Monday, July 10, 2006

Mediocre Housekeeping

I have about several very blog-worthy topics swirling around in my head at the moment, and no time to write any of them. Arrrrgh!

Good news is that the bathroom is finally painted – bad news is that the fresh new color makes everything else in the room look shabby. Didn’t get to buy dark stain for the vanity yet, which will probably end up being a project for the week I am on vacation.

It is also sickening to realize that whoever put up the hideous wallpaper in the kitchen also decided to install the kitchen cabinets right on top of it – thus rendering it almost impossible to get rid of said wallpaper entirely unless we get new cabinets. That would be the only reason that we would get the old cabinets down. The wallpaper is red and white striped with light, thin stripes of green. Doesn’t that sound lovely . . .

We need new cabinets, because although our previous owner did put in new cabinets before we bought the place, he bought the cheapest cabinets that he could find. It only looks like we have lots of cabinets – the way the cabinets are designed, the doors are much too narrow to get any large plates or pots comfortably in and out of the space. Each cabinet has two doors, with a wide strip of wood in the center that is the main culprit. If we were to cut down the middle pieces, we would have to get new doors to go over the newly-enlarged opening. This also assumes we cut the middle correctly. So I just want new cabinets and new countertops, too. The green “fake marble” brings me down. I’d also like more usable counter space . . . and new appliances . . . and a new floor . . . none of which are going to happen any time soon. ***sigh***

I did clean out my clothes closet a few weeks ago. It’s very liberating to be able to walk into a tidy closet. At least something in my life is properly organized at this point. Mr. Random took several bags of old clothes to Goodwill – some of the clothes now being a bit too big on me now. Hooray!

Topics I need to write about: attending my Maiden Name family reunion, a new reading list, a screed about my woeful reading habits, gripes about my pitiful writing output, and an examination of whether I have made a correct career choice. Whether I actually write about them is up in the air, but do know they are in the forefront of my mind . . .

Bonus thought. To answer my own question: During the time of the American Revolution, I most certainly would have been a slave – either out in the fields or inside mopping a floor somewhere. Would I have even known what was going on? Would I have even been able to weigh pros and cons, or would I have just thought that things would be the same no matter who was in charge? Would I have been able to read? . . . But if you were to say that I would be as educated as I am today, and have the faculties of mind that I currently employ, how could I not be involved in the revolution? How can you argue with the logic (borrowed a bit from Locke and Rousseau, if I remember correctly) so eloquently laid out before us . . . how could one NOT be moved by the promise of these words:


. . . We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute
new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety
and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new
Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of
these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter
their former Systems of Government. . .


Could this be written today? Sometimes I am not so sure . . .

1 comment:

Merci said...

Ditto for me on the clean closet. Just took care of mine on Sunday, and Mr. M took some stuff to Goodwill for me. It is wonderful to walk into it now, and I even managed to organize my shoes. Got rid of some, still have way too many. I just love sandals too much for my own good! At least I bought most of them at a discount.

Here, here! on the quote from the Declaration of Independence. Would love to have been a fly in the crowd when it was first proclaimed in Philly in 1776.