Hello.

Nine days ago, I was in the greenhouse planting seedlings. I use paper clips to close up the seed packets, the ones that still have extra seeds in them. I planted some broccoli seeds, grabbed a paperclip out of the box on the shelf, sealed up the packet. I noticed that the box which housed the paperclips was fading and warping — as does all paper in the sunny, humid greenhouse. Bins had been on my mind, I was planning a big bin replacement, with bins that are more weather resistant, that wouldn’t crumble in the sun. So why not replace this little paperclip box while I’m at it? You know what would work great here? A little Altoids-tin-sized tin. I think I have one of those somewhere. I will keep an eye out for it.

Two days later, I found not only my Altoids tin, but a pristine, paint-free tin the same size and shape. I had been keeping the two together, but not knowing what to use them for, thus not knowing where to store them. So they were just laying about. Success. I put the paint-free one on the table by the stairs from the basement to the main floor.

That night, I put the tin in the bin I use to transfer stuff from downstairs to upstairs.

The next night, I remembered to bring that bin upstairs, and set it on the counter.

The next morning, I went through that bin, mostly recycling and dirty dishes, and put everything in its right place fitter happier more productive. I moved the paint-free tin to my little 1st floor area by the entryway where I am allowed to keep my walled and whatnot. I put it in the bin of “stuff that goes to Chore House.”

Three days later, I put that bin in my truck before I went to breakfast with Jane.

After breakfast, we drove to chore house, and I took everything out of the truck that was going to Chore House, brought it into the garage and, after starting up the music and plugging the truck in, started sorted everything. All the stuff that was going to the greenhouse went into a tubtrug that happened to be in the garage. This included six strawberry plants, some strawberry roots (I like to mix it up), a grape plant, some seed packets…. and the paint-free tin.

I then carried the tubtrug to the greenhouse and unloaded it and put everything away and as a nice desert, I took the paint-free tin, opened it, and dumped the warped, faded box of paperclips into the pristine shiny metal tin.

And reader, I gotta tell you. It might have been better than sex.

Good morning hello hi how are you it is Monday good to see you I hope you had an excellent weekend SNL was really funny and man the Gorillaz were good maybe I should try and go see this tour after all.

Just back from the grocery store — there is a shortage on butter-flavored Smartfood, I accidentally got a Cherry Diet Coke again, which feels like a wasted guilty tread opportunity. I got cut off by a Subaru driven by a smartly dressed woman, and then she took my favorite parking place. I saw the local businesswoman our friend said was a Trumper and she was driving an army-brown Jeep so, yeah, maybe.

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We are listening to Labradford, the LP A Stable Reference, their second LP, from 1995. It is a weird copy. It’s a first pressing, on grey marble, but it has no sleeve and no labels. Here I will take a picture of it for you. I didn’t notice its weirdness when I ordered it, just that it was a low price. But I guess I am into it. But the OCD in me also purchased a proper, sleeved copy. So now, in addition to the CD I bought in ‘95, I own three of this record. I have a problem.

Got to see Labradford once. At the Cooler (RIP) in Meatpacking. This tour, actually. Went down to New York with Drekka for it. We ran into Lawrence and Martha from Bowery Electric and asked if they were going to the show and they said they weren’t planning on it but since we were going, they would go too. So, you a very Kranky weekend all told. IYKYK.

Wait it couldnt’ have been the ‘95 tour for a Stable Reference cuz we didn’t meet Lawrence and Martha till ‘96. So probably the tour for the third album.

I love this band. I… don’t listen to them much anymore. Their spareness, their bleakness, their clarity and ambient doom… it really hits me right where my mid-20’s depression lives, (as opposed to my 50’s depression which is more about black metal) and to listen to them take me right back to there where if you think I am too empathetic and feel too much these days, holy shit. I could barely function.

Great weekend, weekends are the best, but this weekend was even more amazing than usual for two reasons: ORGANIZATION projects and my wife came to Chore House and did Chore House chores so the whole family was over there at once, doing chores and oh my god what a great feeling. She is very invested in getting the house nice and ready for the Girl Scouts as well as a large family that’s staying there in a few weeks while visiting one of our neighbors. She is changing lightbulbs and fixing toilets and taking down nude paintings and eradicating dust and smells and I am not even sure what else, just all the things I don’t do, really. I mean, it looked clean enough to me? What do I know. Emma and I have a system: I do daily cleans, she does deep cleans. It works.

