One of those wonderful, honest and truthful speeches worth listening to more than ones.

Mary Maxwell, a 72-year-old friend of the couple who founded Home Instead Senior Care, was asked to give the Invocation at a convention a few years back.

IVAR

Not too far from where I live we have an IKEA warehouse.
I try to avoid going there, but some times I embrace myself and do the grusome deed. They have things that  fit in where I have not found anything elsewhere that slides into my rather eclectic furnished house.
Since I have become quite an IKEA expert, I know that if I can't find anything that fits in the department I expected to find something, I find something somewhere else. Bathroom cabinets are such excellent DVD shelves.

Actually, IKEA as a concept is really unsuitable for me. I do not like to shop, and I am not one of those who go around and falls for inspiring exhibitions. I already know what I am having: I found it on the homepage of IKEA, so I'll just find a parking space, get in, find what I am looking for, pay and go home. I even scan the items and pay by myself at the self-service check out counter. I do not linger because I see something nice and need to make an impulse plan on where I can find space in my house to the whimsical chair or practical dresser.

I like IKEA, but not too much of it, and it's not like as if everything there has the same usefulness. It is cool and colorful and often innovative, but not always .... usable.
For example DVD shelves, which only has room for two rows of DVDs, and the last row is missing 3cm in height, so it fits Gameboy games or CDs, but not DVDs.
Thinking about it now, I guess I have a very ambivalent relationship to IKEA; a "I-hate-to-love-IKEA" sort of relationship.

There is something odd about IKEA. I call it "the IKEA phenomenon". You know how it is when you take a trip to a furniture store: heading there because you need something. You maybe look for a new sofa or a new dining room set, so you go to the store most likely to find it. And you choose from the style and price range you know they are known for.
That's not the case when it comes to IKEA. While I try to get pass the standing still groups of people who block the isle while they are considering items and exhibits as if they are on a fascinating Museum of Art, I hear comments like: "Oh, that one is really fine, wondering where I can find space for it at home? " Or I hear people who negotiate on the phone with somebody, who probably is in charge of the budget, saying "It really is about time we replace the kitchen .. at least the cupboards' interior." People go in a completely different shopping mode than what is typical for them, when they go to IKEA.
Just look at the department of packaging, for instance, it is so wonderfully welcoming that I'm sure there's a lot of people around wondering where to store all the gift bags and ribbon ties they have purchased. It was so affordable and easy to grab, and ever so delightfully displayed.

But, and to me this is a huge drawback: the  IKEA warehouse is huge! And will be larger. And there are no shortcuts ... or there is one but it is not particularly short. To not lose direction, you have to follow the arrows on the floor to guide you through the entire warehouse! (OK, Through the years I've become a rather experienced IKEA customer, so I know where I can shorten the round trip, but still.)

Nevertheless, I feel like I must wander about for half an eternity to find the ingenious storage for plastic bags. I know it is a quick thing to sew one yourself, but waiting for time and inspiration to actually find the sewing machine, and actually sew, I know from experience I have to wait for a long time, so instead I buy a gadget at IKEA for less than what the thread would cost me.

And in this case I buy cheap with good conscience because IKEA after all has a social profile.

1991 was the year I moved into an apartment I paid the rent for myself. Where I grew up it is all about sturdy local furniture production. Rock Solid wood furniture with everlasting quality. There is still furniture production. Sunnmøre has not flagged out everything... yet?
But I  didn't buy rock solid local products from Sunnmøre. I moved to Stavanger, and discovered IKEA.

When I get around to paint it all,
 in one color, it will look just great!

When I saw the need of storage space the choice fell on a section named IVAR. I did not know it then, but it was then, and remains still, a smashing good decision.
Maybe not the prettiest, but definitely the most flexible and practical.

Several vanful of furniture, and 24 years, later, I still have my IVAR section.

I have paint stained, sanded, painted and used different parts through the years. And it has served different storage purposes, but now, for the last few years, it has been stacked around the house in anticipation of the carport with storage room.

Last year I got my carport .... with storageroom. Finally.
A few weeks ago my students leveled the floor, and I've set up my cherished IVAR section.

Now the layout looks a little different, and got bigger, because I use all the parts I have. But to get it complete I had to go back to IKEA to buy some more shelves. That's right: 24 years after I invested in my first gables and shelves IKEA is still selling IVAR section and it is still compatible. They have gone from metal to plastic on the shelves, but gables, pins (some 5 cm long metal splints) and measurements are still the same.

Monday night, after 8 o'clock; that's the best time to go there. Then the young families have gone home to get the kids to bed and start assemble everything flat-packed they have purchased and brought back into their home.

I was lucky at the parking lot and rushed inside. thought I'd get away purchasing the shelves I lacked in shortest possible time .... and discovered I had made a cardinal mistake! I felt so stupid! I had not noted down the product number of the items.
Now, I would have had to trottle into the departments at 2nd floor anyway, because the kid wanted storage for plastic bags, but still.

Slightly crestfallen I found the right department and the shelf sections and looked around for help, but there was noone. BUT, I found a stack of sheets. A white folded sheet, where all parts are depicted with measurements and product number. Almost identical to what I had 24 years ago, only now are there some additional products. A new cabinets, bottle stand, hang basket and some shorter shelves.

At the computer station I found section number and shelf number on all the things I wanted ... except the short shelves, which were sold out.

I picked up what I was having, paid and loaded everything into the car.

And then ... I went back in.

Alas. I was not going for pizza, soft-ice or sausages ... not crispbread or coffee either ... although grinding coffee at IKEA gives me a blissful sense of well being when I stand there in an air of coffee grinded just as coarse or fine as I want it. There is something almost therapeutic about the smell of freshly ground coffee.

No, I had a mission inside the returns and exchanges department.
Fact is that over the years I have lost some of the pins.

There was no queue. No one who needed a trailer or wanted to exchange the mattress because the one they bought was too small.

A nice young man named Espen listened to me patiently before he began searching. With his head inside a cupboard behind the counter he asks: "How many do you need?" Slightly uneasy I answered "30".
He turns and asks, "you said 30?".
I give him the entire IVAR-story (very patient young man, Espen). He nods and says into the cupboard: "Actually, I have the opportunity to give you 9 only, but you are lucky, we have plenty".

So I got 30 pieces, paid 5 dollars, and smiled from ear to ear.
I would probably have been able to find an alternative, but it's okay to have the original parts, I think.

The IVAR section matched in the booth as if the booth was made to order.
When I get time I will paint the entire section and get it in one color, just because it looks neater. And then it becomes pretty, and it feels nicer to keep order.

When I found and brought out the last module of the section, a dresser, I could hear a rattling sound inside one of the drawers. Under a pile of colored drawing sheets lay 30 pins...