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Reducing one's possessions by 8/13ths - cranefly - 03-30-2013
8/13ths. Wow, that is harsh.
When I was a kid, my parents bought a big piano. It was for my younger sister to play. Not that she had any real interest in it. I guess at the time girls were supposed to take piano lessons. Eventually my parents relented. Of course, the question became, what to do with this big bloody piano? Fortunately, my mom's sister, who lived next door, expressed an interest. By next door I mean 300 yards away (we lived in the country). One weekend my mom and us kids went somewhere, and when we got back, the piano had been moved. My dad did it by himself. A big effin' piano. He wouldn't tell us how he did it. He was always doing shit like that -- feats of strength. He was incredibly strong. Could probably have been a competitive bodybuilder.
No, I don't much take after my dad.
Good luck. And just let me know if something comes up you need help with. Moves are a pain in the butt, and the back, and the brain, and, and... They're just an all-around pain.
letting go of a lot of stuff - Drunk Monk - 04-01-2013
This morning I put two huge garbage bags of clothes (mostly T-shirts) out for some charity pick-up. I've got four bags of martial arts books under my desk now (waiting for the Tiger Claw parking lot sale) and three boxes of odd books that I'm taking to some used book store in hopes of getting enough cash to buy lunch that day. The effect of tossing out all of that? Negligible. Completely negligible.
I got so many fucking weapons. I took a load down to my folks' house a few weeks ago. I just piled up the 'few' I had left behind. It's still a massive load of weapons. PPFY will feel me on this one for sure.
Excavating the mancave has been a bitch. I'm such a hoarder/packrat.
Next - dismantling the altar wall. It is the most spectacular altar I have ever indulged in, taking up a full wall of the mancave. It was also a fengshui qi suck, as I have so many altar pieces now, including three altar weapon racks! wtf?!? So many treasures from so many pilgrimages. For the next altar, I'm going all zen - just my prize golden dragon, brass Guangong from Guanlinsi and stone Jinnaluo from Shaolinsi. I'll also keep my austerities Buddha from Bodh Gaya, but that's tiny, less than an inch tall. With great sadness, I'm putting that spectacular Guangong glass painting, gifted to me in exchange for solemnizing the marriage of the CFs, into storage.
I'm also keeping my Shiva from Rishikish - Drunk Monk - 04-02-2013
...but that's small too. I was backpack traveling in India, so the sacred altarpieces I gathered there were all small.
Last night, I didn't do anything but change out some light switch panels. I drank some Guinness, suffered through an allergy attack because I haven't been at practice for a spell, and looked at the mass of unpacked crap in the mancave. I need to grab some more boxes from work today.
The altar wall is dismantled - Drunk Monk - 04-03-2013
I've kept some sort of altar for years. My very first published martial arts article was on the Kung Fu altar, and I've maintained some sort of bizarre mutation of one ever since. Mine had fallen into a state of disrepair. There are these adornments to the central piece - that Guangong image from the CFs (which is really spectacular, btw, I hadn't really looked at it in some time) - the gum fah and red ribbons that are supposed to be replaced every Chinese new year. I can't remember when I did that last. I used to make a pilgrimage to Chinatown just to get the supplies (they can be found at any Ranch 99 but it was an excuse to go up to Chinatown).
I hadn't calculated on my allergy issues. The mancave is so dusty from burning incense. I let the air filter run - our R2 unit that I got from LB so many years ago, back when he was slinging air filters for a living - it was like that scene in The Legend of Hell House where they run that evil spirit cleanser.
Now it's more books. Why do I have so many freaking books? And Jerry ties? I've got like a dozen of them. So much material crap.
Re: Santa Cruz - Dr. Ivor Yeti - 04-04-2013
It's cathartic, to be sure, and a bittersweet process, triaging ones life in "stuff". I did that last Summer, giving away all of my furniture and then going through every shelf and box, making three piles: "Toss, Keep, Store". "Toss" was the biggest pile by far. Every year I have less.
