The nice thing about a flooded basement (yes, you can find the positive in anything if you look hard enough) is that it finally got us to go through all the stuff we had sitting in the crawlspace for a dozen or so years. Despite the flood damage that cost us a lot of stuff, including most of my sheet music collection, there is still plenty of stuff left to go through and sort. And we've been doing that for the past week.
Some of the goodies we've found include old family photos for both my wife and I; back-up CD-Roms and 3.5" floppy disks with tons of old files on them, including the original version of a book I recently re-wrote from fragments of memory twenty-five years old; homeschooling books I used with my oldest son back in 2003-2004, some of which will still be useful for the younger boys; and enough books to start our own children's library.
Yeah, it's an interesting trip down memory lane. I even found my collection of the Complete Mozart Edition CDs. 170 CDs that encompass all of Mozart's works. I collected the twenty-six boxed sets that make up the complete set before I met my wife, and they've been sitting in the crawlspace since we moved in together, never listened to. How sad. She isn't much of a classical music fan, being more into pop, hard rock and Christian rock music. I'm more eclectic in my tastes, and Mozart is definitely my jam. So are Bach and Beethoven (I also have their complete works; I'm listening to Beethoven's 1st Symphony right now as I type this).
When's the last time you looked through old family photos? I don't remember where and when all of them were taken, but the stack I looked through today were quite the trip down memory lane. My sister had very short hair; my brother had very long hair. My parents looked young and in love; and my grandmother, gone for seventeen years now, looked vibrant and happy as she held my firstborn in her arms all those years ago.
Things change, of course; my wife remarked (more than once) how much skinnier I was back then. Well, I was half the age I am now, and I hadn't yet consumed half the food I've eaten. I also wasn't driving back then, so walking everywhere kept me in decent shape. Besides, she's such a good cook that I can't help but take a little bit more at mealtime.
Still, looking back can bring out memories of a happier, more innocent time in one's life. We tend to gloss over the not-so-good parts and remember when things were going well. I mean, let's face it: How many people get into a rough patch of their lives and think, 'I want to record this on film so I can look back on it in twenty years and remember how miserable I was'? We take pictures of happy times, because that's what we want to remember.
Sometimes, it's nice to just reminisce about the good times. But looking back for too long takes your mind off of the future and what's coming. So, we'll share a few stories about the pictures, show them to the kids who won't believe we were ever that young, and laugh about the silly things we used to do. Then, we'll put the pictures back and save them for another day, and get back to the rest of the boxes and bins we have to go through.
Man, did we ever have a lot of stuff.
If you're sitting around, bored because of this seemingly-eternal quarantine, why not grab a book and while away the hours reading? Here are a few suggestions:
Final Exam
The Missing Magnate
The Chronicles of Meterra: Arrival
A Universe of Possibilities
And, if you aren't into reading electronically, well, what are you doing reading a blog about writing? Just grab a physical copy of Meterra, my first-ever paperback release. It might take a while to arrive thanks to the slow downs, but it's worth it.
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