What’s this, a letter? Snail-mail (not an e-mail message) from my older brother in North Carolina. The five-member blogging team of The Trio (Me, Myself & I), plus Eagle-Eyes and Hammerhead gathered around while the envelope was opened.

Enclosed was an article by best selling author Jim Dodson, Sunday essayist with The Pilot and editor of Pinestraw magazine (Southern Pines, NC) titled “All the Things We Collect” (which Eagle-Eyes spotted immediately) along with a sub-title … “The Things We Collect Speak Volumes About Us” which Hammerhead thought really “hit the nail on the head.” It took The Trio several minutes to read the entire 60-column inch article.

Me really laughed over the opening sentence, “Just last week, my thoroughly organized wife announced, OK, people. Now hear this. Its time to finally focus our attention on the garage and get this placed cleaned out and shaped up for good.” Myself loved the question, “Is there an after life for the objects of our once and future reflections?” I was captured by this very thought provoking essay and agreed with statements made by Lisa Tracy, a veteran journalist for the Philadelphia Inquire, “We are a nation of pack rats. Our material objects not only come to define us, but also seem to give us a kind of comfort for the journey..” As she states in her recent book, Objects of Our Affection – Uncovering My Family’s Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time, “We are our clutter, and it is us.”

After The Trio digested the meaning of all these statements and thoughts from Dodson’s column, they surrounded “you know who” and asked, “OK Mr. Bill, you’ve mentioned cleaning out your garage in several blogs over the years – now what? My last blog (5-11-09) in the Bill’s Blog category (#80), for example, was labeled Boxes or Treasure Chests? Any long time reader of my Petaluma360 blogs, would have seen reference to the “cleaning up the garage” theme in the following posting, over the years. To read any of them, just click on the “Garage Cleanup” tag, below.

BB #16 – The time has come to … (7-31-06)

BB #46 – One year later (7-31-07)

BB #49 – It’s time to walk the walk, again (9-3-07)

BB #50 – Are you a “resident” or a “citizen” (9-14-07)

BB #54 –“Walking the walk” can be fun and informative (9-27-07)

BB #60 – Getting ready for the New Year (12-28-07)

BB #61 – We’re run out of time (12-31-07)

BB #62 – OK, we couldn’t stay away (1-2-08)

BB #64 – We’ve hit a “pothole” (3-15-08)

BB #69 – “Times flies when …” (6-30-08)

BB #78 – “Boxes, Boxes, and More Boxes” (3-16-09)

I won’t be foolish to make any more promises like I have in the past; but I will announce a target date, 9-5-10, my next birthday. We all know that Mr. Bill needs to do something soon, because the note his brother attached to Dodson’s article stated, “ As soon as I saw this article, I knew there was only one person I could sent it too.” (Do you think that was a hint?) Stay tuned for future progress reports.