Things I Learned Today That I Already Know

So we must, eventually, figure out what to do with the parental homestead, which I've been avoiding thinking about b/c avoidance is one of my favorite forms of dysfunction. But today I figured I'd get started on the highly unpleasant task of Starting To Go Through Things. Actually, no. I didn't want to get started on that. Instead, I thought I'd do the prequel to Starting To Go Through Things, which was to take a camera and photograph the house so I have it all preserved, everything, the way it was.

I started with the grounds, and I took all these shots from the outside, but then I started to get into the existential ridiculousness and futility of what I'm doing, because there are an infinite number of shots I can take from an infinite number of angles (infinity squared?), so how do I select? When have I taken enough pictures? What picture will I wish I had taken when it's too late to take it? And ultimately, what can I possibly preserve, because of course (of course!) what I really love is already gone, and it's Just A House. My house, that I grew up in, but nevertheless, and what idiot wouldn't have realized this before coming over with the camera? So what am I doing, taking pictures so that someday anthropologists can go back and recreate the whole thing? Because boy howdy, it is a treasure trove of...something.

I realized this before I got into the house, but I kept on going anyway, my own little OCD form of mourning. How appropriate that I had the bright idea to do this on Memorial Day.