Ragged off and rambling....

[Kay/NC]

...this afternoon.  I came to vent here, since I am about to blow a gasket. 

The Gas Man, who was supposed to be ready to install the tankless heater by now, since we are ready for him to, hasn't even ordered it yet.  He says week after next, it "ought to be here."  I could spit. 

He did manage to hand me a bill for the second set of hog buildings, and when I stepped to the office to print him a check, the Highly-Independent Printer ( I have decided that this is what HP stands for...) has gone on yet another strike.  I am thinking, "Maybe it will print by the week after next...."

I turned to the back room to try and clean off the eight-foot workbench, which was supposed to be my place to play  when we built it three years ago.  My drill press and router table are on it somewhere, but Mike has piled up so much S&%T on it, I cannot even see them. 
Again....

I took a day about a year ago to clean it off, because he had "a couple of pair" of workgloves (eight, actually) up there.  I filed every part, screw, shim and staple.  It iis a wad of pure junk now.  I could cry, but I decided to cuss instead.  

Asked him to remove it to his shop - he has a shop AND a garage for his stuff (over 4000 square feet, so why does he need this 16?????) , and I heard, "Do I have t do it all TODAY?" 

Well, if it's not that much stuff,. why is moving it  today such a big problem????? 

Somehow, that logic was lost on him.  I helped, by boxing up six plastic shoeboxes of stuff, in addition to the several dozen I did last go-round.  He stands there with a NAPA bag, wihththree tiny alarm light bulbs in it, saying, "But, I always just look for this bag when I need a bulb...." 

Well, dammit, you can look in a labelled box.  I will put the NAPA bag IN it.  The box is worth more than the parts it holds....

Of course, with the house torn to smithereens, my labelmaking machine is Heaven only knows where.  I am sure I saw it a few days ago, but it could be in Timbuktu today.  I know it will turn up...just not when.  I hope before we need an alarm light bulb. 

We have loaded eight plastic mortar trays of my power tools and paint supplies, to move to my shop space.  To soften the blow of taking my personal toolset away, I had purchased Mike a full set of Kobalt tools for the house last week.   Pre-emptive strike.   He still will not let go of his death grip on my Dremel, though....

The pickup truck is loaded with trays to take to my shop, power tools in the cab, and son is installing the last handful of tile trim, before he breaks for the weekend.  I ahve asked for a break, then we will make the haul to my shop.  Shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes to unload up there. 

After that I hope I can finish cleaning and shining the floor.  I am realizing that I do not work well with others this afternoon.  I know these are minor gripes, but I feel that I am being pecked to death by ducks. 

WHEW! That sure feels better....I was about to blow!

[suey1973]

I'm still waiting for Tom to go through  "his Pile"  that accumulates on the kitchen counter next to his place.   At Thanksgiving I took "his pile"  and piled it on his dresser.... where he wants me to pile his folded jeans.   The pile is where he puts it and waits till he needs it to look for it.  

Yesterday I picked up the old finishing building that he has been working on for over 2 months.   (We will start the soakers for the first time tomorrow... will keep my fingers crossed)   I found   7 extension cords!     How in the world could he use  7 50' extension cords in a building only  160 ft long?   

But,  I'll not complain too much.   He did get in the loader bucket and helped get the christmas  lights out of the evergreen tree this afternoon. 

[Kay/NC]

It is, of course, my fault.  I let it get out of control, busy in my mind with other things, and he just piled and piled....

He did the same thing with paper for the wood cookstove.  I turned my back for a few weeks, and he had stacked it up so high, so close to the firebox, it is a wonder we are not sitting here in a heap of ashes.  

We started out with a metal milk crate for old newspapers, but it was lost in his pile of paper.    Right before Christmas, I finally bought a big galvanized garbage can, and filled it to the brim with his collection of tinder. 

I pointedly showed it to him, and said, "This is your limit..." then shoved the can into a corner by the woodrack.  I throw out anything beyond the limits of that sealed can, and told him if he overran it, I would burn it all, for our safety.  So far, it seems to be working.  Time will tell.

