I've been quiet around here lately, but that's a good thing. I'm tidying the nooks and crannies of my life. For example:

We have many bookcases with many shelves. To be precise, we have eighty-five bookshelves of about thirty inches each. That's approximately 2550 inches of books, or about 213 feet. That's a hell of a lot of books.

The recent change in my mental outlook has allowed me to realize that I don't need to possess as many books as I once did. It used to be that I felt the urge to own any book that looked remotely interesting. No longer. Nowadays I'm more interested in purchasing high-quality copies of books that I already love or want to treasure. Girl With a Golden Earring? A low-quality book group selection that I certainly don't need to keep. Moby Dick with woodcut illustrations? A keeper! Most books I can find at the public library.

Spurred by Live Simple, I've scoured our bookshelves in an attempt to free space. To do this, I deliberately shut off my sentimental faculties. "But that was a gift from Joel! But that was a book that I read when I first met Kris! But that was my favorite book when I was twelve!" So what? If it's not a book that I want to re-read or to keep as reference then I set it aside to purge. Kris vetoed some of my choices, and I kept books that I knew would be difficult to replace (The Dune Encyclopedia is highly collectible and out of print), but to the extent that I could, I was ruthless in my culling. As a result I've purged hundreds of books. (This sounds impressive, but really it only freed about twelve shelves of space. I still have seventy-three shelves filled with books.)

The Great Book Purge is but one example of the recent changes in my life. There are others, and they're all good. I am happy with this place, this new me that I've found.

Today was a big day at Rosings Park, a day we've awaited with much anticipation. It was the day of the New Range. Exactly at noon, we took receipt of a brand new Maytag Gemini Precision Touch 750 gas double-oven range. Good-bye, old range, with your unpredictable heating and igniters that didn't work; hello, new range, with your continuous grates and two separate ovens!

After the range was installed, and I had tested it with a can of bean-with-bacon soup, I headed out to purchase a light fixture for the study. As you may recall, I've been coveting a specific art deco slipper-shade lamp from Rejuvenation.

I wasn't able to fulfill my dream today, however; the lamp is a special-order. Dejected, I drove home and purged the encyclopedias.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2006 — Icicle   In which I am cold through-and-through.