I Should Have Thought of That Before

The shop window is on North Loop at a joint called Room Service. I wish I'd thought to take reflection photos sooner in my life although I have been doing it for some years...since before digital cameras completely took over my photography.

There are lots of things I wish I'd thought to do sooner.

Since there is no escape from a Visible Woman blog entry without a mention of the 'd word' (downsizing) I wish I would have thought long ago about the consequences of storing everything I purchased in a smaller space than this one. When I moved to Austin, I had a mover bring a single mattress, box springs, an old dresser, some modular furniture, a bumper pool table, kitchen stuff and a few odds and ends. I stuffed my VW bug with other stuff. Before I married FFP I foolishly bought a couch and some bar stools. We crammed all our worldly combined goods into a house smaller than our new condo will be. It worked OK. It was a little tighter when FFP started his business in that house. When we moved to this house, we stretched to fill the rooms. The house was smaller then. Our answer to our accumulation seemed to be: add more house. But then we would redecorate the new areas. We got rid of lots of stuff, of course, during these upheavals. But then acquired even more.

I wish I would have thought sooner about carefully cataloging the things I did decide to keep. I'm working hard now to have all the ephemera and books I keep cataloged before we move. The flip side of this (another day's entry?) is the way I start organization like that full of good intentions and then fall away into a maelstrom of chaos and entropy. [Ed. Note: A facile excuse to use (or misuse) three words you like?] [LB: Facile? Who's talking?]

Anyway. I wish I'd thought sooner to more carefully label and date all the files and photos on my computer.

I was thinking this morning after we took a big load of stuff to the thrift store yesterday: it would have been interesting to photograph all the stuff we got rid of before giving it away or selling it. Too late. But it would have been interesting. By the way, in the last couple of days we have gotten rid of a coffee table (oak, handmade, bought at a charity auction), an old Sony cabinet TV we bought about thirty years ago that still worked, a VCR and a VHS player, several dozen books, and some glasses and knick knacks. (Actually the last of these are just queued up to go to the thrift store, but that counts.)

By the way, for those of you who look for The Visible Woman every day, I encourage you to use the RSS because I have to move some computer equipment and I have a busy social schedule for the next three days and my tech guy and I are going to be getting some new computer equipment going so...I may have to let go the circadian nature of this blog and use the time more, er, wisely.

Je Ne Regrette Rien

Okay, this picture. I took it of my left hand in the summer because I got this bruise that looked, well, like an 'old lady' bruise. And I thought "man, I'm getting old." I didn't know how I got it and I haven't had one that looked like it since. I didn't look at it with regret when I saw it, though. Regret isn't something I spend a lot of time on. I'm turned toward the future, hopefully armed with lots of learning. From mistakes.

I asked my dad if I could do anything for him this morning on the phone and he said "not unless you can turn back the clock about twenty years."

It's best not to regret anything except the inexorable passing of time. And you can't stop that so why regret it.

I asked FFP yesterday if he regretted giving anything away. He said not really and I said I hadn't either but he said that I once wrote that I regretted giving away an espresso machine he gave me when we got married. Ha. I guess I did write it. (He's seldom wrong about these things although I don't remember this.) I don't regret that now, for sure. We never used it after we got into owning a Capresso.

My lack of regret over giving things away is giving some measure of confidence to keep on tossing. Of course, it isn't going fast enough. But each cubic foot is a victory and there are little flurries when we get rid of a lot of stuff.

Last night we were dining with a very young lady (not yet thirty) and talking about bad financial advice we'd taken. I don't regret that either. I'm just glad that in spite of bad advice and our own boners we've managed to hang on to a little something.

Yeah, regret. It's so yesterday.