I Have Spent Hours

Deleting deleted e-mails. My shoulder hurts from holding it in a non-ergonomic position for so long. I know computers store stuff but I can't help thinking; it doesn't need to be stored. It needs to be tossed.

It comes from starting off in life with few possessions and even less space to keep them.

For the want of anything else worth viewing on the boob tube, I find myself watching real estate programs.I cannot believe how much space upwardly mobile professional people feel they need. Even without children, four bedrooms,four bathrooms and a powder room seems to be de rigeur.The cost? upwards of a million.

They frequently move from a first home close to work and play but too small for all the things they have acquired. Wedding gifts never unpacked for example.

A walk-in closet has them gasping with delight. It looks more like a retail outlet. There are not enough days in the week or hours in the day to wear all the clothes, A bathroom, part of the "master suite" is as big as the average bedroom. A bedroom has space for a sitting area.. A balcony off the bedroom is nice for morning coffee.

In the history of humankind, never has more money been spent on decorators, consultants,advisors, psychologists,Dr,Phils, Dr.Ozzzzs, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Paikin, Peter Mansbridge and specialists galore from this university or that offering free advice and commentary.

We are victims of our own excesses.

Last week we deferred a $98K consultant study for space needs until we have seen the big picture of the budget and know how much we plan to collect from homeowners.

The study was one of a number of projects budgeted in 2010. We had so many planned, there weren't enough days in the week or hours in the day to complete them all. But we did collect the taxes.

So, our new council, without time to get their feet beneath them, were asked to award the contracts with funds "carried forward" from 2010 budget.

A query about estimated cost for the facility after the space needs study is completed, revealed eight million dollars. It's a public works building and yard. A great big garage with an office attached.

Last time public works was relocated,in the seventies, we had a couple of rusty old quantset huts, probably war surplus,on Wellington Street. Piles of used winter sand were in the yard.Between the sheds scrap metal of all kinds resided, collected from around the town and sold before Christmas to pay for a Christmas party for the workers kids. Various pieces of equipment were scattered about.

The public works yard was the biggest blight in town. It was prominent. It became the spectacular site of the joint administrative centre of the town and County Board of Education.

The yard moved to Scanlon Court. To a pre-fabricated building. How you do that is; contact suppliers, tell them your needs,they design it. A price is agreed upon.the building is fabricated in parts elsewhere,transported and erected on a prepared site, lickety-split.

We had a hoedown complete with bales of hay in the building to celebrate. It was the night I swore never again to be in front of a camera wielded by the late Bob Buchanan, editor of the Aurora Banner.He was shorter than me. He took photographs with the camera at a tilt.

A public works building and yard still serves the same purpose. With the increase price of real estate we should perhaps be thinking about storing less stuff.

I saw a T.V. feature once about how publishers benefit from selling books on line. It means they don't need warehouses for storage and they don't have to sell over-runs at a loss. I don't remember all the details.

It struck me at the time,it's like,common sense. If you don't have a lot, you don't need space to store it. When I was a child, we didn't even realise what we didn't have.

Never even missed it.