I went for a walk tonight, as I do about every other night. I always try to walk on nights when the moon is full and the sky is clear. The moonlight gives everything a subtle glow. It’s a vibe. With the Santa Ana Winds howling like they are right now, there wasn’t a drop of moisture in the air to obscure a single photon of light reflecting off the moon tonight.

They call January’s full moon The Wolf Moon. I wasn’t thinking about wolves tonight, though, I was thinking about dogs and how I didn’t want to get bit by one. Whenever the Santa Ana Winds blow as they have been for the past week, gates fly open, fences blow down, and dogs escape.

Just a few weeks ago, a German Shepherd and a mutt escaped from a house up the street and cornered a pest control technician trying to walk from his truck to my neighbor’s house. They didn’t bite him; they just barked at him aggressively. I don’t need that kind of energy in my life. Fortunately, I didn’t see any dogs on my walk tonight. Not even on a leash.

Back To Work

After a two-day hiatus, I resumed work on the great purge in my garage. Much progress was made today, or at least that’s how it looks out there. Mostly, I just rearranged the mess so I could move around a little more easily. Things are getting easier to discard, though. It’s like anything: Once you get started, you build momentum, and things just roll.

There are some things, however, that I am still having trouble parting with. I’ve spent my whole life hoarding tools and trying to build things, and I’m having trouble letting go of that part of me. It will never go away completely, but I have to keep reminding myself that I never enjoyed trying to build things from scratch. Why, then, do I want to keep tools meant for doing something I don’t like to do? Modifying and customizing things is much more my speed, and it doesn’t require the massive set of tools I’ve acquired.

Even though I haven’t actually gotten rid of anything yet, I already feel lighter just from the space I’ve reclaimed so far. I should have done this years ago! It always feels so much better to get rid of old stuff than it does to bring new stuff into the house. So, why do I keep bringing new stuff into the house? Wouldn’t I be happier if I just got rid of everything? Probably, but life gets in the way.

Shower Me With Joy

Remember when Marie Kondo was telling that guy to toss his tax paperwork because it didn’t bring him joy? Obviously, you can’t just toss your tax paperwork. Being audited without it would certainly be less joyful than storing it. Likewise, much of what I have in the garage doesn’t bring me joy, but it does come in handy sometimes. I soaked my showerhead in vinegar overnight and reinstalled it this morning, but it still wasn’t working properly. It needed a new gasket, which I happened to have in my gasket collection.

So, while having a collection of gaskets doesn’t bring me joy, having my showerhead working again does, so it’s worth hanging onto for the convenience of not having to go to the store for a new gasket every time I need one or order one online and wait days for it to arrive. Of course, had the gasket I needed not been in there, the whole box might be in the trash right now.