Revisiting Project #3, the One Where I Am Figuring Out a Way to Keep My Home Clean Moment by Moment

As I am starting to slide back into letting my place get messy, I have to ask myself this question: what is it I need to say to myself to keep me in a constant cleaning mode?

I came up with the following:

“I am cleaning as I go.”

“I don’t want to come back to this mess.”

“I am not thinking about it, I am just doing it.” (Cleaning.)

“Don’t act on that urge to put it off until later. Do it now!”

“Don’t forget: I love cleaning my place up. I love it when my house is all clean and organized.”

“Keeping my place clean and organized should be one of my top priorities.”

“My life runs so much smoother and I am much happier having a clean and organized home.”

“There’s a mess there! Clean it! Now!”

I believe the human brain is like a computer and in it you must feed the correct data to get what you want. I want a clean and organized place, dammit! Maybe if I continuously feed my brain the above data I’ll get what I want.

I’ll keep you informed on whether this works or not.

Work-in-Progress Part 3

This is my art work-in-progress part 3-Self-Portrait: Man with Backwards Baseball Hat. I had planned giving this to my younger sister for her birthday in early October, but it is taking me longer than planned. Who knows? Maybe I'll give it to her for Christmas.

Six Questions Revisited

I need to be answering these types of questions on a more regular basis. They help me do the things I need to do and want to do.

1. Blood Pressure? 129 over 82. It should be 120 over 80 which means it is still a little high. I just went to the doctor on Monday and he upped one of the meds to make the numbers go down. The thing is I’ve yet to take the stronger meds. I have to start tonight when I take my new daily dosage.

2. Did you practice your guitar playing today? Yes, but I only worked on one song. It’s called Breath Me and it was recorded by someone named Sia. I first heard the song while watching the final minutes of the series, Six Feet Under. The combination of the powerful manner in which the series ends and the overwrought emotion of that song; I couldn’t have been any more deeply moved. After that I simply had to find the song on the Internet, download it, and then find the guitar chords to it and learn to play it on my guitar.

3. Where are you on your house-cleaning project? I have completely cleaned the inside of my house. But I’m starting to slack on keeping it that way. I need to go through it again now and deep clean, dusting the furniture and washing the floors and wiping everything down. I haven’t let it slide all that much, but I want to get it back to where it really looks nice again. Then I want to wash the windows and winterize them where the cold can’t get in. And then I need to go outside, and clean the sheds and my truck and work on the yard and landscaping. Oh, I really should wipe sweep off the roof and likewise winterize it. There is a leak around my swamp cooler sometimes when it rains. Wow! There is still so much to do!

4. What loved ones I have contacted lately? I’ve been isolating. I’ve just been going to work and then coming home and hanging out by myself. I’ve been spending the majority of my evening time lying on the couch watching Nip/Tuck-Season 3. I am one of the best customers at the neighborhood movie rental store, and when I found out the latest Nip/Tuck DVD had been released, I requested the store owners gets it for their library. After all, they already had season 1 and season 2. It was just a day or two that passed after my request and I walked into the store and there season 3 was on their new release shelf. Yes, the store owners do spoil me. Yes, they do.

Ah, but characters in DVD television series are not real life loved ones and I do need to contact my real life loved ones more. I did see my parents on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday was especially fun because my parents and I, along with my older brother, met at the local casino for breakfast. We all had a fun time stuffing our faces and teasing each other and laughing and generally being the loudest people in the joint. When we were through eating, I must state right here, I DID NOT go gamble. It has been 38 days since I flushed my hard earned cash down the gambling toilet. I know this because I have been tracking my bad gambling habit with my calendar. With me being the poor man that I am, the last thing I need to be doing right now is feeding some slot machine with little or no payback in return.

Oh yeah, I did also hang out with my best friend, Sy, and another friend, Chelsea, at McMenamin’s Oregon Hotel Saturday night. The Portland band, Sneakin’ Out, played a set there in a double billing along with the artist, Ashleigh Flynn. It was the first time I heard these artists perform and I will say here I was duly impressed, especially by the musical abilities of Sneakin’ Out. One man played a mandolin, another played a bass acoustic guitar, while the third man played all these different types of instruments he had surrounding himself. These included a pair of bongos, a xylophone, cymbals, drums, chimes, a typewriter(!), a steel tie he wore that he clicked with steel finger attachments, etc.

I was so impressed by it all that I ended up buying two CD’s, one full of Sneakin’ Out instrumental originals, and one where Sneakin’ Out played back up to Ashleigh Flynn’s incredible vocal talent.

The highlight of the evening though was when Sneakin’ Out did their version of the Pink Floyd piece, “Money” from the album, Dark Side of the Moon. Oh. My. God. It was so incredible. You’d simply have to hear it to know what I am talking about. I’ll leave it at that.

5. What art piece have I worked on today? Because I am writing this entry it has propelled me to add to my Self Portrait: Man Wearing Backwards Baseball Cap. I’ll post the latest version of it in an upcoming post.

6. What exercises did I do today? I went to the gym tonight and I worked out on two different exercise machines that aim to exercise your stomach. Plus, I stretched for about 5 to 10 minutes. Plus, I did the usual fifteen minutes on the cross-country machine. Plus, I lifted weights focusing on pumping up my biceps.

Funny-Guy Vendor

The other day I was at the store where I work and I was standing by the back warehouse door scooping up some dirt and throwing it in the garbage. All at once the buzzer alerted me that a vendor was waiting outside to be let in to make a delivery. I decided to have some fun and in a loud falsetto voice I asked, “Who is it?”

