Just Throw It Away. Just Walk Away From It.

It's been a fairly decent Monday here.  It's about the normal level of work chaos for a Monday. There are a lot of meetings stacked up on a single day so it really means that I am lucky if I get an hour or two of clean work.  I already spent one of those hours this morning and I should be able to spend another this afternoon after I wrap up the meeting I am listening to right now.  It is one of those box checking meetings that large corporations have to have.  I'm not a fan of them but I understand their necessity in a complex work environment.  My primary objection is a lot of times they are not functionally necessary.  This one may be marginally necessary, at best.

I've taken three days off this week, Wednesday through Friday, to help Brandy do some cleaning over at Bob's.  As usual, the two of them are out of sync, but not to badly. Brandy wants to get a dumpster and through a lot of stuff away and Bob is balking.  So. we've settled on kind of a hybrid solution - we'll clean, bag and stack in the side yard and then make the decision on whether to rent a dumpster from there.  My only question is around the size of the dumpster - ten yard or twenty yard.  I'm not sure they have that much "stuff" to justify a twenty-yard dumpster.  It might be a ten yard or it might be a couple of pick-up trucks worth.  If it was up to me, I'd be ruthless - but it is really easy to be ruthless with other people's stuff.

I think they'll end up in a better place once the get the full sweep of the cleaning done - just visually and aesthetically they'll notice a big improvement.  I know I have in the times when I've ruthlessly purged my own stuff.  I went through a mini-purge a while ago and ended up keeping some stuff, but, as usual, after a couple of weeks I realized that I didn't need it - that I should have thrown all of it away.  Just close your eyes, throw it away, and realize that most of our junk is pure sunk cost.  Money we spent at one point that we'll never get back.  Just throw it away. Just walk away from it.

Simplification and 100 Things

I've been on a journey toward simplifying my lifestyle through a minimalist approach to living for quite a while now, close to five years.  It has been an interesting and rewarding journey.  It has also been a battle with the tide of possessions that ebbs and flows.  In the last couple of months I've made some good headway, in part through a trick I picked up somewhere.

I call it 100 Things.

It works like this.  On my smartphone I keep a list of every task I do during my free time.  Everything I consider and carefully store.  Everything thing I clean.  Everything I donate, give away or simply through away.  When I've done a hundred things, I zero the list out and start over. For me, the act of recording and counting the steps I'm taking also inspires me to continue to take them, just like a Fitbit for Simplicity.

I tend to break it down into groups of 10.  That seems to work the best for me. As I go through the evening and weekend, I try and put ten more things on the list. I'm not always successful.  On a weekend day I can sometimes get around 30 a day.  The internal reward, for me, comes in watching the process unfold, watching the objects flow out.

I generally only record objects of significant size (bigger than a breadbasket) and tasks that take more than a few minutes.  If I need the extra motivation I may go down to smaller objects and shorter spans of time, but I usually don't.

If you are struggling with simplification it might be a trick worth trying for you.

Life Is Made Of Simple Things

It's a little bit past sundown, just inside the twilight hour, and it is a beautiful night outside. I've got the windows wide open and the fan blowing.  The heat of the last couple of days has broken and today was quite pleasant, weather wise.  Warm enough, but not too hot. I had a good day at work, just not as productive as I would have liked. The evening has been relaxed - I watched an episode of Castle and I am about to start another.  I am a big fan of that show.  Dinner was a bowl of potato soup and two slices of pumpkin bread.  I followed it up with a phone call to my step-dad and then a text exchange with TR, who is in NYC on a business/pleasure trip with her posse. After the episode of Castle, I am going to curl up early and read SPQR until I fall asleep.  Life is made of simple things. Tonight, life is good.

On The Theme of Simplicity

For the last couple of days I feel like I've been cluttered. It seems like I keep bumping into things and dropping things. I generally take that as a sign to simplify. Besides the physical layer of simplification there is also the psychological layer. True simplification happens on both layers, if not simultaneously, then in close proximity to each other. The psychological follows the physical and the physical follows the psychological. It is a beautiful feedback loop. In keeping with the theme of simplicity that should do it for the evening.

The Simple Journey

I've written before about my ongoing journey toward simplicity. I've discovered some interesting things during that journey, things about myself, things about my world. That journey toward simplicity comes in waves.  Each wave carries more and more unnecessary stuff away.  With each subsequent wave I feel that there really isn't a lot left that can be carried away, especially in terms of physical possessions.  Then, time passes, and the next wave begins building.  It seems that there is always stuff that can be moved on. I mention it this morning because I feel another wave coming.

