250 Unread Messages
I could easily spend the rest of the month throwing things away, deleting spam, sending old computer files to the Recycle Bin (and then emptying it with an insane cackle), canceling appointments, returning calls to people at odd hours when I know they won't be there to answer, and making the occasional run to the Goodwill at Glebe Road and Rt. 50 to make a "charitable donation" of stuff that probably belongs in a landfill. Also I must deal with taxes, expenses, insurance forms, and financial aid (tuition) applications. Basically I need to organize and downsize regulate, categorize, clean, scrub, purge. The last thing I need at this moment, really, is a presidential inauguration. Can they move it back a month???
When my editor asks me to cover something next week I'm going to have to show him my email inbox and the 4,250 unread messages. That's down from about 8,000 unread messages I've been deleting up a storm. The other day I took a flamethrower to about 700 John McCain campaign emails. I routinely have to kill scores of emails from Singapore. About onethird of my emails are in the "won't read but can't kill" category things that might somehow potentially possibly be a little bit useful, maybe.
Worrisomely, yellow Postit notes have suddenly appeared around the rim of my computer screen like mushrooms after a rainstorm. I wrote all of them, but in some instances I might have been too cryptic. What did I mean when i wrote, in huge letters on a Postit, "Storage"?
Oh yeah: I need to check on some boxes that I put in a closet downstairs on the 4th floor of The Post about 4 years ago. I have no idea what's in them. I just know they're there. When do you know that it's time to throw things away? Why do I lug around old letters that I haven't returned in, let's see, about 17 years? I have old mail that at this point is literally turning to mulch. I must toss it. But wait: I might still find time to write back: "Dear sir: If you happen to be still living, please accept my thanks for your interesting suggestion for the column that I stopped writing 13 years ago."
A person must learn to throw away and not obsess over every little thing as if said person is superimportant and every little event in said person's life is of historic significance.
But shouldn't I have an archive?
Won't historians want to examine my notes???
I need to return a call from a guy with a maverick scientific theory about a prehistoric catastrophe caused by a comet impact. But not today.
My computer is acting up: Just now it voluntarily scanned itself, announcing, in a modified Blue Screen Of Death, that there were "inconsistencies" or something like that in one of the disks. I've been getting the BSOD a lot lately. Message: I need to take a break from deleting spam and canceling appointments and defrag my computer. Whatever that means.
Tacked to my bulletin board: Speeding tickets from Australia. Pay them? Ignore? The easy solution is to write off that continent for the rest of this particular lifetime.
Also on bulletin board: Jury duty notice. Shoot me now. I will have to tell the judge that if I serve on a jury I'll have more than 6,000 unread email messages within a week. Is there some way I can bring my email inbox to the courthouse to show the judge?
Or will he just see it in my eyes?
I'm unsure of exactly what a petit jury is is there a sign next to the sequestration room door that says, "Must be below this line or under xxx pounds to serve on this Jury?"
On a football note as I noted over gumbo at Chez Nuke, all of the teams in the NFL playoffs must be playing good defense right now, otherwise they wouldn't still be playing. The Cardinals didn't have great defensive play during the regular season but they're playing excellent defense now (just ask Atlanta and Carolina fans). Peaking at the right time, I'd say.
I got a notice from my daughter's school: "What time www.shopcoltsnfljersey.com/WOMENS-DARRIUS-HEYWARDBEY-JERSEY.html is it? It's FAFSA Time!!" and even though I've been celebrating for 12 months the fact that I have FILLED OUT MY LAST FAFSA, EVER, that notice still gave me a little blood pressure spike. The FAFSA's not so bad, really (especially for someone like me who has no assets or investments or property to speak of)what's bad is the pressure to do the income tax return first so it will match up because if you don't, everything gets another layer of complexity. So for the past 4 years I've been filing my IRS returns in early January. But this year, I am in no hurry.
Good luck to you, Joel, and to everybody else who has kids in college next year. I feel your pain.
I got the usual "Your mailbox has exceeded the storage limit set by your administrator www.shopColtsnfljersey.com and you may not be able to send or receive messages" this morning. then I requested and got more storage space, for maybe the 5th times in 4 years. All the other engineers are doing it too, Kids Darrius Heyward-Bey Jersey so I suspect the IT department is playing darts with our pictures or shooting aliens with familiar faces.
The lulls around Christmas and the dog days of summer used to be a good time to do the cleanups. But those lulls are gone, killed by globalization or sumthing. It's only server space after all. Your IT handlers would probably have a hissy fit (if they're the MSCE types, otherwise they'd rejoice) and the Post would probably save about a thousand bucks on software licensing for your seat alone. If they were to roll that out over the whole organization. Just sayin'.
I've decided to take the rest of the day off. Shipping is done, confirmations sent out, patterns for the next batch of doors are printed and I've got a big ball of dough rising that will soon be a loaf of bread (I hope). I may head out to the shop when Mrs. M gets home from work (much more peaceful out there), but for now I plan to do nothing and enjoy it until Little Bean's bus drops her off in an hour.
There's beer in the fridge, a bottle of hootch under my desk and a decent cigar I got for Xmas just begging to be fired up ya just can't ask for a better excuse to sit still for a while.
Rule of thumb on stuff. If you haven't used it in three years, get rid of it. Space is money. Exception for me is a few clothes waiting for me to lose 10 lbs.
Regarding your Goodwill gesture, our Yesterday's Rose in Fairfax does not accept old keyboards, monitors, speakers, etc.
I have been helping my Mother downsize for over a year now and it has dawned on us that we need to do the same. I have come to believe in empty closets and empty drawers.