I actually enjoyed the experience, esp the photos. You are right about the dust, though.
Cathartic indeed - Drunk Monk - 04-04-2013
The dust is killing me. I've been pretty good fending off allergies recently but this year, with the dust and the amazing bloom we've had, it's been really rough. Our 'hood gave us a spectacular spring - the flowers burst like fireworks. When we got Castle MacBeth, it was literally a golf green - a flat expanse of grass on an automatic watering timer. Over the years we've put in dozens of trees and plants, as well as a stone zen garden and a kid's fort. S got in a car accident with this guy who happened to be a native plant landscaper. He lives right down the street. As an apology (the accident was his fault) he redid our yard. All sorts of weird plants there now - timed to bloom in succession. It was particularly nice this year, but now it's like the stench of sloppy seconds - like the old parking lot at AFS on the Monday after the Folsom St. Fair, only with plants.
S managed to pack up most of the kitchen last night. I didn't do much as I was burnt out from work - just took down some shelves and pulled some nails. Gotta purge. I'm tossing a lot, moving a little, shifting some over to my folk's house. That also needs to be purged as I've stored crap there from previous moves and now I'll be living there a night or two each week. My cousin also stored stuff there. It's all packed tightly in my old room, which still has a poster of Stevie on the wall. :oops:
I hate moving. My consolation is that the weekend after next, I'll be 4 blocks from the beach, and settling into a new staccato rhythm of commuting with T finishing out her school year. I had this vision about how to share my feelings about it all with y'all but it's so convoluted. You have to keep two things in mind:
1. The award-winning Pomeranian named Jet Li ~ <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2736">viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2736</a><!-- l -->
2. Flying Swords at Dragon Gate ~ <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://brotherhoodofdoom.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2507">viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2507</a><!-- l -->
The climatic sword fight scene in FS@DG takes place in a 3D tornado. If Jet was played by the Pomeranian Jet and not the actor Jet, well, that's how I feel.
Good times - Greg_phpbb3_import1 - 04-04-2013
Holy crap. So you are going to have to drop off T in Palo Alto or wherever her school is and then trek over to Fremont? Where is S working these days?
S works in Palo, but only part time - Drunk Monk - 04-04-2013
During the work week, we'll be staying at MacBeth Castle until we can get it rented out. Then we'll be staying at my 'rents place. T is also planning to work as a teaching assistant for summer school in Menlo.
This week, I got some new tires and my transmission tuned up.
Fremont garbage strike? Are you freakin kidding me?!? - Drunk Monk - 04-05-2013
I tossed out a ton of crap. Our garbage is overflowing. And just last night, a robot calls us to inform us that there will be no pickup due to a strike. First time ever while living in Fremont. Go figure.
I threw out all of my old notebooks. There were dozens of them, filled with set lists, to do lists, martial arts notes on events or research, random quotes that I planned to poach. Too much bother to go back through all that.
Big packing push this weekend. Wish me luck.
Good luck - Greg_phpbb3_import1 - 04-05-2013
A novel way to celebrate Qing Ming Jie day.
I need to block Wikipedia . . .
Good luck as well - cranefly - 04-05-2013
When I was living in King of Prussia, PA, my best friend John scheduled a truck rental and various other things to move out of a third story apartment on a specific day. That morning he saw an Out of Order sign on the only elevator. It had never had a problem in the three years he'd been there. He had to completely change his plans.
So the moving gods strike again.
Well, when I was living in King of Prussia, PA... - Drunk Monk - 04-05-2013
...actually, I lived in Valley Forge, which is kind of the same place. My folks had this house on top of a huge hill. My folks are from Hawaii. They didn't know about snow and driveways too steep that you can't drive your car up them when it snows. Of all the same places to live in... when did you live there, CF? I was there between 66 and 72.
I'm just about done for the day. Now to grab a bunch of boxes from our warehouse and head home. Or at least, to what was home and will soon be an empty house.
