Accumulators-Collectors-Hoarders
It is safe to say that we are not hoarders. As evidenced by the “reality” show on television, we can still walk through our house without stepping over piles of rotted junk and we don’t have several years’ worth of magazines or newspapers stored away. Also, we don’t really just buy stuff because of infomercials or because of super coupons. But we do tend to collect and accumulate things.
Probably about ¼ to 1/3 of our possessions are inherited. My husband ended up being the last of his family and after his mom died, we got everything. That included a house (paid for luckily – yea!) a car (sold now), many, many clothes (given away), and a lot of furniture, knick knacks, paintings, kitchenware, silverware, and some junk. This happened when we were on our first overseas assignment so we had to fly back to the states and take possession, pack it up for storage, have a funeral, take care of the ashes, sell the car, find a property manager, and fly back to our overseas assignment in under two weeks. We did it with a day to spare. That said, we didn’t really have time to do a thorough vetting of the articles we had just gotten so much of it went into storage. When we finished that assignment and got the stuff back, it was still too soon for my husband to want to part with any of it. As a result, most of it has gone back and forth in different storage units and we still have it. Someday (most likely after retirement), we will sort it and get rid of a lot of it, hopefully. My husband is of the opinion that his mother bought good quality stuff and while that might have been true, it doesn’t mean it retains its quality or gets better with age and certainly not after it has been in storage for 8-15 years.
Next up: inheritance from my side of the family. There wasn’t near as much there because I have surviving nieces and sister and brother. What there was has slowly disappeared over the years into the nieces homes, which is ok except for a couple of items that I had clearly marked “mine”! Oh well. I don’t live there and it would be in storage right now anyway. I did get a lot of garage things from my dad: small tools, sanders, big tools, etc. From my mom, I mostly got little things, some china, and some jewelry but all in all, a small amount to add to our possessions.
As my husband and I were both set up in apartments and living on our own when we got married, we both had a lot of necessary things in the kitchen like pots and pans and knives and glasses and bake ware and such. Over the years, we have combined our kitchen and living things and been fairly good about getting rid of things when there were duplicates or we traded in furniture for new furniture. So a small amount, maybe another ¼ of our possessions came from what we both had before getting married.
Still leaving about ½ of what we own to account for and why we have it. There are some collections in our care. I started early in collecting things like Lladro, Swarvoski, paperweights, darning eggs, masks, fish figurines, and tin boxes. These started slowly and then before I knew it, people had given me gifts of one thing or another and suddenly I had collections. We also received a large collection of decorative plates from my mother-in-law. My father-in-law was a painter so we have maybe 40 of his paintings which are very sacrosanct and can never be sold or given away. (That’s fine, I like most of them!). My husband and I dabbled in Asian painting too so now we have maybe 20 of our own paintings as well. You see how things spiral out of control! Then we got into stained glass and now we have several stained glass windows that are in storage. I did sell two of my stained glass windows when we sold our house as they were installed and too difficult to un-install but I miss those windows.
As we started traveling, we started getting souvenirs from the places we visited. Each souvenir means something to us and we love to look at them all but we have now traveled to many, many, many, many countries and now have “collections” of rugs (Turkey, China, India, Turkmenistan, Morocco), tiles (Morocco, Korea, China, Spain, Italy), antique locks (China, Japan), netsukes (China, Hong Kong, Japan), ink pots (England, France), pipes (Turkey, VietNam, Laos and no we don’t smoke), pins (Disney – LOL), crystal eggs, crystal birds, painted bottles, perfume bottles, antique glass, fishing balls, wine decanters (yes, we do drink wine), nested bowls, nested dolls, mah jong sets, ginger jars, lacquer boxes, singing bowls – well, I could go on but you must get the picture by now. When we are temporarily stationary and have all our things out of storage, I love looking and playing with all of this stuff. I’m not a buy it and keep it “safe” by never touching it or looking at it kind of person. I bought it to enjoy it and use it. BUT with the amount of things we have now, things must be rotated! Wow, that’s pretty ridiculous. Our friends say it is like we live in a cultural museum that spans many cultures, many years and many countries. I like that analogy. I must admit though that now I don’t buy near as many souvenirs as I used to get. One reason is because so many souvenirs are now no longer country specific. And also, I am trying to go for the very unusual and hard to fine because I might already have something like it in storage.
