Well…I’m sitting here staring at a computer screen, keyboard and a pencil from a little school up in Nebraska and I have no idea what I want to write about. There are a lot of things I want to say, but I just can’t get them on paper. Now I see a small six foot tape measure, a pen from an insurance company and another pen from a hotel. There’s a black marker, another pen from another hotel and another black marker. I have no idea why we have so many pens, pencils and markers laying around. I really don’t need these things here at my computer because I don’t do any handwriting while sitting at a keyboard.

They probably need to be moved over to the telephone. There are two old batteries for a keyboard, an empty disk holder, a rubber band and a piece of a picture that has had some of the people cut out of it. All I can see is a sliver of the picture and it looks like one of those sign-in book stands at a wedding ’cause it has a white ribbon on it. There is one guy’s face and I have no idea who he is.

Stuff, stuff and more stuff. I have been trying to clear my life a little during the last several months of stuff. I just sold my pride and joy to a young man named Casey. I sold my 1982 Chevy El Camino. I have had it since 1992 and have really enjoyed driving the car. I can’t believe I brought myself to sell it, but over the years the joy of driving it around has lost its luster.

During the hurricane a piece of the roof from our home fell onto my car and dented the top of it. It was the first real ding the car has ever had and I really felt bad. Ever since then I just haven’t had a real interest in the car. I have spent more money on the car over the years than I could ever get back, but for some reason I kept holding onto it thinking the value would jump to astronomical sums. Then another little thing would go wrong and more money was being spent so I decided to part with it. I’m happy for Casey, however, ‘cause it’s his first car. I hope he treats it well.

I have written about my stuff before. I have a real problem with hanging onto things. I always feel like it may be worth a lot of money someday so I keep storing stuff. The problem is apparently not unique just to myself, however. How many times have you heard the joke about keeping $1,000 worth of junk in our garages while a $50,000 car sits outside?!

I have been getting rid of some of my junk, however. I’ve got old pieces of wood and metal that “I might use some day.” But by the time they lay outside, they get rusted or rotted and then I still have to purchase new again. I have kept broken tools, screws and boards that belonged to my late dad. Somehow, some place, I feel a connection between his junk and myself, but the bottom line, is it’s all junk.

Unless a guy is really, really organized, the time spent looking for that certain screw or washer is wasted on the total project when you could have purchased a new one for three cents. Old saw blades, screwdrivers with no handles, dried pieces of electrical tape and rusted bolts are something I have in abundance. Why keep them? ’Cause I just might need them someday!

Now visualize with me for a moment how an old saw blade could save your family’s life! Somebody breaks into your home, they chase you around your house and you break free into your garage. They kick down the door and attack. What do you have to defend yourself? Old saw blades and broken screw drivers could be good defensive weapons. An old saw blade could also be used to chop off a small limb if your hatchet or other saw breaks. You can paint pictures on them and sell them on the side of the road and even make little clocks out of them.

Just think, metal saw blades may even become obsolete! The blades of the future may be lasers or new plastics. What if your kids had a hundred old antique saw blades in their possession fifty years from now? Could you save your family from financial ruin if you had left them in your will to the family? Could they start selling them for top dollar as antiques?

Oh, by the way. If you know anybody who has a female donkey for sale real cheap, let me know please. Mine left this earth while giving birth and my jack is lonely. See, more stuff that I really don’t need!

Where would you be today if you still had your first handheld cell phone or your first pair of roller skates? Or how about your first skateboard? Guess what. I still have mine!

 Clifford

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