It's a good year ... so far

Well, we are a week into 2010 and so far nothing really drastic has occurred. It would be nice if we can do another week of nothing more upsetting than the comics in the papers. I just hope that Toni's not manipulating Brad in the comic strip "Luann" into buying a new expensive car to replace his old Nova that seems to be needing some motor repair work. Or maybe he's just got a really good thing going with her knowing more about car motors than he does.

The past week people have been asking if I have any New Year's resolutions. My answer has been, "No."

So far as I can remember I have made none in the past that have been accomplished. The closest I have come to achieving any was in not really gaining any weight to speak of.

Stop collecting things

If I had to come up with a resolution it would be to stop being a collector of things.

The PW and I have been rearranging the furniture and shelving in some of the rooms and almost every time we do rearrange anything it involves me having to pack up one or more of my collections and putting them into storage, never to be seen again. It got me to thinking about just why am I a collector of things of which no one else has any interest.

I must have some $130 worth of the new quarters, some wrapped and most just put into jars. You can't even get a dollar more for a hundred of them unless they are sealed and un-circulated. Their only value is to put them into the binders and give them as gifts. I once gave my grandson 144 of them because he was 144 months old on his 12th birthday. He spent them.

The PW and I bought a sofa bed a few months ago and it required me to put away a shelf closet in which I had my collection of 15 1/24 scale cast iron vintage car models, most of which I had owned at one time or another. I carefully wrapped each if them up in clean paper and stored them in a cardboard box which now is on a shelf in the garage, never to be seen again by my friends. My grandson once asked me why I collected them. "Cause I used to own one," was my answer. His reply was, "Why?"

Valuable? To who?

I've had my collection of very old antique cameras for more than 40 years and when going onto E-Bay, I cannot find anyone offering anything for any of the same ones I would want to sell. My collection of baseball cards, which I started in 1992 and stopped in 1998, is stored in a box that weighs around 60-70 pounds, I am too busy to try and see if any of them are of any value. A year or so ago I sold a few on E-Bay and got more in postage profit than I did for the card.

There is a reality TV show that I saw recently called "Hoarders." They were trying to get some help for a parent who was a collector of just about everything and could not throw away anything. He was, as I am, a pack rat.

That show has almost cured me. I started immediately trying to throw stuff in my garage away. It is really tough to do.