Something’s wrong when the old friend from high school, who once told me he and his wife are "more into nature then technology" are more comfortable paying their bills online then I am.  I’m a computer systems engineer for chrissake.  He told me the other day that it was "Very ironic.  Very." that I wasn’t using online payment these days.  And there is this now: most of the places I mail paper checks to convert them into electronic payments anyway, and I never get a canceled check back.

So this weekend I’ve been setting up online payment accounts at various places.  Also automatic payment plans for things like the phone service and utilities.  I’ll get them to send me email statements now, and over the summer work on cleaning out my filing cabinets of packrat junk I just really never needed to keep, just look at and pay once a month.  All I really need to keep on hand I think, are the bank statements, the pay stubs and the tax forms I’ve filed over the years. 

I’m going to make an effort this summer to simplify my life some.  I have too much clutter in the house…things I inherited from mom I just don’t need to keep, even for sentimental value.  Furniture I really don’t like or want, old computer books and hardware I’ll never touch ever again.  Keepsakes that don’t mean anything to me anymore.  My house is too cluttered with stuff that I don’t use or need or want and isn’t me anymore.  Some of it came here when mom passed away.  Some of it is stuff I’ve kept over the years because it reminded me of a simpler time when I was younger and the future seemed brighter.  I need to go through it all.  I need to simplify.