My King of Prussia stint - cranefly - 04-05-2013
I lived in King of Prussia starting in 1977 for a year or two. I would walk a few hundred yards and be in Valley Forge National Park. I seem to recall that getting to work involved driving through the park. I worked at Burroughs Corp in Paoli. In late '78 or '79 I moved to Phoenixville, hometown of Alice Cooper and also where Tricia Nixon moved with her hubby. Phoenixville is also home to the Blob Theater, though the owner never played up that angle at all. You just had to know. It was used for the theater scene in The Blob, starring Steve McQueen.
My memories of Valley Forge are faint... - Drunk Monk - 04-08-2013
...but I oft say that I was raised on a battlefield, which is true. I remember playing on the old cannon displays and running around the bunkers. That battlefield was haunted by war residuals. They say they can't cut down a tree in Valley Forge without jamming on a stone bullet.
But back to my move, because it is all about me, after all, despite how cool the blob theater is.
This weekend was packing, packing, packing. Since contracting arthritis some six years ago, I've done qigong religiously and an unexpected side effect is that my chronic allergies are kept in check. I'm tossing out expired allergy meds from half a decade ago. But with this year's outrageous bloom, this season has been categorized as one of the worst in many years, and with all the dust from moving, my nose is bruised and raw from sneezing and blowing. S says I'm allergic to moving, which is probably true. There's a huge pile of garbage in my front yard because of the damn strike. But it's mostly packed, save the garage and some loose items. The pro-movers are there now. S is supervising. S, T & the pom will stay in SC tonight. When I go home, I'll check on the cat and everything should be down to the bare minimum (including a 21 year old bottle of Glen Garioch that I need to finish - there's only a shot or two left, not wroth moving).
I'm totally beat, but I'm going to try to make it to practice tonight. Some kung fu will be good for my body and mind.
Almost puked at kung fu practice - Drunk Monk - 04-09-2013
The workout wasn't particular rigorous. It was just my state of mind and body. It's funny, that sensation of nausea when working out brings me right back, right back to training at Shaolin Temple, or in India, or under 'Stro at SJSU. Only back then, I was in peak physical condition. Now I'm old and weak and stiff. I was hoping with G2 & JrClaw in China, the bosses would be off my back and I could focus on churning out a few overdue articles, but my head is so cluttered that I can barely focus long enough to deliver a cohesive sentence. Subject>verb>object, subject>verb>object - just string a few of those together, stitch in some adverbs and adjectives and good to go, right? If only.
I got home last night to an empty house, save for a few odd carloads of boxes, mostly my stuff, two futons, and a very confused feral cat. The movers were very efficient and S texted (poor cell reception at the new place) that all was well, although we have too much stuff. But we knew that. I was delighted to discover that my bottle of 21-year-old Glen Livet (not Garioch as previously reported) had over 4 fingers left, which I savored in the bath. Then I smudged the house with a premium stalk of white sage gifted to me by a Rasta friend at Sierra Nevada World Music Festival many years ago - I have a proud memory of walking back to JAH Med and having my fellow vols ooh and ahh, suitably impressed, and delighting in the fact that they not only knew what it was, but could admire its quality. Then I passed out. I snapped awake around 4:20AM when the Livet gave out, and, tweaking with all the changes, grabbed an old paperback of Alan Watts This is It, which I figured I should reread as Mt Madonna school was founded by Baba Hari Dass, and Watts was his pupil, as well as a shot of Jonny Walker Red which is a terrible whiskey, but my mom found a cache of my dad's whiskey which she passed along, and that's the last bottle. I've been struggling to polish it off, but it's just not to my liking. I didn't finish the book nor the shot. Woke up at dawn this morning, did some sweeping, and then headed to Denny's to breaky as there was nothing in the house. Denny's always reminds me of many fine hours whiled away in my youth with young master Greg. There, I crossed paths with our movers, which was an odd coincidence. Got to work early to find KFM down. It just got back online, so back to work, back to those overdue articles.
Thanks for letting me rant.