The collections of various items are why I think of myself as a “collector”. But I think we can also call ourselves accumulators. This is due entirely to the fact that we have been expats for a number of years. The first expat assignment, we were quite excited to be in Korea and purchased a number of pieces of furniture thinking that we would never have a chance to get them again. Then we went back to Korea on another assignment. I rounded out some room settings with a few more purchases but not much. Our next assignment was – yep, Korea. But there was a long gap between assignments and when we went over this time, all our stuff went into storage and we only had a small airline shipment of things to bring with us. We were able to purchase furniture and kitchen ware and such for our apartment in Seoul. At the end of the assignment, we were offered the chance to purchase the furniture and such for pennies on the dollar so we did.
Everyone thinks that when we pack up and move that we take that opportunity to get rid of excess stuff and furniture. Hasn’t worked that way for us. We just store it all albeit I try hard to get rid of a lot but it just doesn’t’ seem to happen. Later I think, why the heck did I store that but at the time, it was too hard to just toss it away. I think we have enough furniture and such for two houses easily. And because we are in temporary housing again, I find myself getting things that I know I have in storage but I just can’t find it. We have definitely become accumulators. Someday I will see everything again. Someday I will think what the heck, why do I have all this stuff. Someday but not today.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Doggy Daze
Doggy Daze
I always enjoyed watching the dogs in Madrid, Spain and was quite impressed as well. Whenever and wherever I walked in Madrid, there were usually no less than 4 dogs being walked by their owners. Usually it was more like 6-10 dogs on a sidewalk if it was later in the day. These dogs were impeccably well behaved. They all stayed by their walkers side, never did more than sniff the other dogs and I never heard a growl or saw raised hackles. It is all the more impressive because I never saw a leash on a single dog either. They all walked and heeled without a leash. No running after other dogs or squirrels, no bounding into traffic, no jumping up on other people. Quite a feat and one where the owners must spend a lot of time to make it happen. They weren’t quite as good at scooping up doggy poop but I guess you can’t have both, well-mannered dogs and owners.
I try to go for a walk daily here. And there are a lot of dogs and they are not near as well trained as the dogs of Madrid. I saw all types and all ages of dogs in Spain and also do here but there any similarity stops. There are a few dogs here that walk next to their owners without leashes but just a very few and usually the owner snaps on a leash if they see another dog coming their way. It appears that most of the owners here are not bothering to do any training at all other than teaching the dogs to poop outside. The dogs are hither and yon and all over the place on their leashes. Given the chance, most of them will be happy to come to me to see if I smell good or to jump up on me. If they see another dog or a squirrel, the owner is straining to hold them back (on the big dogs – the little dogs just get dragged away). There are a few runner dogs, dogs that jog with their person. Usually these dogs are a bit better behaved in that they do tend to jog in a straight line with their people but I have seen them take off upon seeing something of interest and just about drag their person off their feet. So again, I have to comment that you must not be able to have both. Either people spend the time training their dogs and then just make sure they poop out of the way OR people pick up after their dogs and let them run to and fro and wherever they like.
Of course, there are exceptions to every dog’s world. Didn’t see an exception in Spain as far as having a dog on a leash but I’m sure they must start out that way. I also did see a few people clean up after their pets. Here, the best behaved dogs are the groups and the really old dogs. There are several people that either have multiple dogs or at least go out and run with multiple dogs. Saw a lady yesterday running in the park with three big dogs (retriever types). The dogs were running ahead of her and almost in perfect sync. One got out of line briefly and she smacked it with the leash handle. I would like to know how she handles the cleanup duty for three dogs as they are bound to leave big piles AND there wasn’t much room on what she was wearing to carry a pooper scooper or even plastic bags. Hmmmm, more investigative reporting is needed here.
