+1 for ’10

Well, the new year began with … the flu. Paul and I both were struck down with a mighty unpleasant bout and I’ve actually been off work the last couple of days trying to get over it with lavish amounts of fluids and rest. I’m also calling in for jury duty daily, so it’s been a weird week. I did go into the office on Monday, however ill-advisedly, to get a few things done. While there I spoke to my colleague Deborah Netburn who mentioned a resolution she was going to pursue; it was so simple and brilliant I decided to add it to my previously listed five resolutions for 2010. Resolution No. 6: CREATE SPACE.

The space I need to create is VISUAL SPACE outside and ACTUAL SPACE inside. Here’s why:

Outside space: The Rancho’s backyard, as seen in my post Level Best, looks quite open and spacious in its picture taken early last year. Right now it can’t be described as either of those things. It’s crowded, jumbled and incoherent. Visually, I need to thin things out so that sightlines from the house are again uninterrupted and directed. Also, I may be guilty of adding too many plants in too-small an area —I’m investigating this possibility now (Paul actually tipped me off to this; I hate that!). The funny thing is plants grow, and take up more space when they do … Finally, I’ve decided that buying every cool thing, then piling it up, unused, in the backyard, doesn’t work. Resolution: find a place for it or give it away, get rid of it, sell it … whether plant, objét, or furniture.

Inside space: Inside spaces that need dealing with are the garage and my office. Paul has mentioned more than once (wistfully, too!), that it would be soooo nice to park the car in the garage. I acknowledge that this would probably fulfill some deep-seated desire for him as a car owner but I also have to counter with “well, where do you suggest I put all my boxes of carved wooden folk art figurines?!” (No, I don’t wait for his answer.) And, in my office, I have plenty of table space for mounting large scale drawing projects, except that every available surface seems to have a pile of books, magazines, bags of stuff and piles of onopened junk mail on it. Resolution regarding stuff in garage and my office: find a place for it or give it away, get rid of it, sell it, move it.

Of course, to accomplish these goals, and my previous resolutions, I need time.  I’m going to need to make space on my TV-watching schedule, I suspect. You know, exchange reality programming for reality.