TimmyDaddy

By Tim Sullivan

Valentine’s Day and stuff… lots of stuff

Kristen declared Valentine’s Day a non-holiday in our relationship many years ago. It was a blow at the time of course, after harvesting my own cocoa beans and taking all those harp lessons, but now I understand where she was coming from. Call me jaded, but Valentine’s Day just isn’t far enough removed from the December holidays to allow us to forget that we just got through with all the lavishing of gifts and the chocolate-fueled gluttony.

I’m all for made-up holidays like Talk Like a Pirate Day and National Hug Day, but Valentine’s Day just reeks of commercialism. Jewelry, chocolates, candy and cards are sold to the smitten, the obligated and everyone in between. Of all the hallowed days on the calendar, it may ring the most hollow. It’s just too much stuff. Enough of the stuff, I say!

If my recycling bins could talk after this past Christmas, where we were a household of 11 people for a week, they would concur. The mettle of the plastic was sternly tested as we stuffed (what I hope is not) a landfill’s worth of cardboard boxes and wrapping paper, not to mention kitchen and bar-related items, into the poor receptacles. If Decatur kept stats on top recyclers, we’d probably have taken that dubious award home for the month of December. pair of UGGS, and that is pretty much what she said upon opening the box. So I returned that box and replaced it with a second pair that she specifically instructed me to buy. The next morning, I saw that box placed next to my laptop bag, indicating they too were to go the return route. Like my dog, I am part boxer.

We were so zealous in our cleanup efforts that we accidentally recycled a $50 toy. Not the whole thing mind you; that would’ve have been too clean a break. No, our casualty came in the form of an Xbox Disney Infinity game/ Lego configuration thingy. Margo, Elliott and I spent two hours constructing the Lego portion, which then snaps on to the base that plugs into the Xbox. And that’s what we would’ve done had the base not been recycled the day before. I can be something of an extreme recycler when it comes to reclaiming a tidy household.

Dan Sasser loves coming and going as he pleases. That’s just one of many reasons he chose Canterbury Court to be his home.

“I left a tenured position so I could live wherever I wanted. Then I retired at 60 and was working part time when I discovered Canterbury Court. I thought, ‘How wonderful it would be to live there.’”

When he decided to move to Canterbury Court, he chose a studio apartment, which he says “is more than big enough for me.” The maintenance-free lifestyle also lets him keep a second home in Florida and take frequent road trips.

Dan says people are “missing the boat” by not moving to a retirement community sooner. “Here you have several restaurant options, all kinds of activities and excursions, a theater with daily showings, a heated pool and wellness center, 11 acres of beautiful gardens ... it’s like being on a permanent vacation!”

Perhaps we need to hit the pause button and re-evaluate just what the heck it is we’re doing here. We did take a day over the holiday break to go hiking and stay in a yurt at Sweetwater Creek State Park, to be one with nature and cleanse our stench of consumerism. But we packed so much stuff to get us through the single night of yurting that the minivan is one upping the recycling bins when they trade stories.

And while Christmas is well past, the return and exchange season is still thriving as the boxes keep showing up on my doorstep. Kristen had asked for a good pair of slippers, comfy and warm, but substantial enough that she can wear them to walk the dog. I splurged on a

Slipper box number three, which I had nothing to do with whatsoever, contained the winners and should have marked the end of the deluge. But one more package came addressed to my wife from a company named Wang Gang on Hangdong Road in Shanghai. I was actually pretty interested in seeing what was in this particular parcel…

Turns out we had ordered a Robin Van Persie soccer jersey for Elliott from the Dutch National Team’s website way back in mid-December. At the time, an email came from a Chinese source thanking us for the order and noting that “Ofenly, you will receive in 5-7 business days.” I guess, sometimes, things show up four weeks later from the Wang Gang, because, you know, stuff happens.

Tim Sullivan grew up in a large family in the Northeast and now lives with his small family in Oakhurst. He can be reached at tim@sullivanfinerugs.com.

Canterbury Court is Atlanta’s first and foremost continuing care retirement community, non-profit, and committed to welcoming all people.