WHOOPS...!
SORRY, A BIT OF A MESS TO CLEAN UP HERE...
Spring distractions…
See what’s just outside my window? Azaleas are blooming everywhere!
Sometimes reality can kick you in the rear and you see clearly just what a mess you’re leaving for others to clean up. That’s not the way I choose to be remembered! Now… understand that I’ve no intention of leaving any time soon, by all measurements I’m aware of, I’ll be around for a while yet. However… they don’t seem to have a pill for procrastination and it’s results are every where I look!
Mostly, it’s going to require time at the computer and with my ‘use it or lose it’ memory, that means relearning techy digital stuff in order to get my art files in order. Probably starting from a clean spreadsheet that will include photos of a vast inventory that no one besides myself could ever figure out. Let me tell you how it came to be such a mess…
(I know, I know… more reasons to procrastinate, right?) If I tell the world what I’m going to do, that will commit me, right? Sort of like a deadline which was always my prod to get stuff done. It’s also the reason I’ve not inventoried any new artwork in years… no deadline!
So… how did I turn from a high detail digital inventory keeper to realizing the sad results I have to show for a productive career? Three things:
First, everything was on MS Word Database which with little notice, the ‘powers that be’ decided was obsolete so go use something else that cost $$ and required learning effort, which I had no time for. I’d been on computers from the last century and felt I was in control of what I needed to know. Wrong!
Second reason… I’m not going to blame it on my husband, he didn’t expect to begin his decent into dementia at the height of my career (and in the third renovation of an old lake house we loved and gave more attention than it deserved…) but basically, caring for his needs was way more important than record keeping and, well… like I mentioned, procrastination…
And sneaky third reason my files are in such bad shape… should my three kids be amazed that I didn’t have it all in neat order for them when they start looking into my left-over affairs… I had a big old laptop as my main cast iron safe storing all my important digital stuff… until it didn’t. (A new portable hard drive was tucked away somewhere… unused!) I recognized a problem was happening and started downloading everything to a new laptop, but I later discovered not everything transferred. Lots of empty folders, leaving my files looking like Swiss cheese!
Now, I’m going to pull out my age card here and remind you that I have chosen to live very rural and in recent times, without a car. Lots of reasons for not running down to a corner computer fix-it shop at first sign of digital trouble…
So, now that cold winter days are mostly over and there’s every reason to be outside with dirt under my fingernails, I am motivated to face the messy digital demon and, well… stay tuned. And wish me luck! It’s Spring down here in the Deep South and energy is running like sap in the trees, though yellow pollen is anointing everything including intentions. But who knows? I might even get back to posting good memory stories instead of whining excuses… by the way… I’m making progress, enjoying perusing some pretty decent paintings I nearly forgotten about, and…
Happy Spring, Karen. What beautiful azaleas!
You have an enormous task ahead...what is that saying about how to eat an elephant?
xx
I don't envy you the database cleanup, although it can be fun. I used to keep immaculate records too, but these days there's nobody going to be interested in where all my paintings have ended up. They might be pleasantly surprised, but that would require that I get off my rear end and do something to bring it all up to date. Sounds too much like work to me!