Purge

Depending upon how and when you look at it, the word purge has several different meanings.  In a political viewpoint, a purge is when members of the ruling class are thrown out by other members of the ruling class who wish to control power or make their cause more pure.  In a physical viewpoint, purging is what people who are bulimic or anorexic do after they have overeaten.  In a day-to-day life perspective, purging is when you eliminate a lot of things from your life that are no longer needed.

When I speak of purging I speak of the last definition of the word.  I am in the midst of a very serious purge.  The purge began in February of this year as I started to get serious with Shelly.  As a result of that burgeoning relationship, I realized that I needed to purge a lot of the remnants of my life with Patty from my home.  I began that effort with a lot of zeal and quickly removed most of Patty’s personal belongs from my life.

Today’s purge is about something all together different.  Instead of purging the belongings of my late wife, I am purging my own belongings.  No – I have no intention of going anyway anytime soon.  Instead, I just feel that many of my belonging are of no use to me.  So why do I have them?  For instance, I have had so many belongings for so long that they have cluttered my garage and kept me from keeping my cars in the garage.  In the middle of summer when the weather is nice it really isn’t a big deal.  However, when it is 10 degrees outside and we have received 20 inches of snow overnight, it is a major pain in the ass to have to go outside and clean the snow off your car.  It would be much easier if my car were sheltered in my garage.  Unfortunately, my excessive belongings have been holding me back from that reality.

Let me give you an example of the current purge that I am working on.  Instead of focusing on the garage right at this moment – as I have done so much there already – I am focusing on my basement.  The first picture was taken a little over 48 hours ago and it shows my office in a state of total disarray.  The second picture shows my office today.  Where did most of the stuff go – either in the trash, to recycling, sold on Craigslist or to Goodwill.

It feels good to get rid of the stuff as it was keeping me from using my office and my basement.  I still have a ways to go, but I am determined more than I have ever been determined to clean up my “stuff” and take control of it instead of it taking control of me.  (No – I am not a hoarder or anything like that.  I just have a ton of crap that needs to go AWAY and is going away.)

(Before view of my office)

(After view of my office - 1.)

(After view of my office - 2)

(After view of my office - 3)

It is already Thursday evening – the weeks are flying by so fast.  Three weeks from today it will be Thanksgiving already!

Besides the normal routine of work today, Zack also had a swimming lesson.  He is getting really good at a couple of strokes.  He does an excellent job doing the backstroke and can easily swim two lengths of the pool without stopping on his back.  He is becoming such a better swimmer than I am!

We have a very busy weekend planned.  Tomorrow will start by getting Zack out the door to school and then I will be off to donate platelets again.  I have timed my donation so that it will take place when I am on conference calls so I can still work while donating.  In the afternoon I have several other appointments and Zack has his psychologist appointment.  I will be going to a happy hour at 7:00PM at the “Drink” in downtown Denver.  The happy hour is sponsored by a group I joined via Meetup.Org.  It is a social organization called “The New Kid In Town”.  Its’ objective is for people to grow platonic relationships with one another and build their overall circle of friends. I also have tickets to the Nuggets game tomorrow at 8:30PM.  (It is a late game because it is a double-header on ESPN and it is the second game.)  My brother may meet me downtown for this game or I may just go alone.  I am not sure at this point.

Despite the novelty of going out with a new group of people, I will readily admit I would much rather being going out to dinner with Shelly at Pizza Republica – eating half of one of their meatballs, sharing a Caprizese salad and drinking a bottle of wine together.  That would be a much more fulfilling social activity then forcing myself to go out with a group of people I don’t know and trying to make light hearted conversation when my heart is anything but light.  But I have dug this hole for myself so I have to live with it.

Despite the late start to the Nuggets game I can’t stay out too late tomorrow night as Zack and I have a big adventure we are getting up to on Saturday.  I am not going to clue anyone in at this juncture, you will just have to read about it on Saturday evening.  Needless to say, I expect it to be fun for the 2 of us.  Zack is definitely looking forward to it.

Sunday is our low-key day of the weekend.  There are no interesting football games I want to watch on Sunday as the Broncos have the week off and the Steelers don’t play until Monday night.  I anticipate I will do more purging and Zack and I will probably go for a 10 mile bike ride or something like that.

I hope everyone is having a great end to their work week!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.

FYSRD