My life and my house are literally in turmoil. I’m in the process of getting my house ready to put on the market, so I have a lot of decluttering to do to “stage” it for pictures for the listing. I’ve never been an uncluttered kind of person. You can ask my older sister who shared a room with me when we were kids. She drew a line down the center of the room and proclaimed that not one piece of my mess, or one of my toes, should ever cross that line.
More recently she denies ever doing that, but when you’ve been mortally wounded by a chalk-line in your bedroom, you remember. Just sayin…
Anyway, to keep peace with other roommates while in college, I did attempt to do better, and then certainly wanted to impress my husband with my housekeeping skills, so our home was, well, relatively clear of clutter, until we started adding the kids to the home. Then all bets were off. But we were always happy in our clutter – having things around us that we enjoyed and meant a lot to us.
Sort of like emotional-support trinkets. And we all know how much we need emotional support.
When it comes to my office and the desk, it’s always been a mess. A writer friend once told me that a messy desk is a sign of a creative mind, and I’ll stick to that. Whether for journalism or fiction writing, I’ve always found I could be so much more productive working amidst stacks of papers and books where I knew exactly which piece of paper I needed was where.
All that to say the pressure is mounting, but my energy level is not. Thank goodness my kids have stepped up to help, and I may be looking at the finish line of an endeavor that started the end of June. Kids are coming again on Thursday and over the weekend, so the house may be ready by Monday. I’m sure the real estate agent will be happy.
Over the next weeks my blogging will be sporadic, but I’ll pop in now and then, and will share columns from my friend Slim Randles. Always so thankful that he is so willing to share his columns for us to enjoy, free of charge. He only asks you to visit the sponsor listed at the end of the piece.
So, grab a donut and a cup of your favorite beverage and enjoy the read…
We weren’t at all sure why Doc did it. Well, yeah, maybe human curiosity was the answer. Doc seemed to hate unanswered questions. It was about Sarah McKinley down at the Read-Me-Now bookstore.
And yes, it was about the sign.
Inside, you see, on the end of one of the stacks, Sarah had hung this sign, proclaiming the area to be for books for sale on “Love and Other Fiction.” Most of us just giggled a little and let it go. But that wasn’t true with Doc – or Dud – or Steve. All three of them wanted to know.
No, they had to know.
There’s a difference.
Which meant they had a meeting and elected Doc as spokesman because … well, he had these initials after his name, you know.
So, in went Doc one fine day in summer and bought a couple of books just for fun reading and smiled at Sarah alot. They discussed the weather and whether or not the season looked promising for peaches.
Then Doc said, “I know you aren’t married now, Sarah, but how about before you moved here?”
“What?”
“Well, it’s about that sign you have. You know, just wondered whether or not it was once tied to …well, a broken heart.”
“Isn’t that a pretty personal question, Doc?”
“Well … yes. I guess so, but your friends care about you.”
“So, tell me, Doc. How often do you and Mrs. Doc … you know….?
“That’s a pretty personal question to ask, isn’t it?”
“Well, … yes, I guess so, but your friends care about you… you know?”
We still don’t know about that sign.
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Brought to you by Ol’ Max Evans, The First Thousand Years, by Slim Randles.
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Check out all of Slim’s award-winning books at his Goodreads Page and in better bookstores and bunkhouses throughout the free world.
All of the posts here are from his syndicated column, Home Country that is read in hundreds of newspapers across the country. I’m always happy to have him share his wit and wisdom here. There’s also the book, Home Country. Check it out.
Slim Randles is a veteran newspaperman, hunting guide, cowboy and dog musher. He was a feature writer and columnist for The Anchorage Daily News for 10 years and guided hunters in the Alaska Range and the Talkeetna Mountains. A resident of New Mexico now for more than 30 years, Randles is the prize-winning author of a dozen books, and is host of two podcasts and a television program.