There are several older dogs that live around here. One is a corgi. He is old and overweight and very close to the ground. When he walks, he waddles. His owner doesn’t take him far and not sure if it is because the corgi doesn’t want to go far or the owner can’t go far. The corgi just walks along next to his person and never turns a head or blinks an eye at the distractions. Maybe he can’t hear or see them anymore. The other dog winning the best behaved award is an English lab. He is also older and overweight and would rather be sitting than walking I am sure. He won’t come over to greet you but should you stop to greet him, he is delighted.
I’m not really a dog person even though I grew up with plenty of dogs around me and always had a pet dog until I left the childhood home. Always had cats too and I stuck with cats. Someday I might get a dog again but I think about it and how hard it is to have one now. Used to, put a collar on the dog with the rabies tag, teach it where it’s house was, and then just go out and call it in for supper. Dogs ran all over the neighborhood and everyone knew whose dog it was and where it lived. Nobody had to clean up dog poop because they were pooping in the fields or the gullies which washed away. Not sure I could do the whole leash and pooper scooper thing these days and would I be one of those who just let the dog run anywhere on the leash or would I be like a Madrid owner? I may never find out but I enjoy watching the dogs and playing with the cute ones whose owners are happy to stop and have someone pay attention to their dog. That’s enough for me at this time.
I always enjoyed watching the dogs in Madrid, Spain and was quite impressed as well. Whenever and wherever I walked in Madrid, there were usually no less than 4 dogs being walked by their owners. Usually it was more like 6-10 dogs on a sidewalk if it was later in the day. These dogs were impeccably well behaved. They all stayed by their walkers side, never did more than sniff the other dogs and I never heard a growl or saw raised hackles. It is all the more impressive because I never saw a leash on a single dog either. They all walked and heeled without a leash. No running after other dogs or squirrels, no bounding into traffic, no jumping up on other people. Quite a feat and one where the owners must spend a lot of time to make it happen. They weren’t quite as good at scooping up doggy poop but I guess you can’t have both, well-mannered dogs and owners.
I try to go for a walk daily here. And there are a lot of dogs and they are not near as well trained as the dogs of Madrid. I saw all types and all ages of dogs in Spain and also do here but there any similarity stops. There are a few dogs here that walk next to their owners without leashes but just a very few and usually the owner snaps on a leash if they see another dog coming their way. It appears that most of the owners here are not bothering to do any training at all other than teaching the dogs to poop outside. The dogs are hither and yon and all over the place on their leashes. Given the chance, most of them will be happy to come to me to see if I smell good or to jump up on me. If they see another dog or a squirrel, the owner is straining to hold them back (on the big dogs – the little dogs just get dragged away). There are a few runner dogs, dogs that jog with their person. Usually these dogs are a bit better behaved in that they do tend to jog in a straight line with their people but I have seen them take off upon seeing something of interest and just about drag their person off their feet. So again, I have to comment that you must not be able to have both. Either people spend the time training their dogs and then just make sure they poop out of the way OR people pick up after their dogs and let them run to and fro and wherever they like.
Of course, there are exceptions to every dog’s world. Didn’t see an exception in Spain as far as having a dog on a leash but I’m sure they must start out that way. I also did see a few people clean up after their pets. Here, the best behaved dogs are the groups and the really old dogs. There are several people that either have multiple dogs or at least go out and run with multiple dogs. Saw a lady yesterday running in the park with three big dogs (retriever types). The dogs were running ahead of her and almost in perfect sync. One got out of line briefly and she smacked it with the leash handle. I would like to know how she handles the cleanup duty for three dogs as they are bound to leave big piles AND there wasn’t much room on what she was wearing to carry a pooper scooper or even plastic bags. Hmmmm, more investigative reporting is needed here.
