Stuff

It has always seemed to me that when a person dies, their stuff should go with them. Not as in buried with, although that is fine as well. But is should all just go away.

I am an over-the-top sentimentalist about stuff. I have dried flowers from my first boy-friend, along with a lock of his hair. I don't believe I have ever thrown out a card from friend or family, I do throw out the ones from the insurance sales guy.

Last night I picked up Emma's bowl and put her collar in it and put it up rather than away. I sorted through her shelf of supplements and medicines for a while today then decided that I didn't have to do anything about them right now. Our lovely vet will take unused meds and she dispenses them to needy dogs in rescues and shelters.

I look at the very posh bed that Meriel gave me for her and think about what to do with it.

I think about getting another dog.

I feel strangely exposed without her. We live in the country and while I feel very safe, I always knew that Emma would try to kill anyone that wanted to do me harm. I think that dogs protect without any sense of self-preservation. I saw her try to eat the UPS man more than once. She was barking and frothing and the UPS guy was almost wetting his trousers as he tried to get me to sign the form. Never was sure if he was a bad man or it was just the truck that got her so worked up.

New subject, but related:
I put the little chip thingy in my phone today so I can take lots of pictures. I actually touched the cable and looked at the spot on the CPU where it plugs in. I plan on taking some pictures of my horse today and maybe a few of Emma's grave. I have photos of her, but don't think I have any digitals. Maybe I'll take a digital of a photo to post.

New topic:
We went to the Denver Gem Show yesterday. The fall show is such a mind boggler. There are so many mineral specimens there. Giant geodes - 6 to 8 feet tall, single crystals that are 5 feet tall and 4 feet across, bin after bin of fossils, on and on and on. We went looking for strung gem-stones (beads) and some cabochons for the next in the series of high end necklaces. We didn't have much luck.

Now I generally am very pro-change. I like things to mix up and enjoy the process of learning. One of the places that I deeply resent change is in our suppliers. We work hard to find consistent, high quality supplies and then only buy from those people. A simple PET bottle with oil pump that I have been using for the FoxRyde bath and body oils for 10 years has become unavailable and nothing comparable is to be found. A supplier that we have been using since almost the very beginning for gemstone beads has become unavailable: Not making shows. Not returning emails. Not answering the phone. We are long since out of most of what we had bought from them, but really would like restock.

We haven't had the time to comb through the shows to find a replacement. Still in the denial phase, I guess. I have had to spend hours on the web looking for a new bottle. I have spent a bunch of money getting in samples. And no joy. What the heck? Does a bottle shape go out of fashion? I wonder if the factory burned down. If I can get the same bottle in blue plastic, why can't I get it in clear plastic? Bottle unLogic.

It does amaze me how much time I spend in paperwork and mundane tasks. The actual time I spend being creative and all kinda arty is measured in the minutes per week. It sort of saps the life out of our time.

Oh, cool! There is a spell checker on this application. Now I can use that and not spend time going: tap-tap-tap, hmm, not right, erase, tap-tap-tap, hmm, is that right?, erase, tap-tap-tap, oh hell, I'm an artist, not an editor, Jim. (StarTrek humor alert!)

Comments

Jim Downey said…
Hey, Spike - poke around and see if you can find the setting which will allow for people to leave comments without having to sign in to Google - it's a pain in the butt to have to figure out what my account password/username is... And you'll likely get more comments.

Anyway, I completely agree about the problem of suppliers melting away. One of my bookbinding supply houses I'd used for almost 20 years just stopped responding to my emails and phone calls - leaving me in the lurch to track down some oversize leather I needed for a project (bookbinding leathers are processed differently than most common leathers). I did eventually find a new supplier I can work with, but it was a real hassle, and took the better part of six months.

Jim D.
Okay, I fixed the comment setting to allow anyone to comment. Sorry to be a PITA! *grin*

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