The listmaker
My Dad is a wonderful bloke. He is clever, generous, funny and I am proud to be his son. He is also however somewhat eccentric. If it is true that we turn into our parents, I'm going to need to sharpen up on my admin.

This is because my Dad is the listmaker.

When I say "listmaker" I don't mean he makes a good shopping list or asks for our "Top ten women carrying a bit of weight" or anything relatively ordinary. I mean that he makes lists of staggering size and complexity. Regularly updated ones include;
-Every train journey undertaken since some point in the 80's. Destination, duration and cost.
-Every vehicle he has ever driven from the age of eight. Considering that at one stage, the army had allowed him to accrue every category of license it was possible to hold, this is also a healthy list. Probably the only one that includes a Wolseley Hornet and an M1 Abrahms as valid fields as well when I think about it.
-When he used to run daily, he logged times and prevailing weather every day for twenty eight years. This meant transcribing it to computer circa '92 which was done with great ceremony. Now he uses an exercise bike, the perameters have been altered to distance and time but the entries continue.
-Acronyms. This is a more recent undertaking which dates back only to 1999 or so but has been seized with a special passion. The morning paper is never read without a small piece of paper and a pen lest any new acronyms are discovered. The last time I checked this work, it was hundreds of pages long. I'd put it online had I the time and nous to do so as in all seriousness, it is the most complete list of acronyms I've ever seen.

I mock him for this but in truth some of the mockery is down to my resentment that he has the time and organisation to create these works. I have neither the will nor organisational prowess to create anything like that. Who knows, perhaps genes will out at some point and I'll fire up excel for a list of my own.

Length? Can you even begin to imagine what a spreadsheet of twenty seven years of rail journeys looks like?
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Fri 26 Nov 2010, 9:18, 7 replies)

This is bizarre
but luckily it's harmless. I think.
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Fri 26 Nov 2010, 9:39, closed)

OCD much?

( Another_tragic_case wished he hadn't eaten all the cake, Fri 26 Nov 2010, 10:04, closed)

Probably
but one that is far less disruptive than turning the lights on and off umpteen times.
(Leonard Hatred briefly did some work on, Fri 26 Nov 2010, 10:12, closed)

Wifey does the whole door locking thing.
Locks the door, unlocks it to check it was locked, locks it and then pushes and pulls it to make sure it won't open.

She broken many locks and doors in her time.
( Another_tragic_case wished he hadn't eaten all the cake, Fri 26 Nov 2010, 10:31, closed)

Is that only a partial list of his lists, or a complete one?
(Simian Typewriter Supplies Pty. Ltd. is house hunting in the neighborhood of infinity, Fri 26 Nov 2010, 12:20, closed)

click for astonishment

(SimianKid internet faffer, Fri 26 Nov 2010, 12:43, closed)

autism?
Sounds like undiagnosed autism to me, but if he's happy making his lists then no harm done, I think....
(TheFlyingOnion. looking forward to, Sat 27 Nov 2010, 16:12, closed)