There are several older dogs that live around here. One is a corgi. He is old and overweight and very close to the ground. When he walks, he waddles. His owner doesn’t take him far and not sure if it is because the corgi doesn’t want to go far or the owner can’t go far. The corgi just walks along next to his person and never turns a head or blinks an eye at the distractions. Maybe he can’t hear or see them anymore. The other dog winning the best behaved award is an English lab. He is also older and overweight and would rather be sitting than walking I am sure. He won’t come over to greet you but should you stop to greet him, he is delighted.
I’m not really a dog person even though I grew up with plenty of dogs around me and always had a pet dog until I left the childhood home. Always had cats too and I stuck with cats. Someday I might get a dog again but I think about it and how hard it is to have one now. Used to, put a collar on the dog with the rabies tag, teach it where it’s house was, and then just go out and call it in for supper. Dogs ran all over the neighborhood and everyone knew whose dog it was and where it lived. Nobody had to clean up dog poop because they were pooping in the fields or the gullies which washed away. Not sure I could do the whole leash and pooper scooper thing these days and would I be one of those who just let the dog run anywhere on the leash or would I be like a Madrid owner? I may never find out but I enjoy watching the dogs and playing with the cute ones whose owners are happy to stop and have someone pay attention to their dog. That’s enough for me at this time.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Tantalizing Bacon
Tantalizing Bacon
We are currently living close to the Medical Center in Houston and also technically “in” the Museum District. These two areas of the city run into each other and overlap. Most of the good city museums are here and the world renowned hospitals are here as well. My husband is working downtown for a while and is able to take the Red Line Metro to work every morning. We walk over to the metro stop each morning together and usually I try to walk over there in the evening to meet him when he comes home. As such, we walk past several of the museums which are closed and dark in the morning but lively and thronging with kids and people in the afternoon (one of the museums we pass is the Children’s Museum). We also walk past several hospitals on the back side, the side where the loading docks are, the side where the kitchens are closest to those loading docks. Most mornings there are one or two food trucks there disgorging the necessary ingredients to feed hospital patients.
Three mornings out of five, as we walk past, the lovely, tantalizing, enticing, delicious aroma of sizzling bacon comes wafting out to us from one of the hospital buildings. How lovely that these hospitalized people are getting such a nutritious breakfast. Opps, haven’t I always read and been told that bacon has a lot of fat, possible carcinogens, not much nutritional value, and really shouldn’t be eaten that often? But it is so very, very tasty when cooked crisp and served hot. Don’t really know what kind of a hospital it is we are passing because we’ve never passed on the front side to read any of the signs that identify it. I do hope it is an all purpose kind of hospital though because should I need to go into a hospital again, I want one that will serve me bacon three times a week!
We are currently living close to the Medical Center in Houston and also technically “in” the Museum District. These two areas of the city run into each other and overlap. Most of the good city museums are here and the world renowned hospitals are here as well. My husband is working downtown for a while and is able to take the Red Line Metro to work every morning. We walk over to the metro stop each morning together and usually I try to walk over there in the evening to meet him when he comes home. As such, we walk past several of the museums which are closed and dark in the morning but lively and thronging with kids and people in the afternoon (one of the museums we pass is the Children’s Museum). We also walk past several hospitals on the back side, the side where the loading docks are, the side where the kitchens are closest to those loading docks. Most mornings there are one or two food trucks there disgorging the necessary ingredients to feed hospital patients.
Three mornings out of five, as we walk past, the lovely, tantalizing, enticing, delicious aroma of sizzling bacon comes wafting out to us from one of the hospital buildings. How lovely that these hospitalized people are getting such a nutritious breakfast. Opps, haven’t I always read and been told that bacon has a lot of fat, possible carcinogens, not much nutritional value, and really shouldn’t be eaten that often? But it is so very, very tasty when cooked crisp and served hot. Don’t really know what kind of a hospital it is we are passing because we’ve never passed on the front side to read any of the signs that identify it. I do hope it is an all purpose kind of hospital though because should I need to go into a hospital again, I want one that will serve me bacon three times a week!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Very Good on Straight
Very Good on Straight
Our motorcycles have been in storage for several years now as we were living overseas and then traveling around for quite awhile. As we have temporality landed in Houston again, we are attempting to re-learn to ride - well - and trying to get the motorcycles back in good working order. Both prospects have turned into long and unsatisfying projects.
