Pickin' & Grinnin'

We've been picking through the garage at Jack's house today, making room for a someday garage sale or huge donation to Goodwill. What a job! The garage is full of, not only Jack's workshop, but also a huge stash of food. And one thing that I've learned is that food and garages don't mix very well.

Some of the canned goods seemed fine, but other stuff is oozing out of the edges. Many cans are dented or outdated. The boxed stuff is all hopeless, having been chewed into, outdated, or just ... icky. There was a brand new box of See's candy, all wrapped in plastic, and under the plastic, a gold box with a gold tie. Jack and I each said, "Oooh!" only to turn it over to see the hole where the mouse had entered.

There were many gallons of juices and water. We saved what we could for the local food bank, and we poured out the rest, and we'll recycle those bottles.

And there were more clothes in the garage, mostly fine, all with tags still on. I bagged those and took them into the house, adding to the huge pile of bags there.

For those of you who are wondering, this is not my stuff, but Jack's and his former wife's. I'm just helping him to get started in cleaning up the stuff, so that the house may once again be a place where a family could live.

So.. are we making headway? I have to say that, after taking 3 vanloads to the foodbank, a vanload to recycling, a truck and trailer to the dump, and filling the van again with stuff for recycling and the foodbank, and partially filling another truckload for the dump, there really is not that much difference in the way the place looks. I know that we'll get there eventually, but not today.

We took a couple of days off from working in the house, spending most of Friday working at Artworks, and Saturday we did some laundry and ran some errands.

Also, Thursday evening, we had a delicious dinner with Linda and Mike. Then on Friday, we went out for Italian food at a new restaurant on north State Street. Their pizza was amazing! We went with 12 other Big Rapids/Tucson people, and it was really fun.

Last night, we enjoyed a pork tenderloin cooked on the grill, artichokes, and sweet corn. Tonight, Jack's concocting a meal from baked beans, the leftover pork, a Vidalia onion, and a green pepper. And it's ready! :)