SIMPLE PLEASURES

What do they say about life? It's the simple pleasures that mean the most. Now, another question. Does anything look peculiar, strange, off about this picture of my garage? For most of you the answer is probably "no". Other than maybe the fact that one of my cars is missing. Was it stolen? Now that would be both strange and off. But, no, it wasn't stolen. What's peculiar, strange and off about this picture for me is that there's actually a space to put another car in my garage. We've lived in this house for more than 5-years and it wasn't until last week that I realized that, yes, it actually is a two-car garage! Further more, two cars actually fit in this two-car garage. You see, my interpretation of the description of this house when we bought it was that it had a one-car garage with extra storage space. So, true to my interpretation of the description that's how I used it. My wife's car was parked in the garage and the other half was used as storage. Or more accurately it's where we put stuff when we didn't know where else to put it. It wasn't uncommon to see the door to the garage open and shortly there after see a random object hurled over the roof of the van (which occupies the empty space seen in the picture) into the abyss that was previously known as the "storage" space. There it would sit....and sit....and sit. The Leaning Tower of Pisa or a house of cards had nothing on the balancing act I performed on some of the boxes and such we "stored" in our "storage" space. It was a true engineering marvel. I wouldn't, however, allow small children near our "storage" space for fear of bodily harm. Or because I didn't want to be sued. Bones heal but money is just gone.

O.k., I admit it, I was just unorganized. There, I said it. I feel better, don't you? I finally came to that realization and wanted to do something about it after the calendar turned to 2007. It wasn't a resolution either. So, I put on my fire retardant suit, increased my life insurance policy, kissed my wife and kids, threw a Milk Bone to the dog and went out into the cold, dark room that I was forevermore determined to call my two-car garage. Unfortunately after sifting through all the rubble I didn't find any long lost Rembrandt or 10,000 original shares of Wal-Mart stock that was worth millions. But what I did find was that when cleared, there was enough space in that room for another car! VICTORY!

After sweeping up the last bit of trash (and the amount of trash could be measured in metric-tons) I was ready to steer the gold Highlander into its' new home. Now, we have an outside dog named Maggie. She's lived outside her entire life. She likes it outside. She does come into the house on occasion and you can tell right away that she knows it's a foreign place. When she comes inside she gets low to the ground and walks fast and she's soon at the back door again ready to get back to more familiar territory. My gold Highlander had the same reaction. It did take the car a few nights to get adjusted to it's new surroundings. I actually had to mop up a wet spot the next morning...but it's learning.

You can't see it very well, but there's a new shelf in the garage as well....more organizational activity. And there's more shelving to come. Man, I feel like Tim the Tool-man Taylor. I did sustain an elbow injury due to patting myself on the back too much. But, it is the simple pleasures that make a difference, right?