It was a nice morning. I started it with a conversation with T.R., followed by breakfast and a hot shower, and, incidentally, "The Blues Brothers 2000" on cable.  I thought the original was a truly great movie, and the sequel, though amusing, was not as iconic. It is still enjoyable though - and it features the always beautiful Nia Peeples.

I am currently drinking my second cup of coffee and procrastinating my way into the morning.  I still have those two work tasks ahead of me and I am going to dive into them shortly. I reckon that will be a couple of hours of work, so I should wrap it up by noon and have the window to grab something for lunch. Since we're starting the vacation trip tomorrow morning, my plan is to simply move as easily as possible through the day today.

A Collection of Morning Thoughts

I woke up at 4:45 AM this morning.  It was simply beautiful outside.  At that hour dawn is only a  faint hint on the horizon, everything is very still and quiet, and after our heat wave it is blessedly cool.  I lay in bed for a while and contemplated sleeping in, but I found I was already wide awake.  I woke up and padded around the house in the semi-darkness and just kind of savored the moment of the morning.

I discovered that at 2:11 AM my Blackberry had locked up.  That was the first time it had done that, so I did I forced restart by popping the battery and then putting it back in.  I hope that is not a trend, because otherwise I happen to like the Z10.  It is a sweet little phone and the only complaint I have is that the ring tones and message tones are on the soft side.  Since I usually carry my cell phone in my pocket, I like them to be a bit louder.

A nice hot shower, clean clothes, a cup of coffee, a bowl of Special K and I find myself moving smoothly into the morning. I have three days before I start my two week vacation, which will include my annual pilgrimage to Comic Con in San Diego.  I am looking forward to both the two week vacation and trip down to San Diego.

I've got a fair load of work to try and get wrapped up before I depart, but, I am feeling pretty confident that it is going to be a relatively clean vacation.  Now, I am sure that, at several points during the vacation I am going to peek into my email just to make sure nothing has totally exploded.  I would rather spend a few minutes of my time on vacation then come back to something fully engulfed in a work fire frenzy.

My monkey mind kind of skittered around this morning.  I am always amazed at the ability of the mind to pull me out of the moment and off into something that really has nothing to do with me, something I cannot influence, something I did not cause, something that only peripherally effects me because I am aware of it, or because it effects someone I know.  My mind really likes to solve puzzles and problems, so I think sometimes when it has none, it will quite happily borrow them or invent them. That is not necessarily a good thing.

Over the weekend I did a lot of cleaning in my living room, basking in the Zen nature of the simple and repetitive tasks, with an end result of a clean, neat and uncluttered living room. I love the feeling when I come into the living room and the clean lines of it inspire me to try and keep the same clean lines in my life.

When you read about simplicity, one of the things you'll read about is that your stuff, your environment, has a direct impact on your mental condition. I find that is very true. When my environment is simple and clean, my mind is simple and clean.  It's a great combination. I've mentioned in previous posts that my drive toward simplicity seems to move in waves.  I think I am about to enter another wave of simplicity, another wave of minimalism. I am looking forward to it over the upcoming vacation.

Doctors and Dust

I confess that, over the course of the last few years, I have made major stops toward living a minimalist lifestyle, striving for simplicity in many things, including interior decoration.  Simple put, my folks don't embrace that same ethic.  So, on the first day, I did as much simplification in the bedroom I am sleeping in as I possibly could, if only to make it more comfortable for me. Off and on over the last couple of days I've been cleaning the folks place, as much as I can get away with.  So far, I've gotten away with about 12 bags of "stuff" and I have permission to take out even more.

Today though was a day that was initially consumed with errands.  Tom had to start the day by running down to IHS in Rosebud to get his medications lined out.  Fortunately, he was successful and he now has his prescription filled for the next 30 days, with one automatic refill for the 30 days that follow after that.  He has to get his medicaid approved so he can schedule another surgery due to a growth on his pancreas.  IHS (and CHR) currently lack the resources to schedule it for him.

