Computer problems

Ok, yesterday I made a stupid mistake. Being in IT I should have known better. In the middle of my day, I get an email from our email server saying that it has detected a virus on my computer and in order to remove it I needed to update my virus protection. We'll almost immediately after clicking the attached zip file, I knew I had unleashed a virus on my box. My virus protection software starting going bezerk; throwing up messages about infected email messages. Ahhhgg, how could I have fallen for the oldest trick in the book?

The basement project...

Sunday turned out to be a great day. Not because of the weather, it rained non-stop all day. Not because the Patriotes won big on the road against the up and coming Bengles. But because I finished the last big task left on a much bigger six month project. The big project was finishing the basement. And as my son's birthday approached, my wife decides that we should have it finished in time for the September birthday party. So for the last couple months, I've been working non-stop on it -- paiting, sanding, poly'ing. Then their was the pool table disaster that I'll share some other time. Finally, we get the basement finished, bring out all the old funiture, do some quick decorating, and have it looking mint in time for the party.

So just what was this last task? It was cleaning up and organizing the 'other' side of the basement. The unfinished side had turned into a complete and utter disaster after six months of treating it like a storage shed. And now Holleigh wants to use it for a work area for her jewlery. Even after taking out all the old funiture, we had so much crap stored in that area that everywhere you looked there where piles of stuff. It was almost completely overwealming just trying to start.

So I put my blinders on (as in tunnel-vision) and began with organizing the paint shelf. It was at this point when I had a emiphenany of sorts. It occured to me that when I was young, I remember helping my dad organize his paint shelf. And although I'm sure there are plenty of basements in America with used paint buckets -- mine was unique. My paint shelf was an exact copy of the one my father had in his basement. Paint on one side, stain on the other. The small cans piled on the top of the larger cans of paint. And the rule was to save every gallon of used paint - no matter how little was left -- in case of an emergency that might require some touchup paint. I took this rule to the ridiculous, having saved gallons of paint from our old house. I thinks it's safe to throw those out now :)

Then I looked at my work bench - covered in tools, things in need of repair that I hadn't had time to work on - just a huge and utter mess. And it was then that I realized that in a small way I had become my father. The similarity was far too great to be coincidence. Same piles of unused lumber. Same boxes of electrical crap. Even the way in which I stored all my tools and odds-and-ends was the same. Did I inherit the 'basement' gene or was it the many nights spent with my father in the basement helping him with his many projects?

Basements can reveal a great deal about a man. A basement absent of tools and left-over project materials belongs to a hands-off type. Someone who would rather call a professional than try to fix or do something themselves. A basement chaulk full of crap - to the point where you can't even walk around -- belongs to the guy who's life is equally a mess.

But like my father, I like to keep a robust set of tools, a closet full of nuts and bolts, and boxes of odds and ends. You never know when you might need all this crap - you may never. But at least you are prepared in case you need to make an emergency repair. Having all this junk provides a weird sense of security. I can't explain why; especially in this day and age of Home Depots and Lowes on every corner.