2013-01-06 – The remodeling is going slowly but, in a couple of months, we’ll have a new kitchen, a new bathroom, new floors, repainted doors, a new entry. It will almost be unrecognizable.
But I noticed something.
This week we were able to start putting books back on the bookshelves in Kit’s den. That was okay until I realized that they are all the same books! What is that? And when we start hanging pictures on the wall, they will be the same pictures! Particularly the family pictures! I thought we were remodeling!
I don’t actually read physical books much any more. Having books on my iPad is more important than having them on bookshelves. Kit is still a physical book person, but she never cared whether the books on the shelves were in any particular order. I always arranged my books in groups and then alphabetically. Many of my books are in my basement office and are arranged that way. Kit’s sister Mary is in favor of arranging books “so you can find them.” She’s threatening to come over and arrange the books we just randomly put on the shelves.
The so-you-can-find-them rationale was fine when you might actually want to read a book on your shelf. Finding the book would be a prerequisite to reading it. But what if you never expect to read physical books again? Do you need to be able to find them? Aren’t they then more like art? So maybe each random assortment of the same set of books is a different artistic statement.
Think about that for a while. In the meantime, I will ruminate about family photos and the fact that they are all still the same.
I’ve given thought to going out and getting frames that come with fake family members. (To demonstrate the use of a frame?) I wouldn’t mind putting those up, but they usually have printing on them. You know, the brand, the size, the price. I wish I could get rid of that and just use the generic family on my walls.
Alternatively, I could take the pictures of my real family and doctor them so they have printing on the showing the brand, the size, and the price.
I probably wouldn’t want to show the real price. You wouldn’t want to buy them at the price I paid.
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Eightoh9 
One idea to consider is rotating a collection of pictures in a common set of frames. It may sound like excessive scrapbooking but consider the possibilities. You argue with your spouse, so you post pictures from your single days. Or maybe you screw up, so you load pictures of your children being born or your wedding. Digital frames offer even greater opportunities for manipulation. Just a thought.