Ponder Post: Pride in the Mundane

ALLELUIA!
It's official. The bin purging  has come to closure. I am proud of the results and relieved it is over. The entire task spanned Feb 2nd to Apr 26th.

BACKGROUND
On January 6th we needed to empty the attic of 100+ bins of "stuff" to have some HVAC ductwork done. My Jan 28th post titled Progress but TTT related the tale of migration of stuff from attic to second floor bedrooms on Jan 6th. The  final touches and corrections to the upstairs furnace and air conditioning work was not finalized until the end of January and so in my post for Feb 2nd titled Bin There Done That I describe initiating the task of culling bin contents as we repopulated the attic. My estimate at that time was that with 100 bins, if I did three a day, I could be finished in a month. Here it is, the end of April, and so the reality of that estimate morphed to three months! And mundane as it is, I had to mark the accomplishment and celebrate the success with a post. 

RESULTS
I counted 24 full heights bins - all emptied!

There were 3 half height bins - all emptied. There were fewer of these to start with plus the contents of some full height bins were pared down to fit into a half height bin. So even if I did not let go of all the contents of a full height bin I still did succeed in reducing it. Also, half height bins are lighter and easier to handle so the odds of pulling one out of the attic to access its contents are greater. And there were 6 quarter size bins - emptied!

I counted 29 lids for full size and half height bins. Why three more lids than bins? Bins break, especially when dropped. Lids generally do not.

I counted 14 lids for quarter size bins and 10 shoe box lids. The discrepancy here is that I use some of the smaller size bins as open containers to store patterns, socks, underwear, etc. Heaven forbid I should throw away the unused lids. They got stored in the attic and will continue to reside there. Suppose I should repurpose a bin and need the lid?

Where did the contents of all those bins go? A lot was donated to good will. Fabric (gasp, yes, fabric) was given to a quilt guild to make into outreach community quilts. Two bins of hand crocheted baby afghans (Mar 16th DianeLoves2Quilt post) were sent to my guild's quilt show this past weekend to be sold and the proceeds donated to purchase supplies to make charity quilts. Those not sold will go on to be sold at a church or given to mothers with babes in need.

Some of the nicer nostalgic toys that were age appropriate were shipped to the grandkids; we held on to a fair amount that will be sent when they are older. A post in March chronicled a good deal of those toys. Books were given to the library and we are thinning down some wood puzzles to go there as well. I could not bear to just toss stuffed animals in the trash. Many agencies would not accept them for health and liability issues. Through dogged research, Frank found a charity that will accept gently loved plush toys. They were easy to part with once I learned they would be hugged by another child. We packed them in clear trash bags to transport them. Frank and I wanted them to be able to see out and not get scared.

In retrospect I wish I'd taken a photo of all the emptied bins impressively looming on the guest room bed but alas, I did not. Here they are stacked in the attic though, once we ferried them up there. I am quite proud of the volume of contents that has gone from our lives. Imagine how much space they had occupied when they were full and not in this nested configuration!

My goal was a 33% reduction and I think I succeeded in a 25% reduction. But as each holiday rolls around I plan to cull its decor. For example, four bins this Easter were whittled down to three. Here is the guest room in before and after pictures, the king size bed and floor free of a tower of bins, finally. Feel free to visit now. We have cleared a space for guests to sleep!

There is once again a view out the window of Alex's room, now too. Huge sigh of relief ... !

The saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure". It was a lot of work but I am proud that our "treasures" have been refined to a manageable quantity and that our "trash" has been moved on to become some one else's treasure.

Ponder Post: The Education of Will

With an easy, non-threatening, calmly informative writing style in The Education of Will (©2017), the author tells the healing story of a women who has been traumatized by events in her life (and suppressed them) and her dog, Will. The subtitle of the book reads A mutual memoir of a woman and her dog. As a professional animal behavior specialist, Patricia McConnell recognizes a similarity of her reactions to those of her dog when exposed to external triggers. Both she and her dog exhibit the symptoms and actions often associated with post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD).  She draws on her medical knowledge and training experience with animals to help herself and her dog Will on the road to recovery. Although on the surface it sounds like a heavy topic, I found the book very enjoyable and intriguing. Her personal trauma is disclosed but the author does not dwell on it. I am pleased I did not let the premise deter me from reading the book.

There were passages which describe the training of border collies and other similar breeds to herd sheep, along with a fascinating analysis of the signaling techniques and sounds used universally - independent of a country's language. Included in the book were numerous anecdotal stories of clients with pet behavioral issues, some that tugged at my heart-strings and others that made me wonder why on earth the person was keeping such an aggressive dog. Most of the training plans for teaching the dogs and owners how to substitute more appropriate responses to triggers were logically obvious - once, of course, they had been pointed out. The detective work to uncover what triggered those undesirable reactions in the canines was clever. One trigger that surprised me was sunglasses.

People interested in gaining or maintaining power often wear sunglasses, not just to conceal their eyes but also to enlarge them to look more formidable. Conjure up the image of a young military man in a country enmeshed in political turmoil, and looming behind the ubiquitous AK-47 will be a face punctuated by two large black circles staring at you, the lenses unwavering like the hard eye of a dog about to bite.

In The Education of Will the commonality between human and canine reactions to fear was advantageous in helping a dog owner and her troubled dog mutually help each other control their fears. But the author does whimsically point out an advantage of canines.

We [humans] are hardwired to remember negative events over positive ones, so we ruminate on our mistakes and the slights of others. No wonder we love dogs who don't need meditation retreats to get over the shame of getting into the garbage last Thursday.

The previous example illustrates the quirky language and mildly humorous metaphors the author uses. The phrase "A nest of robins in her hair" from the Trees poem by Joyce Kilmer has often been held up as an example of an awkward simile, but I have always kind of liked it. Patricia McConnell has sprinkling a few delightful similes throughout this book that pop up unexpectedly. They are fun to stumble upon. For example, in racing horseback with a friend across a field the author describes the start as

... we'd exchange glances like teenage boys in hot rods at a stop light 

When the horse really starts to run full tilt she describes it as

... the saddle, and your seat within it, lower as if a plane hit an air pocket and dropped fifty feet.

The potpourri of names for the dogs is also amusing, Tanker, Aladdin, Zip, Tulip, Pippy-Tay, Vic, Lassie, and of course Will. Her one-in-a-million dog Luke could not help but make me think of our own faithful, patient, loving, best-dog-ever, Jessie. Jessie passed on in April 2003 at the age of 13 in human years. We had dubbed her a Germador, a German Shepherd and Black Labrador mix. Although not a nationally recognized breed, that is how we registered her with the city for her dog tags. She truly was one-in-a million.

Why did I pick this book to read? My reason was nothing more than an impulse upon exiting the library when the dog on the cover looked at me from the display rack of new suggested reads. I had gone to the library to pick up the book I'd reserved,  A Dog's Purpose, because Frank and I  had recently enjoyed the movie with Alex. The Education of Will also appealed because my son's dog Snoopy can also exhibit some fearful behaviors and I thought I might get some insight from reading about the title dog, Will. I guess maybe I was in a dog frame of mind at the time. I am very glad I read this book. It was an eclectic pick, yes, but well worth the time to read, learn, enjoy, and ponder.