Simplifying Stuff

I am trying to simplify my life, which mainly means getting rid of stuff. It is amazing how much stuff one can accumulate. Bicycles, kids' toys, clothes...just stuff. I have mixed feelings every time I get rid of something because I got it for a reason and the reason is usually still there after the stuff goes. Today I got rid of the dogs. Selling the tandem was hard; giving the dogs away was brutal.

I sold my tandem a month ago to a couple, Tom and....his wife (as usual, I am so socially inept I didn't bother to ask her name). When they came to look at my bike, they spent more time looking at my dogs than at my tandem. They had a Miniature Schnauzer too and asked all sorts of questions about the breeder and my dogs' temperament and other Schnauzer related things I couldn't answer. I am not into dogs. My daughters wanted them so I bought them. Period.

Yesterday my wife and I agreed it was time to get rid of Sally and Daisy, a big step towards disentangling our lives. I sent an email to Tom and asked if he would like them. It just so happens his 15 year old Miniature Schnauzer died this month and he and his wife were discussing getting another one.

I did research Schnauzers before I bought Sally last year, then Daisy this spring. I mean, I am an Engineer with an eye for detail. Miniature Schnauzers were originally bread in Germany to catch rats. How in the world could this bit of trivia help me? My research should have uncovered the fact that they bark non-stop when your neighbor goes out to have a cigarette. That would have been something worth knowing. Or that when your wife and kids are in Florida and you want to go to Yankee Springs for a long weekend to train for a time trial, you will need to find a cabin that allows dogs, and then if you leave your dog in the Yankee Springs parking lot, the DNR officer will give you a ticket for leaving it unattended. That would have been good information. Or if you want to ride with friends after work, you first need to go home and let the dogs out or else the dogs will pee in the kitchen. This is all valuable insight that I believe until now has not been available on the Internet.

Tom and his wife just left. They want the dogs but they are going on a tandem tour near Niagara Falls and asked if they could pick up Sally and Daisy at the end of the month. I am sitting here incredibly jealous of this couple I barley know because they have my tandem and my dogs. Sometimes shit just doesn't make sense.

Emilie left Tom and his wife a note. I wish I had her clarity.