While waiting

      I don't wait well. Never have. Don't expect I will ever learn how. When I know something is coming, I want it to be here now. I'm one of those annoying people who are on time and are quite willing to start the party without the late arrivals.
      Most of this impatience springs from my low boredom threshold. I have the attention span of a gnat on speed. Well, really a mosquito on speed. I want to land, get to the marrow, drink my fill and then go. When I'm interested in something, I'm interested. Those around me during an obsession have learned that it's safest to just indulge me and get out of the way. I'll be back soon.
      These obsessions have led me to all sorts of various crafts, arts and hobbies, including stage magic, comic books, candle making, role-playing games, drawing, art, lasers, hovercrafts, chemistry, computer programming, book binding, origami, coin collecting, physics, sword fighting, yoga, tai chi, guns, knives, archery, model rockets, aquariums, fountains, cooking, baking, etc. People find my house "surprising" simply because so many of these hobbies still hang around.
      Example: I have three fountains in my house, one in my bedroom, one in my kitchen, one in my living room. Admittedly they are just tabletop fountains and the one in the living room is a tiny one, but they are fountains. Just to make things more aquatic, I also have an aquarium in my living room. My house bubbles and gurgles throughout the year.
      If you dig around my house -- and I'd rather you didn't -- you'll find a saber, a short sword, a sword cane, various knives, reams of decorative paper, a broken laser, some hovercraft plans, several model rockets that show a few scrapes from their rough landings, more strange tools than you can shake a stick at should you be a stick shaking person, thousands of books and a lot of -- hate to use the word but it fits -- odd junk.
      Throw in several dozen photos, knick-knacks, artwork and gadgets, and you begin to be surprised that it can all fit in my tiny house.
      Now it sounds like I'm one of those men that will eventually die when piles of magazines fall on him, but it's neater than it sounds. I make it a rule to only indulge in one hobby at a time so the others mostly stay in their various boxes, cabinets, drawers, closets, storage buildings, etc., until I feel the urge for them. And my magazines are mostly stored in the garage ... No, really, I have a cabinet for them out there.
      I enjoy all these hobbies, but I confess it's daunting to consider how much money I've spent on them over the years and how little I have that's of value to anyone but me. I mean, I collect things that interest me, but that doesn't mean they're particularly worth anything in monetary value. In fact, I prefer hobbies -- origami for instance -- that don't require much outlay of cash. (The laser was a strange aberration to this, and it doesn't even work anymore. Something else I need to fix when I get time.)
      All of this led to me to feng shui. Let me give you a moment to catch up. Still can't? Let me help. For a brief period of time, I investigated feng shui. I thought a lot of it was plain silly. However, I found a book from which I was able to extract three bits of wisdom, at least in how to declutter your house. To wit: Keep only items that are 1) useful and/or 2) loved and/or 3) beautiful. (I told this to a friend of mine once, and she said that if she followed it, she would have to divorce her husband as he wasn't any of those!)
      Thus what you find in my house is 1) useful (maybe just to me) or 2) loved (once again maybe just by me) or 3) beautiful (ditto). They also help me not be bored and thus wait, if not patiently, at least busily.
      Now if you're still with me, you're probably wondering how we got on the subject of waiting anyway. Well, tomorrow my sibs and their families arrive for an exceedingly rare visit to my town. I've been cleaning house and generally bemoaning all that stuff in my house as I eagerly await their arrival. And I do mean CLEANING. We're talking dusting, vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing, discarding and finally hiding. I'm tired of doing it. I want my nieces and nephew to be here now so that we can play, play and play some more.
      So I'm waiting for them.
      I need a larger house.
      Good night.