Steve B wrote:

Why is it that when you take stuff to the dump, you need it within
a few days?

Happens to us all. I think it's hard coded into the game of life. I
look at it this way... first, I expect that some of the crap I'm
getting rid of I may need in week. I expect it. I accept it. I
internalize it. I am one with it. So when it happens, no biggie. And
two, I tell myself that the benefits of ridding myself of accumulated
gunk FAR outweigh the little "oh ****" I experience when I need
something I just threw out.

I'll tell you a little story... several years ago I needed a coffee
can for something and the last empty had just gone out with the trash.
So I resolved to start saving the little buggers because they sure do
come in handy. Pretty soon I had several empties stashed above the
kitchen cupboards. Sure was nice.... whenever I needed one, BAM, there
it was. Pretty soon I had a dozen, then two, then three (I drink a lot
of coffee).

Friends started remarking about my coffee can "collection" and I'd
tell then how useful those cans can be. Pretty soon they were piling
up on top of the refrigerator, on the pantry shelf, and of course the
tops of all the cupboards. I had a problem, but I was in denial. My
friends confronted me, but I just blew them off. I didn't have a
problem dammit! The cans are useful and I'll never be without one
again!

One day though I looked around my kitchen and saw what my life had
become. It was clear... I had a problem... and I needed to do
something about it before things spiraled further out of control. I
knew what I had to do. I bought some lawn and leaf bags and started
loading up cans. As I bagged them, I swear I could hear them crying...
"Joe, you know you'll need us... you'll regret this... you'll buy some
rock salt or a bunch of nails and have nothing to put them in!"

Still, I persevered. I can say that with each can that clunked into
the trash bag it got easier. Soon I discovered things in my kitchen
that I didn't even know I had... they had been buried under coffee
cans. By the end of the day there was a new spring in my step... life
had new meaning and it was like a giant weight had been lifted from my
shoulders.

I was a new man and that day was the first day of the rest of my life.

Now, to be honest, I did keep a few cans. I gave myself a limit of 10
cans each (10 large and 10 small). I can only save a can if it's to
replace one that I used. Other than that... in the trash it goes.

They say that only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever
know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. Well my
friends, I beat my addiction and life is grand.

Ok, I'm done now, sorry.

Joe Barta