With Tom headed off to IHS, I headed into town with Mom and Bill.  First, I dropped Bill at the tax preparers, then I took Mom up to see the PA at her doctors office.  She is attempting to get more pain killers, but she is at the limit of what they are willing to give here.  She is having trouble managing the pills.  They renew them on a weekly basis, but she tends to run through them and come up short. The dynamic of helping her manage her pills is difficult. Tomorrow, a home health nurse to going to come out and visit with her and discuss the issue with her, though we're not real sure that is going to make any significant difference.

After her appointment, we picked Bill up and then took him up to the clinic as well, so he could also talk to the PA.  They discussed the difficulty of controlling her medications and the need for her to keep to the tight schedule of them.  We will see what the home health nurse has to suggest tomorrow.

Then, we stopped at Jolie's cafe in Winner for lunch, followed by a stop at the bank, then, finally, the drive back to the ranch (twenty six miles from Running's at the edge of Winner to the ranch).  Once we got back I moved all the cars in the big garage and shut the doors.  We are sliding into a winter storm warning, starting tonight, and running through to Wednesday morning - so, I am bracing for snow and ice. 

After we got settled back in, I helped Bill search for some tax documents (he had them earlier in the year, but could not locate them).  We didn't find them, but we did manage to sort through a lot of stuff and take it off in bags.  Then, I cooked dinner - a nice, hearty, potato cheddar soup that was very well received.  Following that, I tackled cleaning the kitchen counter - and let me tell you, that was a daunting task.

First, it was piled high and deep with several years worth of incidental stuff - and worst yet, incidental small stuff.  So I spent a good deal of time sorting through it, figuring out what was what, and throwing it away or putting it into it's proper place.  The kitchen is still a fairly daunting place, but the worst of it - the counter, was cleaned to the board.

Then, a call with my brother (and ruminations on the difficulty of communication).  From there, I did all the dishes, including a lot of miscellaneous containers that had been stuff with miscellaneous "stuff" on the counter.  When that task was done, I settled in here to watch a spot of TV, make an entry here, and settle in for the evening.  With the storm blowing in, tomorrow should be a good day for more cleaning - the big hitter ahead of me right now is still the den - but, on the plus side, the den is more junky then dirty and what is in there tends to be big boxes tumbled together, not necessarily with anything in them. (I made a foray into the den earlier in the day and scooped some of the out).

With that note, I am going to settle in for the night and enjoy a very quiet evening.

Vacation - Quiet Days in South Dakota

I am enjoying the quiet days here in South Dakota.  Today was a particularly easy going one, especially it involved a late afternoon two hour nap.  That was a nice treat. So, outside of napping it has been a series of easy days here at the ranch, visiting with Mom, Bill, and Tom. 

I was teasing them the other day that, between the three of them, they have the health of a whole person.  In the case of Mom and Bill, it is the effect of their age. In the case of Tom it is a result of his illness, which has him up and down and up and down.

Each day is easy though and I have been gradually making a dent in their junk.  I didn't do much today, but it is a slow and steady challenge. Tomorrow, I am going to hit the Bedroom Number 2 hard, and then from there pivot and attack the Den.  The Den is actually far more disorganized them it is junky. 

I think, because the den is easy access off the living room it is very convenient to just open the door and temporarily drop things in - consequently, it is more of a space occupying pile of stuff, as opposed the prepackaged density of Bedroom Number 2.

Tonight, I am currently sitting here writing this entry and watching Lawrence of Arabia on TMC.  That is one of my favorite movies.  I've seen it several times on the big screen and I try to catch it each time it comes out.  It is an amazing piece of film in so many ways, each time I see it, I see something in it that I haven't seen before.  Within the movie the desert itself is an astounding character.

I am of course concerned about the various health issues, but there is a bright spot in the midst of it all - with Mom and Bill, their principle challenge remains age and the effects of age, as well as their assorted chronic conditions. Tom is far more acutely ill and how he manages his illness, if he can, is going to effect his morbidity. The prognosis for him, absent some fierce discipline, is going to be very rough.

It has been very nice to be quiet, to move easily through the day without any special schedule, free of the mad calendar of the work day, and in a state that I would call about 95% off the grid. The world definitely moves at a different pace here and that is very enjoyable.  Given the hectic nature of this particular trip, I am glad I took the full two weeks, even though I suspect I am going to pay for it when I get back to work - it is always so nice just to step out of that world and into this one.

And, in lieu of that, I hope you're having a good day, whoever you are and wherever you are.