There was a hesitation and then I heard, “Land shark.” You’d have to be a fan of the early days of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” to appreciate the joke, and appreciate it I did laughing almost hysterically as I opened the door for the funny-guy vendor.

New Radiator

(Written Friday morning.)

My truck is in the shop. I am riding my bike down there in a short while and picking her up this morning. I had to have her radiator replaced. It will cost me around two hundred and eighty nine dollars. The mechanic said it needed replacing because apparently a rock that I ran over, shot up and pierced it.

I was heading for my younger sister’s place up in the mountains to visit for a day or two last week, when I happened to glance at the water gauge. I was only about fifteen miles into my journey and my truck engine was starting to get hot! I immediately pulled over and called my sister and told her I had to turn around. I was so disappointed. So was my sister. I rarely ever make such a lengthy trip as this, and I really wanted to hang out with her. We’re not only related, but she is one of my very best friends. The main reason I don’t travel to her place all that often is because I over worry that my beat-up old truck is going to run into mechanical problems. And that, my friends, is exactly what happened. Damn!

Ten Things to Do Before I Die (I'm 52 Years Old)

1. Raise money for some charities through what I create artistically and musically.

2. Have the ability to perform a two hour set of songs all by myself in some sort of musical performance.

3. Complete enough art pieces that I can put on an art show.

4. Sell my art online on EBay.

5. Someday own a place again big enough to entertain all my loved ones.

6. Once again own a brand new motor vehicle.

7. Tour Europe.

8. Meet the Great Love of My Life.

9. Write a screenplay and sell it.

10. Act in a movie.

Work-in-Progress Part 2

This is my work-in-progress part 2, Self-Portrait with Backwards Baseball Cap. I need to start working on this more because I think I am going to give a print of it to my younger sister for her upcoming birthday. As you can see the drawing is a long ways off from completion.

Jammin' Birthday

We celebrated a buddy's birthday at a recent jam session. One of the ladies baked a cake, and I brought some ice cream. I also bought him a backpack for his music suppies and a notebook to keep his songs in.

Six Questions

Questions to ask myself about stuff I want to do at least 10 minutes daily:

1. What is your blood pressure? 138 over 86. A blood pressure reading below 120 over 80 is considered normal. This means I am going to have to keep checking my blood pressure for the next two weeks. If it stays in the high numbers, I'm going to have to show my doctor these numbers. Most likely he'll then probably want to up my meds, and that's a real pisser because as it is I'm already taking two pills for it.)

2. Did you practice your guitar playing today? Why yes I did. What did you work on? I am learning an instrumental piece called The Fiddler's Contest from the book, Celtic Airs, Jigs, Hornpipes, &Reels by Stephen Grossman. Don't be too impressed. I am very green at trying to perform this new-to-me type of guitar playing. If I want to get any good at this, I'm going to have to practice more than just one 10 minute interval a day.

3. Where are you on your house-cleaning project? I am still cleaning my art studio. Because I want to enter some text here saying I have made improvements in this room, I just went and spent over 20 minutes in there (that's over two 10 minute intervals!) What I still need to do: remove some paint stains off my art desk, sweep, put together my art bag, organize my drawers, sort through and organize my canvases and various art pieces, hang a bulletin board, move a stereo speaker across the room, etc.

4. What loved ones did I contact today? I called Younger Sis. I had thought about visiting her today up on the mountain where her family and she lives, but her son is recovering from an operation and I figure she needs to devote her undivided attention to him. (I can't go into any great detail about his operation because that's my sis and her family's personal business.)

I also returned a call to one of my best friends, Sy. The news with him is he is possibly buying two new airplanes. He already owns one as it is, and has another one in a kit yet to be put together. Sy has been trying to get me to go flying with him, and I've yet to accept his offer. I jokingly tell him I've been with him when he drives fast in his sports car. Why should I trust how he flies a plane? But actually the truth is that I am thoroughly scared shitless when it comes to the idea of flying in little planes.

5. What art piece did I work on? That would be my self-portrait drawing. I have it taped up on my bathroom mirror and I draw on it whenever the mood strikes me. I'm using the beginning version of it for my profile picture here on this blog. I plan to scan it again soon to my computer and upload the updated version to this site and replace the older one. I'll keep doing this until the art piece is done.

6. What were today's ab exercises? I have a book I recently purchased called Men's Health: Amazing Abs. I lied on the floor and did two exercises out of that. One exercise was called The Traditional Crunch, and the other was called Pulse-Ups.

Ten Minute Quickies

"You certainly have one hour a day even if you divide it in six ten minute periods. What can you do in ten minutes? In ten minutes you can do some exercises and get your circulation moving again. You can write a letter to a friend, make three phone calls, get out some bills, or play a quick game of handball." -Ari Kiev in A Stategy for Daily
Living.

What I'd like to be doing daily in ten minute intervals:

1. I'd like to check my blood pressure. (My doctor wants me to do this.)

2. I'd like to practice a particular piece on my guitar.

3. I'd like to work on my house-cleaning project in one particular area
for AT LEAST ten minutes.

4. I'd like to spend time contacting my loved ones whether it be by
phone or email.

5. I'd like to work on a particular drawing.

6. I'd like to write a blog entry.

7. I'd like to be working on my abs daily in addition to what I do at
the gym (every other day.)