whew!

[winterbadger]

Today's score at Highland Lane: One tub of spackling almost exhausted during the course of repairing one large and several minor bits of wall damage as well as patching innumerable nail holes. Two sections of carpeting (damaged by Nicholas) replaced. The guy who soccer_fox found to do the carpet work was on time, quick, and did good work; I would recommend him. Also five loads of paper brought up from the basement for recycling. Finally, eight loads of insulation board, beaverboard, shelving, piping, and other old junk brought up from the basement to the kerb for pickup by the Weee Haul Eeet Awwwl man tomorrow.

This in addition to the work that soccer_fox and I did at my mother's over the weekend, carting about half a dozen cartons of junk from my dad's study plus about fifty years' worth of Times Literary supplement (estimate: they filled up the back of a Volvo station wagon to the roof, and I know I saw some from the mid-1950s, which means that he *moved* them to Newport News!) And, of course, driving there and back in successive days, since N's WAWSL team ,the Vixens, had a match on Saturday morning (and a good thing she went, too, as she was their only sub!)

Exhausted! Time for a shower, a change of clothes, then in to work. Home after to unload bits and pieces we brought back from NN and do a bit of cleaning chez Scarpari/Spoor.

Comments

[azbound.livejournal.com]

Who drives a Volvo wagon? You know how I am about Volvos....

Also, this makes me think of what I tell Dave regularaly - "He who dies with the most toys does not win - he simply leaves a very pissed off wife who has to deal with all of his crap."

This doesn't seem to stop him from buying tons and tons of crap though....

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

I feel for you. This whole getting-rid-of-stuff process (and seeing Jan's and Melissa's moms' houses) has made me bound and determined never to accumulate more than two rooms' worth of stuff again in my life.

I get depressed sometimes, thinking of all the junk that factories make and stores sell and people buy and landfills take in---it never ends. Sigh. I guess as with any other social or environmental issue, you can only do your little part.

On a less depressing note, I saw the tents going up on the Mall the other day for this summer's Smithsonian Folklife Festival. That always makes me think of you and your mother.

Are you planning any trips out East this year?

[azbound.livejournal.com]

My mom will be delighted that you think of us for such an auspicious reason.

I hear what you're saying about "stuff" - I was in Ikea this weekend and had to battle to not buy kitchen stuff. I simply don't need it and all it does is take up space. I've been doing extensive weeding out recently and I've found that the things I get rid of, I dont' miss. So that's a good thing, right?

[azbound.livejournal.com]

Oh, and to answer your question, I'm hoping for Thanksgiving. I'm minorly poor due to car repairs, so my wings are clipped for a while. Will you two be around in November?

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

We'll definitely be around in November. We're not leaving on the great odyssey until early next year.

Good for you on the kitchen stuff! The way I see it, every item not acquired is a victory. And every item that leaves your possession (preferably given to someone in need rather than thrown away) is a victory.
At this rate, I ought to become a Buddhist. But I doubt I'll ever transcend the material world enough to overcome my passion for good food!

[winterbadger]

My mum drives a Volvo wagon. Are Swedes all midgets? I put the seat as far back as it would go, and N still got a chuckle out of me driving with my knees around my ears...

My dad kept every piece of mail he ever got, we are convicned. Letters--hell, notes!--he got in England in 1945. Junk mail from banks and credit card companies. Income tax returns from the 1950s. Invitations to all sorts of events he may or may not have gone to (I did keep the invite to Buck House addressed from the Lord Chamberlain to K.F. Spoor, Esq.) Playbills and theatre programmes. All sorts of booklets and pamphlets. A copy of one of the Indian national papers from--I'm guessing--the day he shipped out from India in 1945.

All sorts of things from his teaching career: students' papers, thigns he had copied for use in classes, instructions on giving exams or runnign classes... An essay on soccer and Scotland that Alastair Reid had published in the New Yorker in the 1960s (I saved that too).

[azbound.livejournal.com]

I am pretty comfy in my car and I'm far from a midget. Granted, mine is a '93, and maybe the newer ones are smaller....but after being in the suburban for about a month (car issues with Duke), it is a lot smaller.

Dave's dad is pretty much a horder. And I can't get Dave to really buckle down and get rid of stuff, though he does sort through his mail in a decent fashion. Get this: Dave's dad, Phil, likes to look at envelopes with stamps and postmarks. So Dave saves them from our place and they give them to him at his job and he sends them to his Dad. I just know that Phil is going to die and we're goingto have box upon box of f'ing envelopes and I'm going to have practically torture my husband to let go of the emotional attachment to them....Ugh.

[winterbadger]

Oh dear!

What's killing my mother is that there are boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of this stuff, and the temptation is to throw them away en masse. But then stuff turns up that one finds one wants to keep, usually one item per carton of crap. :-(

On the (small) upside... his insurance company actually noticed that he had overpaid a premium right before he died and sent a check to his estate. It was ony about $100, but it was nice of someone there to notice and do the right thing.

And I got to look over the pile of cards and letter she's gotten since he died from friends, relatives, etc. Really sweet, some of them, and very thoughtful.