Enabling & Bubble Wrap

Dear John,

 

It was a quiet day, and hot and humid. I went to Walmart after work, and their power was out. They'd blown a transformer. The refrigerated and frozen things were shut up, but everything else was normal. The repair people hadn't gotten to Kathy's air conditioning when I left - I was very glad today that I work in a basement office.

 

Your shoes survived a vicious attack tonight. I was putting my nightgown on when the cat came charging into the closet, leapt onto your Nikes, and wrestled them to the ground. He had a lovely time. Yesterday the dog was asleep on the rug in the office. I walked by and he woke up. I saw the cat lurking outside the office door, and stopped to watch. The cat stood up on his hind legs as the dog got closer to the door, and when the dog came in sight the cat pounced on his head. Jethro really should expect these things by now.

 

Hunter has also discovered bubble wrap. I left a shipping box on the office floor for him to play with. He sat in it for a couple of days, then found the layer of bubble wrap lying in the bottom of the box. Of course, he found it at 3 in the morning. I woke up to the sounds of cat-thumping on the hall floor and the rapid popping of bubble wrap. The cat is delighted. And the floor is littered with tiny shreds of plastic. And my lap, shoulder, desk, and general vicinity are filled with contented, cuddly cat.

 

You'd love it - I finally got all the instruction manuals and things under control. We had that binder that was made for them, and it worked well while we were renting. Then when we had mechanicals and lawn equipment manuals to add to it, it came unhinged and fell apart. I thought about a system for several months, and finally figured one out. I got a 3-inch 3-ring notebook, a box of page protectors, and some dividers. I put everything into page protectors and divided the notebook into Electronics, Kitchen Appliances, Mechanicals, Outdoor Equipment, and Small Appliances. The notebook is jammed - I really need to pick up a 4-inch. But the system works very well. And all the mess is corralled. You'd love it.

 

You were always so excited when I organized something. You really liked for things to be organized, didn't you? You didn't get excited about doing the organizing, like I did. You didn't sit and daydream about new organizational systems. In short, you're normal. But you understood that the world needs a certain percentage of anal retentive people in order to function properly, and you enjoyed being married to one of them. And I loved having somebody that appreciated rather than condemned my compulsion to sort and label everything in sight. Thank you for enabling!

 

Love you so, so much,

Joan.