WELL-ORGANIZED DISORDER

Normally I would be at my most sunny on a day off. But reading the news does not inspire a cheersome mood, and, truth be told, I am not a very positive person anyway. Plus all this sitting is making my arse hurt.

Everyday for the past four weeks I have taken walks with a pipe, enjoying the improvement in the weather. As my apartment mate dislikes smoking and I must do that outside, I have exercised whether I wanted to or not.


But I'll be honest. Shelter in place is starting to drag.

One reason for that is guilt.

I should have cleaned my living quarters thoroughly by now. Instead, it's a mess. A comfortable and familiar mess, but never the less chaotic. Looks like a damned disaster zone. There's a box of sealed tobacco tins on one corner of my bed, supporting a stack of books, with butresses of other books keeping it from toppling over. In the teevee room the tea tray with pipes in the active rotation is on top of more stacked books, with an old humidor forming part of the stack. A small box on a supportive flank holds five Comoy Blue Ribands, and as a general part of the whole there's a packet of micro-fibre pads for rims and stems, an empty cigar box (Drew Estates, "Flying Pig"), correspondence from the hospitals, reaming tools, and a tray of dried rambutan I was planning to eat -- rambutan is delicious, similar to longngaan and lychee -- and many other odds and ends.

[Rambutan: 紅毛丹 nephelium lappaceum. Longngaan: 龍眼 dimocarpus longan. Lychee: 荔枝 litchi chinensis.]


Being a good housekeeper requires at least three times as much space as one really needs. If I ever strike it rich, I'm moving into a barn.

With lots of end tables. Surfaces approximately two and a half feet off the ground, for all the daily detritus: tobacco tins. Pipe racks. Books that are being read. Teacups. Teapots. And shelves going up to the ceiling.

I haven't been able to display my ceramics collection in years.
There are pieces there I cannot remember.
Same with the briar pipes.
And the books.


There's an easy way out, of course. Put some order in this madness.
But that requires careful thought and planning.
I think this needs another smoke.

I'll be outside for a bit.

TOBACCO INDEX


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