More Stuff Tends To Clutter Life, Not Improve It

Wednesday is garbage day.  The catharsis of being about to put just about anything I can carry out by the road and have it disappear by the time I get home from work is wonderful.  The cost model seems crazy though.  It costs the same amount for me to throw away my one average plastic bag as some of my neighbor's enormous weekly piles.

I've lived in this house now for about 3 years.  When I started thinking about moving (well before it was even close to reality), I started looking around at all the stuff I had accumulated.  Much of it was fairly well organized, but much of it was also rarely used.  In the house I had stuff stored in the basement, a storage room in the attic area and closets, drawers, etc. with more rarely used stuff.
In the garages, I had even more.  The smaller garage was a 2-story and the second story was a sorry state of equipment, building materials and general mayhem that I kept "in case I ever needed it."
Before moving, I threw a lot of it away - for many weeks I had mountains of garbage to rival my neighbor's.
It was hard to throw away some of my treasures, but as moving became more real getting rid of stuff that had sat for so long felt pretty good.
After moving, I was determined to not let it get to that state again.

Over the last few weeks, I've been reorganizing some rooms; making better use of the space in the basement and allowing for a "guest" bedroom - which really means a bedroom for me most of the time.  This prompted some second looks at what has not been touched in the last three years.  In place of much of the borderline garbage at my old house, this time it was mostly usable.  I frankly didn't have the energy to sell much of it, and didn't want to landfill it...yet.  There are many people who have not yet learned the third rule of life.  I thought about putting stuff like complete fishtanks including wooden stands on Craig's List, but I really don't relish the idea of people who want free fishtanks coming to my house.  I put them on the bulletin board at work and the response was frightening.  I can only hope the stuff brings them more pleasure than it did me, sitting in storage for years.

Since I rarely dress in anything but casual attire, a recent wedding prompted me to look at some clothes, my nice clothes that rarely get worn.  I realized that after sitting for so long, many of them had smaller stains and a general very dingy appearance.  I was keeping them only because they were expensive when I bought them, but in their present condition, I would never be able to wear them at the times one might need sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes.  They are in purgatory until a wash determines whether they should be kept or meet the big truck on a Wednesday.

At the same time this is happening, I also find myself unable to throw away stuff.  Furniture from the room to become the guest bedroom is now in the basement and the pole barn.  If I was truly able to live what I believe, I'd have a bonfire.  The end of Windows XP means the perfectly functional computer I am typing this on will eventually become a security risk, albeit slight.  It isn't powerful enough to run Windows 8; can I justify the cost of Windows 7 for the remainder of its support life?
Microsoft is encouraging the increasing of piles of stuff.

More stuff tends to clutter life, not improve it.  I often find more enjoyment out of getting rid of something that hasn't been used in a long time, over buying something new.

Often...

The Experts Tell Us We're Wrong. But, We Are Not.

I don't pay for TV.  I can afford it, but I can't justify it.  It often feels like I'm one of the last eight people in the US who doesn't pay (outright) for TV in any way.
From what I was able to find online, about 20% of the US does not pay for TV in the form of cable or satellite.  However, a majority of that subpopulation watches online.  Since I live in a rural area, my choices for internet access are limited and I'm currently connected via cellular.  This makes online TV viewing realistically a non-option.  My 10GB data allowance would allow between 10 and 20 hours of streaming viewing if I did nothing else with my data.  I often don't use all my data, but I don't want to shell out extra money for data overages and so my streaming viewing is capacity constrained.
This puts me in the category of around 5% of the US who doesn't pay for satellite or cable and also doesn't stream content online.  I'll trust I'm in good company.  Michael Powell pushed for all-digital broadcast TV.  The over-the-air HD TV is great, but I'm convinced the real reason for this was to push more people into pay TV since OTA coverage is more limited, making OTA TV such a fringe that it can be eliminated.  This would free that electromagnetic spectrum for other uses, but probably not a better internet option for me.  The tyranny of the majority if one believes that TV is a necessity (I do).

This posting isn't about the evil ploy of Michael Powell though.  But, since I don't pay for TV, I end up watching a lot of PBS.  I'm convinced I'm not the target audience for PBS though.  Every time they do their "Pledge Week" they change programming to material I have no interest in.  This is fine since after contributing once to NPR, I'll never contribute again.  That one contribution to NPR has resulted in a solicitation-mail deluge that is hard to comprehend.
PBS and NPR claim to be "commercial-free" which is untrue.  Their commercials are compacted in the week(s)-long money drubbing in the form of pledges and "underwriters."  The difference between an underwriter and a company buying air time in the form of a commercial is unclear to the average viewer or listener.

This posting isn't about National Broadcasting either.

A few Weeks ago, Chris Kimball on did a "Tasting Challenge" on America's Test Kitchen for coffee.  This was likely an older rerun.  His choice and the choice of the "Experts" was Peet's Cafe Domingo.  This coffee was on sale so I recently bought some.  It was good, and tasted...like coffee.

