Trees and Memories

The work on the house is coming along fine. There was a lot of stuff, as you can well imagine, from 20 years of two lives having been lived there, and artifacts from our lives before we moved here, as well. I have gotten rid of many pounds of things; I was going to say "a ton," but I suspect well OVER a ton has left here in one pickup truck or another.

Today DL cut down some trees that were actually damaging my garage -- just saplings -- and she took a truckload of stuff that she'd culled out of the garage and thought she would find useful. These are culled from things that I did NOT want to ever see again. She will donate some of the items on my behalf, too.

Annette also took a truckload of stuff. Part of her load was boxes of things that I had thought that I'd sell on eBay, but... I've since thought better of it. I just don't have the time, energy, or patience for that sort of pursuit right now. Another day I might find it fun, but .. not now. I told her to take the stuff, that I never wanted to see it again, and that she could pocket the proceeds. I'm happy. She's happy. And whoever might buy the stuff will be happy. Doesn't get better than that!

Now I have to go through the rest of my office, finalizing my piles of things. The most important piles for me are the piles of things that I am going to keep, either stored in Annette's house, or brought back to my Tucson cottage in this little RV. That pile, obviously, must be quite small, since there is a limited amount of space and cargo-carrying capacity in this RV. I am choosing things to keep, as if I'm shopping within my house, picking out the things that I love the most and will use the most. Or that mean the most. I am keeping a couple of small boxes of things that are just simply memorabilia.

I'm giving things not only to my friends but also to charities around town. Teachers' Warehouse, Red Cross Book Fair, Community Kitchen, Goodwill, and Backstreet Mission have all benefited from my purge. Oh.. and Amos at the Recycling and Solid Waste Center has benefited too! When I went in there today with a car FULL of stuff, he helped me to offload it and then HE thanked ME! He said that I'm helping him to keep his job! LOL! I just love Amos.

Last night we had a storm! It actually was so windy and branches were snapping with such urgency that I opted to go into the nailed-down house for a bit. I used the time to shred some paper. My power did not go out (thank you REMC Bloomfield!) but it did flicker once. I returned to the RV at about 9:15, I'd guess.

Neither Maddy nor Eddie gets scared of storms, thankfully. I had one dog, a silver mini poodle named Alex, who would go nuts when it stormed. The only way he could be calmed was to be put into our bed. I was reminded of this when I found a card today that Michael had given me. It was from the pets, and Alex had "signed" it and thanked me for sharing our bed when it stormed.

I'm exhausted today. Oh.. and I just realized that I have not had dinner, and have not fed my pets, either! I'll feed them first. ;)

One for You and One for Me

Work, work, working for the last few days on the house. Yesterday I caught a break by accepting a dinner invitation from Andrew and Veronica to go to Chapman's, a wonderful eastside restaurant. I had the mahi-mahi with papaya salsa -- delicious, and so beautiful that I longed for my camera.

Andrew got to demonstrate for me, much to Veronica's chagrin, how he humiliates people who ask him where he's from, based upon his accent. What he did was to try to make her guess, and then he teased her with "south of there" and "a bit east of there." This assumes, of course, that his victim knows enough of European geography to make a cogent next guess.

On the subject of geography, go on and take a test and see how *you* do on European geography, or any of the other continents. I .. um.. did not fare well with Europe. I do ok on Canada, though!

Anyway, the dinner with A & V was lots of fun.

So it was back to the salt mines for me today, as I finished up my work in my bedroom! I got the last of the clothing sorted out and boxed or taken out here to the RV. Having such a small place in which to live does limit what I can keep! I also boxed up some things to give to Kelly and David and prepared some things to give to George.

I shredded another 4 bags of papers that Ann had culled out ydy. And I worked in the office closet, pulling things out of there.

Suzanne came to help this afternoon, and she helped me with sorting out more things in the office and boxing things for Goodwill. They are doing very well from me!

Then at 6, DL came with a guy who's going to estimate on powerwashing the deck and the house and staining the deck with a sealant product. He is also going to estimate on painting the doors and washing the garage. All of the above are covered in green algal growth, as if they had been underwater!

DL and I worked then in the garage. She moved a bunch of things, taking a load of things that I didn't want to see again in her truck to give to people. I loaded my car to the gills with trash and recycling. That will all go tomorrow, since they take trash/recycling only on Wed and Sat. I'll also make a Goodwill run tomorrow. I miss Steve and his truck on these runs!

I am finally getting a few bids on some of my auction items! Woo hoo! I'm wondering if it would be ok to pop some "extras" into the box when someone buys something. Like.. maybe a box of Pyrex pie pans with purchase of a crystal apple? LOL!

There is a June bug outside on the screen torturing Eddie! He is so funny batting at it! LMAO! Having never been an outside kitty, he probably just thinks that they are there for his amusement.

Maddy's looking good and feeling good these days. She's lost enough weight that she has a noticeable waist now, and her ribs are palpable. She does so much better when she walks daily! (I have always walked (or cycled or hiked) daily, but on those cycling or hiking days, Maddy doesn't get to go!

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

... Sweat and Tears, anyway! I've been working so hard on my house and getting out of it. Yesterday I worked with Ann on the bakery/office room. Ann was working on the files and I was in the closet. She had one small box of files that I need to keep, and the rest of the stuff ended up being shredded or recycled as is.

I took out dozens of cardboard boxes in all shapes and sizes, and all ended up broken down to recycle. More stuff for Goodwill. Computer programs and assorted disks sorted to donate or trash.

I went into town for our walk this morning, stopping for mail and at CVS. Now I'm sort of chilling. catching you up, but getting ready to go back in to work. I'm soooo ready to get this done and to get out of here. Every step of the way is emotionally draining and physically exhausting.