I Kept The Day Simple

I kept the day simple.  Breakfast.  A couple of errands. I drove up to meet Don to play pool at Edgies, but there was some sort of corporate event going on there, so we opted for lunch at Dave & Busters over at the Great Mall.  We considered playing there, but there was also some sort of very large kids birthday party there. After lunch, I swept home and in the quiet hours of the afternoon I watched "The Following", then had a simple dinner of mushroom soup, then went out for a rambling neighborhood two and a half mile walk.  All of that brings me into this moment, where I am settling in for the night with the intention of watching a move, perhaps "All The Pretty Horses".

Simple, Simple, Simple

Another very easy going day during which I did next to nothing of any significance and then went out for pizza.  It has been the most relaxing weekend that I have had in a while and I am grateful for that. I am winding out the last hour of the day with a cup of hot chocolate and the novel I've been reading. Simple, Simple, Simple.

A Simple Weekend, More or Less

It was a nice weekend, though work felt like the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head.  My calendar is mostly clear tomorrow, so I should be able to pull a productive day out of it.  I worked for a couple of hours today, but I couldn't really say that I accomplished anything significant. It was more of a shuffling of data in different directions.

Sunday was a mellow day.  Had breakfast with Bob and Tony, then stopped to pick up a couple of new pairs of blue jeans, then up to Edgie's to play a few hours of pool (I won, 4 out of 7 games), then Patxi's for a pizza, a leisurely after pizza walk - then home to Mythbusters and the Walking Dead and a quiet evening reading The Cloud Atlas.

In short, it was a very ordinary Sunday, which is just what the doctor ordered.  I hope I have a productive week at work and I hope everyone else has a productive week, because we have a lot of ground to try and cover in way too few days and hours.  I am going to try and not psych myself out over the whole thing - going to try and stay focused and stay productive, but that is never easy, especially not in the environment that we currently find ourselves in.

I am enjoying sitting in the quiet of the living room, reading, this evening, since I've turn the television off. I think I am going to slip into bed early today, just so I can read and ease into sleep, to prepare for the week to come.

Possessing Nothing

It was quiet and gray when I woke up this morning.  I had dreamed the night before, but I don't recall the contents of the dream, only the memory that I dreamed.  Outside, the sky was fog-shrouded, with the promise of heat later in the day. I stood by the window for a while and watched the dawn unfolding on the street below, then padded barefoot into the kitchen and started the morning coffee.

The saying "possessing nothing, we are possessed by nothing" is running through my mind this morning. My sister had sent me an early morning text that commented on the lonesome feeling that comes with the dawn. I happen to like that feeling.  Dawn has long been on of my favorite times of the day and what I love about it is that sense of lonesomeness, that sense of quiet and stillness.

Then, as the day unfolds, that feeling usually slips away and we slide into the normal hurly-burly of the day, the things that have to be done, the tasks and the errands, surrounding in the clutter of noise and sight that make up modern life.  Somewhere, in between those two points, we find a balance. Possessing nothing, we are possessed by nothing.

My music choice this morning this morning is Flogging Molly's "Laura".

"I could have danced on the sun,
but my world came undone..."

A Simple Friday Note

It's been a good vacation so far. Just some quick notes:

The hotel (the Marriott's Coronado Island Resort and Spa) is excellent, spacious rooms, beautiful grounds, nice pool and spa - in short, an outstanding place.

Coronado Island has been a nice place to hang out, great views of San Diego (I am going to run out tonight and see if I can get some night pictures once the sun goes down).  We've hit some truly excellent food, as you can see from some of the pictures that I have posted.

We spend yesterday downtown, wandering the Con, and then today we went up to the Birch Aquarium and spent as lazy a day as possible.  Tomorrow we'll probably pop back downtown and spend some time in the vicinity of the Con and then, during the evening, we are going to meet the array of Tony's friends at Ponce's for dinner.

It's been a well balanced vacation, with left and right and up and down. I'll write more when I get a window.

Simple Beauty

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The Rain Outside

We're slipping through our first winter rainstorm here in this part of California and it has been nice. I slept deeply and late this morning, in part cushioned by the rain and the gray shadows of the storm. I am looking forward to another deep night of sleeping.

I had an incidental day today, full of incidental things, including seeing Johnny Depp and Amanda Beard in "The Rum Diary". As we came out of the movie I told my friend Tony that a good movie has the ability to make you laugh spontaneously and out loud, and "The Rum Diary" certainly met that criteria. There were several places in the movie that were laugh out loud funny, even though the movie itself is essentially a drama. It is a very funny drama.