The coffees I buy most often are Kroger's Private Selection Sumatran Mandheling, Caribou Blend and Peet's House Blend in that order.  Perhaps for the same reason I don't pay for TV, store brands end up taking a lot of room in my shopping cart.  Peet's and Caribou typically only leave the store with me when on sale for a good price and/or with a coupon.  They aren't necessarily better, only different.
Growing up in the late 70s/early 80s, "generic" where products of unknown origin and quality in white packaging with black writing.  These were often sold in their own aisle (remember that?).  Now, they are usually called "Store Brands" - or sometimes "Private Label" and are right alongside the Oreos, Tide and Kellogg's boxes in the store.  The products have often improved and sometimes to the point where quality is similar to their branded shelf-mates.  Packaging has also improved, but is somewhat irrelevant.  I can't decide if I miss the black and white packages or not.

Taking a page from branded producers, store brands often have a tiered approach.  Alongside Kroger's Brand are Private Selection and Simple Truth.

If the quality of all products we buy lies on a bell curve, below some quality isn't worth it at any price.  Above some quality is all good enough.  Enter the "Experts" to tell us what we should buy.  Cafe Domingo was fine, but not worth a price premium over Private Selection.  Kicking Horse, Paradise Roasters, Peet's, Caribou, Private Selection - I guess I'd rather wade through the odd bad bag of whole bean coffee than rely on Chris Kimball to decide what is good for me.  Anything but Starbucks, lest we all end up wearing the same Mao Pajamas.
I actually like America's Test Kitchen and Chris Kimball.  I once made their recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies and they tasted like chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients
1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 ¾ ounces)
½ tsp. baking soda
14 Tbsp. unsalted butter (1 ¾ sticks)
½ cup granulated sugar (3 ½ ounces)
¾ cups packed dark brown sugar (5 ¼ ounces)
1 tsp. table salt
2 tsps. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place the oven rack in the middle position.  Line 2 large (18×12 inch) baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl and set aside.
3. Heat 10 tablespoons of the butter in 10-inch skillet (if possible, do not use nonstick) over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes.  Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes.
4. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl.  Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.
5. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated.  Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds.  Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds.  Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. 
6. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.
7. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons.  Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet.  Smaller baking sheets can be used, but will require 3 batches.
8. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking.  
9. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

The Experts will gladly tell us what to buy, but not benevolently.  That is done by the average reviewer.  If Winston Churchill said that the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter, then the best argument against ever buying anything again is a read-through of online reviews.
People are much more likely to complain than express satisfaction - especially in the anonymous and vociferous world of online reviews.  Read through reviews of anything on Amazon (or heaven forbid online reviews of vehicles or electronics) and it is a wonder that anybody buys anything; everything is fatally flawed.
At least we know this, since that is what the Experts tell us.

Enjoy the coffee, Cafe Domingo or not.

Please don't feed the animals - they enjoy being miserable

This can be a brutal time of year.  The enjoyable activities of fall and winter are long over.  Spring seems like it is just about to happen, but there is a lot of winter left to endure.  We do begin to get those initial warm days which are nice for a time, but they enhance the pain during winter's relapse.

As 2013/14 has been a particularly heinous winter, the malaise can be as bad as ever.
For whatever reason, this also tends to be an evil time at work, with more unreasonable demands, irritable coworkers and a general working environment that spirals down to the lowest common denominator.

Last weekend saw one of the brief warm and sunny days.  Heavy rains the few days before washed away most of the salt and allowed a first motorcycle ride for 2014.  Since it is rare to not get the motorcycle out at least a couple times every month in the winter, this was a nice breather.
After a tolerable day yesterday, the forecast calls for a winter storm bringing rain, ice, freezing rain, sleet and snow to the area.  As much as meteorologists get verbally beat up for imperfection in the models, they usually do get it mostly right.  This morning saw everything coated with ice and the predicted unfriendly radar.

NPR had an interesting story earlier this week.  It asked the question (NPR never answers anything) whether something is good due to intrinsic qualities or if there is something else, even chance playing a role.  The conclusion of some research by Princeton's Matthew Salganik was that chance plays a significant role.  The extension of this was that it could apply to things in everyday life as well.
This seemed to be a bit of a stretch based on the brief synopsis of the research, but it validates my belief so it must be true.  I'm pretty convinced that a few simple decisions I made around the age of 15 lead directly to where I am now.
The seemingly small decision to purchase my first car, resulted in my getting a job a few years later at an auto shop, which led to me working as a mechanic a few years later.  With a few Twists, this is the reason I was able to (and decided to) continue in college through graduation, resulting in my current job and current position in life; good, bad or other.
If I wouldn't have bought that car, would I be destitute and homeless?  Probably not, but the tree of events is there.  Seemingly small decisions can end up having huge implications years down the road.

My oldest dog has kidney disease.  As a result, she is on Science Diet K/D.  While every day is different, the food has helped her immensely.  But, she hates it.  She has gone form a beagle who excitedly scarfs down food to picking at it very slowly.  With two other beagles waiting and anxious, she has to be isolated until she eats her food.  In order to encourage her to eat, she gets a combination of dry and canned K/D plus a few spoonfuls of Heinz gravy (no protein).  With this buffet served twice a day, I am surprised she doesn't eat more exuberantly.
Without her knowing it, there is little question this despicable food has improved her overall life expectancy, if not her life.

So maybe there is a bright spot to this horrid time of year.  Wet, snow, ice, cold, mud...
"Knowing that things come to an end is a gift of experience, a consolation prize for knowing that we ourselves are coming to an end." - Tobias Wolff

The cold weather is forecast to be in place for longer than normal this year, but it will end.

Even if tomorrow turns out to be unpalatable, I'm confident I'll wake up one day closer to something better.