Avoidance can be a good motivator

I finally sat down to start compiling all the records for our taxes, and was suddenly, miraculously, energized to take Sparky for a long walk on the beach, throwing the ball and picking up a big bag of storm-wrack plastic (why do you suppose so many pieces of nursery plant pots get washed up?)

As I walked, I mentally planned a terrific product design course where-in students would be asked to pick up plastic garbage on the beach, and then apply a kind of 19th century naturalist objectivity to classify each item, large or small by material, morphology, production method and probable original use. Maybe even illustrate it with stippled precision.


(image from http://starfishncoffee.blogspot.com)

If possible, they would track down retail sources of the product in its original state, and photograph them in situ. That would be easy in a lot of cases - plant pots, bottle caps, children's sand toys, shoes (all things I found today on surfer's beach in El Granada) but more difficult in other cases - complicated parts that must have required multiple part molds for injection molding, but give no hint of their utility.

I also discovered it was crucial to weed the garden, and make a blog entry...

But now I fear I must return to the taxes.