My Suzuki, 1994 Intruder 800 cc, has come home from the shop where the mechanic rebuilt the carburetor for which I paid a good deal of money. Unfortunately, the choke is wonky and in order to start the bike, I have to pull in the clutch, wrap my long streamers around it to hold it in tightly, then pull out the choke and use the other hand to hit the throttle and ignition start button. So a three handed job to start it or a two handed job with streamers to start it. Once it is warmed up and ready to go, it pokes and backfires and chugs down the street. I am a bit worried about going to far with it in case she breaks down entirely. So I am trying to run out the tank of gas on 10 and 20 mile trips at a time. Not very satisfying. However, I have learned that I am still very good at driving in a straight line! No worries there. Turning corners has become a bit of a challenge again. I can't do any tight corners. Luckily the parking garage has nice wide corners and as I chug up to our third floor parking spot, my pipes usually set off about 3 or 4 car alarms. I love those loud pipes.
My husband's motorcycle has given us even more grief. His Yamaha V Star Classic 650 cc takes a good 15-20 minutes to warm up before it will even consider being put into first gear and going anywhere. At each stop light and stop sign, it threatens to die or actually does die. So we are trying to run through the gas on it and get an empty tank so we can fill it with a better quality gas. Both of these motorcycles have been in the shop and been given back to us as if all is fine and well. Not the case. It's been quite frustrating plus since I am not the one working, I have the time to go out and chug down the street on a recalcitrant motorcycle. Not the "wind in the hair- hot mama on a bike" image that one hopes to project.
We will persevere though. I love the bikes and I think I look pretty cool riding one and as that's about the only time I look pretty cool, can't give up on that.
Our motorcycles have been in storage for several years now as we were living overseas and then traveling around for quite awhile. As we have temporality landed in Houston again, we are attempting to re-learn to ride - well - and trying to get the motorcycles back in good working order. Both prospects have turned into long and unsatisfying projects.
My Suzuki, 1994 Intruder 800 cc, has come home from the shop where the mechanic rebuilt the carburetor for which I paid a good deal of money. Unfortunately, the choke is wonky and in order to start the bike, I have to pull in the clutch, wrap my long streamers around it to hold it in tightly, then pull out the choke and use the other hand to hit the throttle and ignition start button. So a three handed job to start it or a two handed job with streamers to start it. Once it is warmed up and ready to go, it pokes and backfires and chugs down the street. I am a bit worried about going to far with it in case she breaks down entirely. So I am trying to run out the tank of gas on 10 and 20 mile trips at a time. Not very satisfying. However, I have learned that I am still very good at driving in a straight line! No worries there. Turning corners has become a bit of a challenge again. I can't do any tight corners. Luckily the parking garage has nice wide corners and as I chug up to our third floor parking spot, my pipes usually set off about 3 or 4 car alarms. I love those loud pipes.
My husband's motorcycle has given us even more grief. His Yamaha V Star Classic 650 cc takes a good 15-20 minutes to warm up before it will even consider being put into first gear and going anywhere. At each stop light and stop sign, it threatens to die or actually does die. So we are trying to run through the gas on it and get an empty tank so we can fill it with a better quality gas. Both of these motorcycles have been in the shop and been given back to us as if all is fine and well. Not the case. It's been quite frustrating plus since I am not the one working, I have the time to go out and chug down the street on a recalcitrant motorcycle. Not the "wind in the hair- hot mama on a bike" image that one hopes to project.
We will persevere though. I love the bikes and I think I look pretty cool riding one and as that's about the only time I look pretty cool, can't give up on that.
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