saturday
Spent some time in the basement last evening. I'm going to start to try and see this like "going to a job". It has to be done. These are some things I don't "need" but can't get rid of yet. They will go into a box just for those kinds of treasured but useless things. The squares are potholders (?) that my old friend Dot crocheted for us a long long time ago. I used to help her and her husband out by doing their laundry. They had no running hot water, or a washing machine. No bathroom. They lived in a very primitive house. She could barely walk - arthritis of the knees. This was the one thing she thought she could gift me with. And from the same era (33 years ago), when Chloe was just a little toddler Dave made her those blocks. Some are missing. When Johnny came along Dave made more blocks - building blocks this time. I can't get rid of these things. And looking at them gets me all sentimental. But that is the WORK that I need to go through I guess to get this job of sorting through things done. I found some other things that I know I don't want and they are still good. I was very tempted to quickly just put them as they were (dirty) in a box to go to SalVal. I am guilty of doing that in the past. But last night I thought I'd clean them up and give them a better chance at "Life After Mary's Basement". That took some time and some elbow grease. But then I got into the mindset of "working" at this. Make going to the basement my job for now. Stop being overwhelmed by how big the job is. It's just a job and I need to go to my job every day. If I'm lucky I'll have 20 more years in which to clean up the mess down there. It took 70 years to create it.
Found this bird windchime in a box. Broken. I got it in Florida many years ago. Both Kathy and I got similar ones. I had it hanging for a summer but then the chimes started to fall off and I relegated it to the basement. So I spent some time restringing it last night. That was my final task. Then I took it up and hung it on the back porch, took this picture and sat down at the picnic table to rest. Done for the day. It felt like I had actually accomplished something down there for once. Now there's a box of things that is ready to go out to a new life, and there is a repaired thing having a new life here. Good for me.
Today is Candy's son Tom's wedding. It's supposed to rain all day. Tom's bride is from Turkey and her family has come here for the wedding. We'll probably be shut up in the building because of the rain. Maybe I'll get to talk to some interesting people with accents.