To further my intellectual discussions.... this morning will be on heat and airconditioning... and what requires heat and a/c, ( i.e. me—and baby chickens) and what does not-----( I.e. cartons of leftover shirts and inexpensive plastic beach balls from China.)now this is among other things , not only a personal concern, but a huge a national problem...

 

I drive thru Boxford a lot--- 2 acre zoning--- great big houses designed for the times when a family contained at least 12 children to help with the harvesting of food to feed the bunch—now I don’t know what is in those houses, but I do know that my own house is ridiculous  3 bedrooms 2 baths, just like the real estate people tell you, you must build to have the resale value. So lets get that out of the way ---- whether it is my house or my car--- and at my age... the future resale value is not anywhere near my radar....as I pile my 4 danes in the back of my toyota—out of which I took the back seat the first week I owned it.... Nick—who is service manager at Toyota pointed out. That if the forerunner were not such a great car mechanically I would never be able to sell it at all.

Janine is very quick to remind me—that my house definitely shows signs of “use” since I moved into it brand-new in 1979. 

Fact remains—I now live in a 12 x 14 room--- with kitchen privlidges and an “overflow room” for all the stuff I am not “using” at the moment—like coils of rope of all sizes...and of course my house is heated---  I have not even been in the upstairs bedrooms in many years.... but it is heated—there is a bathroom there... pipes must not be frozen....

And then there is my friend Ann--- the one who has the 2x4 to hold the outside door shut for 25 years and counting.... she has a huge house- where I honestly do not think you could yell loud enough to be heard from one end to another... I have been in a lot of her house, but 99.8 % of her life is in the one room which has kitchen equipment attached... she and her 4 dogs ( or is it 6 and a rabbit ?) live in that one room- which has a fireplace also(which has something to do with the rabbit- I was never sure.) . but the whole place is heated – it has to be because of the 932 bathrooms which have pipes in the walls which might freeze...

To this concept I remember some arraingement in ?tokyo? where you could rent.... or own..... a 4 x 6 x8 “cubicle”—complete with tv which kept you warm and dry, amused and able to eat—and I remember the best night sleep I ever had was on a train to Chicago in a cubicle about that size—and I was sooooo happy to have it ..

 

So what is it that makes anyone want to have more than what is necessary? And when does the amusing saying “ clutter will accumulate to fill available space” become a national and personal disaster? It is when – for one reason or another someone can not find a place to lie down in heated and airconditioned comfort, because others fill warm spaces with “stuff”. ...

 

My thanks to those who have sent me pictures of the curious storage of such excesses. This is one. It is of an entire kennel in the ICU building.