I like to keep track of things that don't matter. It keeps my mind blissfully unburdened by thoughts and cares that might otherwise have real consequence.

And so I declare that I just now used our basement shower-stall for the second time ever. And it was a good shower. I'm not sure what I was thinking when we first moved in, but after the moving van dumped out all our belongings back in May 2006 I happily dropped into place a bar of soap and a half-empty bottle of shampoo. What, did I think I'd be washing down there several times a week? Who knows.

Even today I didn't wake up planning to shower down there. In fact, I skipped the shower altogether for the day's first trip to Giant Beagle. Unshaven and unwashed I walked the aisles, loaded up on the grocery, and frightened the locals. Got back and did a few things out in the garage -- collapsing boxes (Space Ghost says it's the responsible thing to do) and changing the rear wiper on the Subaru.

(Oh, and that too is a first -- friggin car has been scraping by on the same stripped and exhausted rear wiper since we drove it off the lot back in 2006.)

Anyway, I shaved at the tiny sink in the bathroom off the kitchen (another first!) because Alane was cleaning the upstairs bathroom. Then I went up and got ready to shower. Then Alane saw me. From behind her caustic washrag she shot me the hairy eyeball -- as if I was about to undo all her work.

"I'm taking a shower, not a colonic."

It didn't matter, so I went to the basement. And what a treat: it's a totally no-frills stall with an excellent pre-Gore showerhead and that half-full bottle of Clairol Herbal Essences clarifying shampoo (with palm oil!) that I must've first opened back in 2005. I cranked up the hot water and luxuriated. Great experience. The bare-bulb lighting created a perffect underground ambiance and the stall's industrial utilitarianism was perfect for blasting the industrial stink off my no-frills body.

And now what remains of my hair smells as it did back in 2005.

Still got a few things to do today. Been a busy week around here. I've taken a new tack in waking the boys for school each morning -- I blast the rather-strong speakers on my computer in the room across the hall and play something ridiculous. Yesterday it was this: