DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Sep 24 - 12:59 PM

Today I nailed a picture hook in my dressing room and put up a little German porcelain-face clock that my aunt gave me when I was probably 10 years old. It was on my room wall forever but when I moved out to go to college a younger brother moved into the room and unfortunately didn't know what he was doing and over-wound the clock.

If I bump the pendulum any time I walk past, will that movement eventually untighten the spring enough to let it work again? Or once they're broken, is that it?

The porcelain sink in the kitchen is looking better today after I put a few folded layers of paper towel down and poured on a little chlorine bleach and moved it from one section to the next until I'd completely removed the brownish tea stain that cleanser never seemed to get. At one time cleanser alone did the job, but it seems to be formulated differently? Anyway, progress in the kitchen advances with more clear counter and table space. The fridge is also more clear as I try to avoid overstuffing it (as I change my diet I'm not eating all of the same things so I'm shopping for fewer items now.)

Poking around in other people's rooms comes to mind as I remember that brother mocking some of the things he found in dresser drawers when he moved in (why didn't Mom tell me this was going to happen and I'd have put my things away?) I also remember occasionally going into my Mom's room trying to find something that she said she'd "keep for you so it doesn't get lost" then promptly buried and lost herself. Two lessons here: deal with the things you don't want other people poking through yourself, and be more organized in trying to save things that you really do want to keep for later. Both parts of what I work on now. Back to the glasses on eBay . . .

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER *hoards *bad habits *toxic stuff - 2024
From: Charmion
Date: 27 Sep 24 - 04:52 PM

Stilly, you could do something radical and take your little German clock to a professional watch and clock technician. Such people still exist, and perfectly normal citizens patronize them. Me, for example.

Among my father's endless accumulation of doohickeys was a little traveller's alarm clock in a leather case that folds to make a stand. It's emerald green, with a "gold-tone" face. He bought it for my mother in 1975, indicated by the manufacturer's guarantee still tucked into the back of the case. It had not run for years, possibly decades. Last month, I took it to the watch and clock guy on York Street near the river -- funky little shop full of ticking. The repair cost $150, and the little green clock now ticks gently on my chest of drawers. It has a truly hair-raising alarm, far more effective than the burbling noise my phone makes, and -- of course -- I have to get out of bed to turn it off. Yes, a battery-powered clock would keep better time. Yes, I could use my phone. But I still think I didn't waste my money getting the little green clock repaired.

A pair of corduroy trousers that I bought from Land's End, through their website, arrived yesterday. Woo-hoo, winter trousers! But no, at size 12, they're miles too big. (Size 12 at Land's End is considerably bigger than size 12 at LL Bean.) But now I have to figure out how to exchange them for the same thing in size 10 -- not an easy thing to accomplish from Canada. The Land's End website awaits: I must plumb its depths to find the elusive Customer Service page. I may take some time ... Don't wait up.