Too Much Stuff

Is it Time for Swedish Death Cleaning?

Putting aside for a moment the inanity of the Washington Post employing a “climate advice columnist”, I happened across this little ditty over the weekend. Titled “The Swedes Know the Secret to Happiness: You are Not Your Stuff” it fell upon fertile soil with me, as I continue to think deeply about the “stuff” I’ve accumulated in my 58 plus years. I’ve written here before about the twice annual shifting of clothing, where the spring/summer is replaced by fall/winter and vice versa. That I twice annually move articles of clothing into the ready service locker that then go unworn throughout that season scrapes away a little bit of my soul each time I return them to deep storage. I make half-hearted attempts to “cull”, and I have made very modest progress, but there is more work to be done. The other issue that has cropped up here in the ePages of this estimable journal is the number of physical books that I have, and my gathering sense of dread that someone will have to deal with them when I meet my fitting end. I have a number of books in two places in our home—our library/dining room and out here in my mancave. At no point in my parenthood of two sparkling young women have I happened upon either of them in either of those places, dreamily meandering through my accumulated books, and with the exception of my quinquennial reading of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, I do not recall re-reading any of my books recently. This raises the question of why I make so many written margin comments in them, the answer to which might be my delight in thinking that someone might someday read the comment and find it useful, like the scribblings of some fifth century Irish monk.

The aforementioned article pointed me in the direction of this subject, but truth be told, the departure of my inamorata for a few days equally raised it, as I am known on occasion to use her absences for a bit of pruning. She is far less concerned with the accumulated bulk of my belongings, and she has been known to peruse any pile that I make for further transfer (to the dumpster, or to Goodwill) and requisition things for her own accumulations. Additionally, I have been guilty of disposing of articles that she or our girls have purchased as gifts for me, which when discovered, raises the question of whether I ever liked said gift in the first place. Of course I did.

Part of the problem (to the extent that it is actually a problem) is that I am not a very creative casual dresser. It seems these days that I can be found generally to be in one of two rigs—the first is my “workout” rig (trainers, Adidas track pants, white t-shirt, fleece) which is fine for errand running, home office work, and of course, working out. By getting into this rig first thing, I provide myself with the useful pressure of actually HAVING to work out, as in, “Damn, Bryan. You’re not gonna dress like that all day and do NOTHING, are you?”. The other rig is some sort of besuited/jacket and tie arrangement suitable for business, which is immediately replace with the previous rig upon arrival at home.

My Discontent

I spice up the casual rig when I join the boys for lunch/cards once or twice a week, substituting a collared shirt of some kind for the T-shirt and microfiber golf pants for the track pants.

That duly described, I have a CLOSET full of casual wool sweaters, bulky wool sweaters, and casual pants of all variety. To the extent that I wear proper pants these days, they are almost always the golf pants spoken of already, of which I have probably six pairs. These six pairs of pants represent probably a quarter to a third of the total inventory, the vast majority of which will go untouched this season. Additionally, I have a number of fleece pullovers and sweatshirts that simply take up space and provide for caloric burn in transporting twice yearly. Added to the seasonal variation that adds to the mass, one must consider the variation in MY size, which requires some surge capacity of fat stuff and less fat stuff.

The bottom line is that as my Cavaliers are not playing today (Sunday), and there is no real football to speak of, I might as well use some of this day for a bit of culling. My eventual goal is to have no need for twice annual transitions, to have been disciplined enough to create space for all the clothes I’ll need all year round, save for bulky coats and the like. More to follow.

Silly Season

The 2024 Presidential Election is clearly upon us, and saving the intercession of the Almighty or the prison system of the federal government or the State of Georgia, we will have the same choice we had in 2020. This is not a positive development for our politics or our nation as a whole. The prospect of choosing between doddering, morally and legally compromised Baby Boomers (yes, I know Biden is not a Baby Boomer—he’s too old), is dispiriting, but it is what we deserve, having exerted little pressure on the moribund political parties to reach other conclusions.

My stance this time around will be “a pox on both their houses”, as it was in 2016, although I intend to be somewhat less vocal. That said, I will continue to comment, and those comments will come from my continuing adherence to the classical liberalism of 1980’s Reagan style conservatism AND my contention that while both candidates are unsuited to the job, one is a national security threat.

Keep in mind, this work here, this Substack—is free. None of you reading it are paying a dime for the opportunity (although a goodly number have pledged to support it if I begin to charge, and that is nice to know), and so there is no exchange going on here. I do this for me, and hopefully I entertain one or two of you along the way. I maintain a comments section—but I don’t have to. I’m saying all of this because I am under ZERO obligation to give YOU a forum for YOUR thoughts, and those of you who choose to use the comments section as a broadside for your OWN substack-like essays—or worse, as a place to insult me—are going to find your comment erased, and/or your presence muted, and/or blocked. This is MY forum for MY thoughts. If you feel like I am treating you or your views unkindly in my writing, please unsubscribe, and go with God. But responding defensively by insulting me—while initially amusing for you, perhaps—will result in one of the above sanctions.

UVA Basketball Update

For those new to the site (appearing on Ward Carroll’s Youtube Channel a few times has been GREAT for subscribers) the “Wahoo” portion of this Substack refers to a nickname for those who attend/have attended the University of Virginia. You will be subjected to occasional rants about UVA (mostly sports), but that’s only because we hurt the ones we love.

There are very few things in life that cause me the joys and sorrows that UVA Men’s Basketball does. The NCAA Title in 2019 was and remains, the very best thing that has ever happened to me that I have had no part in bringing about. Since then though, there has been solid performance, but season-ending disappointment. We haven’t had the players we had from 2012 to 2019, and the results have shown it.

This year has been frustrating. After a solid start that included wins over Texas A/M and Florida, we got boat-raced in five losses (Wisconsin (24), Memphis (33) Notre Dame (22), NC State (16) and Wake Forest (19). After the Wake game, I quite logically concluded that they were losing because I was watching, and so I decided I would not watch them again until they’d won 3 straight. They did so, and so I began watching again, and continued winning three more. So now they are 17-5 and in second place in the ACC. A couple of things are worth saying.

First, there is a lot of chatter in Wahoo nation about how we aren’t getting the respect we deserve, given that we are in second place in the ACC, we have the nation’s longest home winning streak, and we’ve won six straight games. I cannot agree. We dug a deep, deep hole for ourselves through terrible basketball (and questionable lineups/coaching), and while we are climbing out of that hole, we haven’t played a game against the cream of the ACC field (Duke, UNC, Miami) yet. Miami comes to Charlottesville on Monday night, and that will be a real test of whether we are doing a great job against middling competition, or if we are really a good team building a tournament resume.

Some serious holes remain. Both Dante Harris and Elijah Gertrude need to contribute more. Also, UVA’s early season “lottery pick” Ryan Dunn has been very inconsistent, and he has played himself back into college basketball next year. Fifth-year transfer Jordan Minor has done a great job after a rough start, but he’s going to come up against some serious big men in the remaining games, so he’ll need help from freshman center Blake Buchanan who has been uninspiring.

The easy answer for UVA is to just win games. The polls/rankings will take care of themselves, but we need to play the early-season stink off of us. This IS a tournament team, but it cannot afford any more swoons.

Because I Found It Funny

Some rough language here, be forewarned.