We had a late lunch at Puerto Azul in Willow Glen, a good place for simple and tasty Mexican food, with an emphasis on seafood. Though, my choice was the Enchilda Mexicana, which was outstanding. From there, I ran another errand, stopping at the AT&T store to look into microcells (cool technology) and then over to Barnes & Noble to look at calendars and Christmas cards.

I came home, took a nap, a hot bath, spent some time reading "A Feast for Crows" by George R.R. Martin., then called my folks in South Dakota and discussed some of the details of my trip to South Dakota for Thanksgiving. I am looking forward to seeing family, but I wanted to make sure that my ride from the airport to the ranch was coordinated, since I have been left at the airport a time or two.

It is kind of a Catch-22 - my folks or my siblings like to pick me up at the airport because it gives them an excuse to go to Rapid City, but the same time I do not like to be particularly dependent on someone else for a ride (see previous comment about being left at the airport before). But, at this point, it looks like we have the schedule coordinated. Of course, that is subject to change without notice.

I seem to have come out of October with a bang, and I seem to be sliding into a transformational time as I move toward the end of the year - transformation and change always happen and sometimes they can be painful. We try and remind ourselves that we grow through the transformation, that change is generally a positive thing, but that doesn't make it any less painful.

We are human beings. We attach to things. We attach to people. Buddha tells us that all suffering is a result of that attachment. Obviously, I've got a long way to go before I can get detached, in large part because, quite frankly, I like being attached. I am not a Buddhist (though I am strongly influenced by zen simplicity), I actually think that attachment is necessary and good. Even when it involved the pain of change. It certainly makes me contrary.

Two Simple Days

I've spent the last two days moving through the world without purpose, doing my best to just flow. Friday was incidental errand day and Saturday was just Saturday.

I did things of course, but I did them in the simplest way possible - by virtue of just being as much in the moment as I could and moving from one to the next, sweeping the floor, to steal the zen saying. It was pretty nice.

I deliberately didn't write anything, here or elsewhere - I took advantage of the slow weekend to just set things down for a couple of days. I plan on continuing that into today.

Then, perhaps, at the end of the day, as the warm October evening slides over me, I may contemplate the days and see if there were any lessons hidden inside of them, hidden in plain sight.

A Confession and A Photograph for Oct. 2nd

I am here to confess to a terrible sin. Given the slightest opportunity, given the weakest provocation, given a reason of any sort, no matter how fragile or flimsy and I will indulge myself in...reading. Hedonistic, unhesitating, opportunistic, sensuous, luxurious, passionate, all encompassing reading.

A book, whether fiction, non-fiction, poetry or any and all of them has the ability to transport me to another realm of the senses, where the real and the unreal mingle and we dwell in a world of almost limitless possibilities. There is a sweet surrender that takes place between the covers of a book, a total surrender to the will and the power of the author. I love it.

This photograph is part of my October collection, I have twin nightstands on each side of my bed. This is the one on the right side of the bed, if you stand at the foot and face the head. It serves as a resting place for the book that is read, even if only for a moment, as I fall asleep or as I wake.

If you want to make a small transformational change in your day, try this - place one of your favorite books, either new or old, next to your bed and immediately on waking, before you get out of bed, turn on the light and read a passage or two, then close your eyes and contemplate it for a while.

The book in current "high rotation" on my nightstand is "The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Onono Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan." by Jane Hirschfield (Translator). If you are a fan of the beautiful simplicity of Japanese poetry, I would definitely recommend that you add this book to your collection. It was recommended to me by T.R. and I have been slowly devouring it. Some books of poetry are meant to be slowly consumed, so that you can truly savor each taste they contain.

The Simplicity Never Went Anywhere

It's a soft and beautiful morning here. There is fog that will burn off as the day progresses. But, for now, it is a quiet and soft dawn. I woke up about six a.m., which is close to normal time for me, and have spent a lazy morning so far. I watched "Fringe" on the DVR. Last night I spent some time with T.R. and then slipped off to sleep after reading a chapter or two in "The Clash of Kings".

I don't really have anything planned for this weekend. Breakfast with friends in about an hour and a half, then probably a trip to Fry's, and then over to Bob's to wind out the afternoon with the guys. A simple dinner and then a quiet evening at home. In short, I hope it is going to sort out to be a simple and easy Saturday.

