Spring came and went so quickly this year, and we were so glad to see summer, the annual spring-cleaning got put on the back burner. Again. And now it’s fall. Someone told me the leaves were turning color.

The Fall Foliage bus trips are being planned. Where is that spurt of energy which will compel me to get organized? What about that yard sale I was planning several months ago? I’ve crossed it off my calendar a few times now and there’s not much time left. In fact, I’ve probably missed the summer people altogether, and sometimes they’re the best customers.

Why am I sitting around, reading a book, writing a little and doing just the bare necessities? It’s like a Fall Funk has taken over and I catch myself staring off into the sunshine patches and thinking incessantly about things that need to be done.

Everywhere I look, there’s a box full of stuff. Sure, it’s taped up and says “books,” but when I open it, it has odds and ends of things which I can’t recall ever seeing before! Pieces of colorful toys are mixed in with zip locked bags of buttons and what-nots and things I know were destined for a yard sale in 2006 or even before.

There are two neat plastic containers which hold about four bushels each, filled with summer clothes that I haven’t taken out yet! Obviously, I’ll never iron these clothes this year. Do I save them on the offchance that next year I’ll be wearing skirts and dresses again? Retirement means blue jeans and shorts and sweats. There is no new career in my future. There’s a very (extremely) slim chance that I’ll ever take up quilting again. But I must have saved these clothes for a reason.

If I were to undergo a psychological exam I’d probably learn that my psyche needs to be surrounded by STUFF and the more of it, the more secure I feel.

While I pooh pooh this diagnosis, I’m looking at my desk which has as the centerpiece, two iMac computers. And to the left is what is really a small soup cup I’m using for a catch-all. Just a glance and I can see protruding from the cup a pair of scissors, a tube of hand lotion, a picture of my 25-year-old niece when she was 7, a beaded medallion that needs a chain, and several large elastics I don’t want to misplace. And that’s just the stuff I can see. Underneath are probably several paperclips, a wooden clothespin and whatever else fell through the little spaces.

In between and kind of behind the computers are the modem (I think) and a plug-in thing with five or six outlets, all filled, with cords that go who knows where. On the right-hand side of the computers sits the stapler, tape dispenser, several pens, a cup with the dregs of cold coffee and a pile of paper that includes a shorthand book, two letters I need to answer, and, buried in the pile, is the latest “to do” list. On top of one computer are several photos of the Gambo dam, during a recent excavation. I don’t want to misplace them.

And I definitely don’t want to open any of the desk drawers. In fact, one of them is so jammed it won’t open without a little help from underneath the drawer.

I really need to turn off the phone, quit checking the e-mail, stop volunteering to do things and get organized.

There are now four brand new telephone books piled under the phone, which is beside that cup mentioned previously. Some marketing magnate is probably on a cruise, now that all these books have been delivered and all those yellow pages paid for. One book is sufficient, but it’s really hard to throw a phone book away. Yes, they can be recycled, but they look so nice and new. The Yankee in me doesn’t like to throw stuff away, especially new stuff. It is so wasteful.

Maybe I should take a break and just do what lots of people do – watch television. I bet there’s a program on one of the dozens of channels that is about Getting Organized. Wish me luck.

See you next week.