The "Just Rambling On!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Trying to clean up the garage in preparation for the approaching warm weather.  Putting the snow shovels away and grabbing the gas cans to head to the station to fill them so I'm ready for the summer grass mowing.  I looked around the garage and wondered why I still have those two large glass punchbowls.  Why do I still have the box of tennis balls and the half-dozen Frisbees?  Why do I  have those three dozen old towels that I used to use when I was preparing my '87 Vette for competition?  I definitely don't need all those old license plates from my variety of cars I had growing up.  And, why do I have those boxes of HO railroad buildings, track and cars?  How about the excess boxes of floor tile that I used 15 years ago when I first did the bathroom over.  Will I ever use them?  And, the two cardboard boxes of doll clothes that my wife played with when she was a child.  I can't believe we moved all this "stuff" from our first home to our "beach house" about 20 years ago.  I know you wonder why I call our current house our "beach house."  Reason is we were thinking of selling our first house and moving somewhere close to the beach about 20 years ago.  The kids had all moved out and our house was more than we needed.  But...Carol happened to find a house closeby that was extremely modern with a large back deck that had wooden walkways all around it.  Looked like a place at the beach!  Oh, well!  So why am I accumulating all these things?  I DON'T KNOW!!  It's not like I am a hoarder.  But, you never know when you might need a glass punchbowl or a few towels to mop us a mess you made.  As far as the doll clothes...they should have been long gone, but my dear wife says they hold too many memories.  We talk at times about downsizing.  Do we really need an acre of land to mow?  Do we really need all these rooms and "stuff" that we now have?  Tough to throw things out, isn't it.  My tool rack, with drawings of all the tools on it to keep it organized, has a few empty spots due to me losing the tools or perhaps breaking them.  Carol once said to me, "Why do you need 16 screwdrivers?  You can only use one at a time, right?"  Yep!  She's right, of course.  But, they all have different colored handles or a few may have wooden handles and a few might have metal handles.  Hate to get rid of them.  And, what about the 12 pair of blue jeans I have in my closet.  Each one is slightly different.  One has holes on the knees while another has holes up and down the legs.  One is missing a pocket while another is dark blue with big white stains from when I washed them one time with bleach.  Might have to shop soon and replace them.   But why?  I would still have 11 pair of jeans!  Do you enjoy going online and looking at all the neat things you can buy.  When heading on vacation do you shop for e-books as I do?  Just have to add a few to my Kindle before vacation starts.  Open Amazon, push the button, and presto... I have a new book.  And...all those neat things I can buy for my camera.  Wow!  Just got a new circular polarizing filter to photograph sunsets.  I already had one, but it was getting old and you definitely need a new one for good photographs.  Then I saw online that I could buy the latest novelty item to use when taking photos called a Photograph Crystal Ball.  Only $9.99 so I clicked on "Buy Now" and two days later it was in my mailbox.  Today it is so easy to accumulate mountains of "things".  I always loved taking photographs with my fish-eye lens and then wouldn't you know it...I left it somewhere.  Carol and I live in a house made for a large family.  It has close to a dozen rooms in it and they all have furniture in them.  Who sits in them besides us?  Family and friends arrive from time to time, but do we need all this furniture?  You better believe it, since I don't know where we would put all our "stuff" we have collected over the years if we didn't have them.  We need an entire room to hold the half-million sea shells we have collected.  And, what would we do with the 126 framed pieces of artwork that cover just about every wall in the house.  I think we need to talk once again about downsizing.  Don't need all those pictures.  Don't need all those sea shells.  But wait, I just might have to buy another fish-eye lens.  Remember?  I lost the last one!  Well, I gotta go.  My computer's 7 rooms away and I need to order some cat food online.   It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.