I got a text from my brother this morning, and he was commenting on missing the simplicity of the Saturday mornings, the anticipation and the excitement of watching the old cartoon "Space Ghost". I think the Saturday morning cartoon memory is one deeply ingrained in many Americans as a symbol of the simplicity of childhood.

Of course, as an adult, there is nothing to prevent you from having the exact same morning. I responded to my brother that it really is all about the choices we make. I would compare this morning with the simplicity of those mornings, all those years ago. You just need to make the choices to embrace the simplicity of life. That simplicity never went anywhere. You went somewhere. And maybe the cartoons changed. For instance, I am not watching "Space Ghost". I am watching the alluring Maggie Q. in "Nikita".

Until There Is No Simplicity To Seek

Lunch was a bowl of split-pea soup and an unsettled mind. Due to the change in seasons I’ve been sleeping later into the morning. My body is tuned to the rhythm of the setting and rising sun. With the sun rising later in the day during the fall and winter months I tend to go to sleep earlier and rise later. I try and cultivate what I see as that very natural sleeping pattern. Now, I am not sure that the change in sleeping patterns has anything to do with having an unsettled mind, but there may be a connection there somewhere.

When I am speaking of an unsettled mind, I mean a mind that does not want to settle on a single subject. It is different than a lack of focus. When I speak of a lack of focus, I mean the inability to focus clearly on the one thing that your mind has settled on. An unsettled mind may be a very focused mind, it just doesn’t want to spend too much time, or too much focus, on one thing. It moves from thing to thing, from thought to thought, through the day, as if it was searching for a specific thing or thought that it wanted to settle on. It is almost as if the mind is doing an inventory of its thoughts.

Currently, I am searching for some thought around the subject of simplicity. Externally, the last two years of my life have been a journey toward simplicity. The internal journey has mirrored the external journey. Somehow, in the preceding years, I had become incredibly cluttered in both my physical world and my psychological world. With each layer of complexity that gets peeled off, I see the underlying layer of simplicity. Then, in time, I come to see that as “not simple enough”, peel it back, and find another layer underneath. I am not sure if there is a bottom to the layers. If there is, I am not sure what lies underneath the last layer.

One of the parts of the journey that I have found particularly interesting has been this layered effect. You take the complexity of life, you take all of the component parts of that complexity, you contemplate them, try and understand which is which, what purpose they serve, what value they hold and it seems that in each successive iteration you find that any purpose or value is largely illusionary.

As you delve into things you discover the necessity of them and you discover that many of the things are simply not necessary. On my level, I am not sure you can put the horse before the cart. Let us say you have ten complex things in your life. I find that you have to spend a certain amount of time contemplating them, coming to understand them, before you can separate yourself from them.

That process of contemplation allows you to truly let them go. If you reverse that order, if you discard the complexity prior to understanding the complexity, then it is going to sneak back into your life. Your mind isn’t ready to let go of it yet. First comes understanding, then comes release.

This process of seeking simplicity continues until there is no simplicity to seek.

The First Battle of the Books

Okay, I have paused to take a breather, having run up and down the steps several times with boxes of books, bags of papers, and a desk. I've reached the end of "The First Battle of the The Books". As I continue down the path toward a simplified lifestyle, in fits and starts, I periodically find myself struggling with my possessions.

For those things that I am fond of, like my books, it can be a real battle. There can be a real back and forth. I am trying to pull my book collection down to the books that I routinely use and read, with minor exceptions for collectors items or items of significant value. A few weeks back, when they put the new carpet in, I moved all of my books from the shelves onto the kitchen table. I was pretty impressed that they all fit on the table. All told, there were about two hundred and forty books.

Well, fits, starts, and weeks later I've cleared the books from the table - some of them made it back to the shelves, perhaps too many. Others make it to Goodwill. Still others ended up in the recycle bin. What remains is back on the shelves, though not in any specific order. "The Second Battle of the Books" is forthcoming. As I re-order the books on the shelves, I am hoping to make another cut - again, I hope to cut it in half.

This is a struggle for me because I can look at almost any book and think "gosh, I need to re-read that" or "I may need to look something up in that one" or "that was a good one, I think I will hang onto it." When, practically speaking - probably less than twenty of them get routine looked at. So, this is just a breather between the First and Second Battle of the Books.