Recall that I had a double trigger release surgery last Wednesday, so I have to take it pretty easy for a week with my hands, which means no moving big pieces of OSB or sheetrock. So I confined myself to more light-labor tasks. Also it is spring so gardening has begun. And I noticed — while having the urge to replace a paperclip box — that all my clear plastic Sterilite bins in the greenhhouse were disintegrating in the sun. And I rememebred I had seen at Lowe’s 5-gallon mini versions of those black-and-yellow outdoor bins. So on Saturday on a family trip to Lowe’s, I bought a single-one for size testing. Saturday afternoon, I confirmed it was a good size, and Saturday evening I went back to Lowe’s and bought fifteen of those suckers, took everything out of the old Steriline bins (which I then washed for my next project), and put everything in the new black sunproof (ish) bins and oh my god, look at this shit it looks so good:

I know I know. I can barely breathe. It looks so awesome.

Has Pete Hegseth or Stephen Miller ever known such joy in their life?

Of course not.

SO THEN, I took the newly washed sterilite bins and finished up the other amazing big organizing project of the weekend, which was up in the attic where I’m building the recording studio. I am closing in on finishing up the seven-layer floor on the west side, and getting ready to finish layer two of the floor in the rest of the attic. Which meant I needed to move my two tables of tools. And I just.. I was so disorganized I kept losing knives and tape measures and speed squares and it was all just a giant pain in the ass, so I picked a spot where I wouldn’t need to move everything for, oh, a year or so, and… BEHOLD:

HOW GREAT IS THAT? And even when it IS time to do the floor right there, which will be the last part I do of layers 3-7, I can just move the tables and don’t have to move all the tools and stuff on the wall, and then I’ll be good for another six months until it is time to frame the second wall right there. Fantastic. So satisfying. Oh my god. Oh my god.

I wonder if Kristi Noem has ever made a tool wall. Well she has time now!

OH. And I am trying to learn to write in lower case. I have been writing in all caps, title caps, since my first drafting class in seventh grade. It is time to change. My handwriting looks psychotic, but it is getting better? Ish? I decided to do all the labels for all the bins in both of these locations in lower case. It is unnerving:

I don’t know how people live this way.

Jane and I had a great weekend, well, we all did. But my weekend solo time with Jane was swell, Reduced, well, not reduced but less Solo, since Emma joined us on Saturday, which was lovely. Sunday Jane and I hit McDonald’s, they played Rod Stewart’s cover of Tom Waits like they always do and Phil Collins’ cover of the Mindbenders like they always do and we talked about my high school girlfriend who loved(s) Phil Collins.

Then we went to the playground, kinda rolled the dice on that. It was nice out so we wanted to go but none of her friends on our playgrounds buddies text group were going, but we decided to go anyway. It was decently populated but at first none of her friends were there. A three-year-old named Hazel came and sat with Jane and I on the swinging bench, and Hazel’s nanny talked to Jane for a while. They both have cats and are Hello Kitty fans. Then a friend from school showed up and Jane played with her for an hour while I read about China and kept an eye on them. Then I noticed the friend was gone and Jane was just sitting there and she looked like she had her head in her hands. Emma arrived then and we walked over to check on Jane and she was fine, she had her notebook out and was drawing. Just sitting at the playground by herself drawing.

I am such a proud papa.

OH. And Friday afternoon Emma and I were in the driveway at Chore House when one of the tenants came out. She is not a Neurodivergent-affirming pediatric speech therapist. Both tenants used to be NAPSTs, but this one is a neurodivergent-affirming pediatric occupational therapist NAPOST. So Emma asked her about Jane’s teeth brushing avoidance, and she asked a few questions about Jane’s motivations and I imititated Jane a bit (It’s BORING! It’s SO BORING!) and she recommended this app.

AND MY GOD. Absolute game changer. Hasn’t just brushed her teeth every time since, she is EXCITED about it.

If anyone previously recommended the Oral B kids app for our problem, I apologize. It is amazing.

And let’s hear it for experts.

Morning Drive mix! And look at me remembering to put the link in. Been messing that up a lot lately. I WILL TRY HARDER. This was a good mix this morning, only one or two jarring transitions but I kinda liked them. I have absolutely no recollection of Wolf Alice or Cathy Jain playing I don’t even know who Cathy Jain is. Oh but her bio says the woman from Wolf Alice is a fan. Well that is a fun little coincidence, then. That Bad Pelicans song ruled Jane enjoyed it very much. And Labi Siffre was a welcome spot of joy this morning.

Righty-o off to the work grind for the week. WE CAN DO IT. YOU CAN DO IT.