I took a good oldfashioned Sudafed (the really good kind, with the speed in it) after writing the rambling post, adn it kicked in about fifteen minutes later.  We got all my trays of tools loaded and carried ot my shop, and then I stayed and cleaned and moved stuff around in the store part.  It looks great now.  

 Then, imoved to the garage, where I assembled three sets fo shelving for the tool trays and such, swept up trash,  and figured out where everything will need to go when we get the woodstove hooked to the chimney up there. SIL promised to do that on his seven days off, which started today.  I worked off that pseudoephedrine buzz until eight.   That is some good stuff....

Now, I have crashed with arthritis pain, slathered my self with liniment, and have made amends with my better half.  I gave him a nice new mortar tray under that cabinet top,  told him that is his limit for junk from now on, and it has to stay out of my sight or it will go missing, and I will probably not remember where....

[turkey feather]

Newspaper: We live on the county line and I was getting two newspapers which really added up to a big pile. I am very aware of wasting resources so when my subscription ended I elected to get the paper on-line at a much lower cost. This was a great move, a much smaller stack of newsprint to take to recycling minus the few we use.

[Kay/NC]

...I feel sorry for him, too.  People who pile things up, instead of putting them away, waste a lot of their lifetime looking for them, instead of just being able to reach and use them without so much frustration. 

No, I have never considered drugging him to help him with this problem. 

[Kay/NC]

Here is how our definitions of small and big stuff differ: He has several thousand square feet of shop, garage and shed space for his stuff...which is pretty big. I had a 2x 8 foot worktop for my power tool station, which is very small for a shop, unless you are a Keebler Elf What made me ill with him yesterday was that my 16 square feet of space was buried about two feet deep with his stuff. I had cleaned this up about a year ago, and he piled it right back up gain. I do not use his shop or his garage. I think he could return the favor for my worktop, but NO! When I asked him how much stuff he thought was on my tiny top, he said, "Not very much.". Okay, fine, then take what you want to keep to the shop.... That was when I got the, " Do I have to move it all TODAY?" reply. Well, yes, you do in fact have to move it today. We are bith home and haven't got much else to do, so today seems good. Since it isn't that much stuff, that isn't a lot to ask, right? Besides, I created a mortar tray catchall underneath the top, and fixed a half- dozen big plastic shoeboxes for small parts to be separated and labeled for him, and gave them shelf space at his eye level. Surely, that is fair and better than having to scurry around in a trash pile to find a switch, bulb, gasket, etc. I believe in being clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy. it isn't healthy to ball up paper bags and allow mice to run around, leaving pee and crap all over them, then wade back through every you need to fix something, is it? I didn't think so....

[soilbabe]

Well, I can empathize.  Ed has me to find what he needs so there is not much incentive for him to be organized, now is there?  Can you hear the saracasm dripping here?

I bought a little green spiral bound type book called "Organize Now!" at Lowes last weekend in a moment of stupidity or wishful thinking, not sure which. 

Its check lists and orderly (what else should I expect from a guide to organization) manner of taking the reader through the process week by week over the course of a year, should be helpful.

Now I have to admit that I just spent 10 minutes looking for the stupid book!  Found it on the shelf in the laundry room/utility bathroom.  Oh, well......I hope there is a chapter in the book on organizing your reading material.  LOLOL

[Ruby Lou]

I was talking with a "co-worker" the other day and he had to ask me where to find something on the computer.  I showed him where it was and he said it wasn't where the directions said it was.  He said engineers (which is what his trained profession is) follow directions to a T.  I told him they moved his cheese!  I guess that is why my husband can never find anything, not that he is an engineer, but he is "narrow sighted"!!  If it isn't in his field of vision or where HE thinks it should be, then he gets frustrated!  The TV changer could be under a piece of paper on the floor and he wouldn't be able to find it!