 minutes with the Doc. She put her ice cold hands on back had me move around and gave me muscle relaxants. The back spasms mostly went away unless I move around too much but the drugs have made me kinda spacey. I think they relaxed my brain as well. I’m afraid to attempt anything that requires a lot of movement or even coherent thought, so I’m writing instead. Since most of my posts are not all that lucid to begin with, I’m sure no one will notice over much. Although my spelling is kinda sketchy, thank the Goddess for spell check.

I was going to write about the weather, but those up-north readers probably wouldn’t appreciate it, so I’ll write about something else.

I make journals out of old picture books and such. I took my old High School yearbook and made a journal with the cover of it. I only went to this school for a few months, so there weren’t all those many memories to feel bad about. I did keep all the pictures that had some small meaning and the sentiments written in it, but that is a rabbit trail I won’t go down. It got me thinking about the “stuff” I accumulate. I haven’t looked at that yearbook for … well, years. I only remembered a few of the people anyway and wondered why I kept it so long. Decluttering and simplifying is hard work. I have things I don’t remember buying or even using. I have at least three sets of sockets and 25+ screwdrivers and 9 hammers a whole big plastic tote box full of various computer and sound system cables. Last week I thew away a bunch of them, then promptly needed one of those I had discarded. Now, I really need one and don’t want to spend money to replace a cable I got for free.

Why do I keep all this stuff? In my previous life, we were always looking for a cable for some old piece of computer equipment. I began throwing them all in a drawer–just in case. I had 20 years of just in case cables. Most of what I have are duplicates of other things I possess. Why do I need 14 of those little allen wrenches you get with a put it together yourself book case? I keep extras because you never know when one or two are going to break. Why keep one extra when ten extras are better? I guess I’m just a packrat by nature but I’m trying to evolve from packrat to simple living.

I watched this show on Netflix called “Tiny”. It is about this guy who built a small house on a a trailer bed. He interviewed people who were living in houses about 500 – 600 square feet. My bedroom is almost that size. I couldn’t live like that but it did get me thinking about my hoarder leanings. I have got to learn to be brutal about getting rid of stuff. Unless it is something useful like those leftover pieces that come with new fans or the ends of the boards they used when building the dock or the pieces of PVC pipe the swimming pool guys left behind.

My brain is starting to relax too much for me to think any more. I’ll se y’all soon.