All tied up at my grandfather's
We've given ourselves a deadline of January 1st to be out of my grandfather's apartment. He knows he's not going back, and he's even told his landlords he's not coming back, so essentially we have his blessing to disperse his items. However, since we haven't been there in months, it's hard to recall exactly what he has without seeing it. So, finally, we've made a trip to sort through everything.
Mom, who was on vacation this week, and grandma were over there Thursday; it's obvious other family members have also been over, as some stuff is definitely missing or moved around. My older uncle took one of the bookshelves out of the dining room, for example. And grandma had started collecting like objects in one place. My grandfather apparently never met a pair of scissors he didn't like. We've found like 10 of them so far. And Mr. "Such a deal!" had duplicates of pretty much everything. He collected containers. Some were used, some were not. Now I know where my love for containers and office supplies comes from. I may never need to buy labels again. I'm not kidding. Though I think I'll take them to work. I also came away with several brand-new binders, some with stuff in them, but mostly dividers, the good photo album. I also bequeathed to myself the famous photo cube, which has always existed in my life. There's a picture of me in it from around my first birthday. The only reason it's there is not because I'm in the picture, or grandma, but the dog. All six pictures in the cube star his dog, Duchess. Thanks, man.
I'd started in the kitchen, and I pitched all the spices that were in there. Mom had to use the bathroom as soon as we got there, and to make it handicapped-accessible, the door was removed. In its place is a curtain. Dad had a smoke while we went inside, then went to use the bathroom--no! It's occupied! After mom came out, she went into the adjacent dining room and discovered...well, it appeared the neighbors' dog or dogs had visited and left a gift. Ew. The good (?) news was it wasn't fresh. I still cracked open the bathroom window once it was no longer occupied.
It's so easy to get distracted there. I'd poked around the kitchen, then something distracted me and I ended up in the bedroom, where I then decided to start organizing what was in his closet, to see what he had. It was a jumble of clothes and empty hangers. I got all the hangers off to one side, then started putting the shirts, pants, and jackets together; we ended up finding a nice, brand-new suit jacket that we gave to my dad. There was also one special hanger that had a bunch of ties on it. In moving everything around, I discovered that what was behind the clothes wasn't a wall; the closet went back at least another six feet. Holy cow. None of us knew that space was there. Because of how the ceiling angles, it sort of looks like it curves down and just becomes the wall. Not so much. So, in making space, I noticed a box of pictures and stuff and made my way over to grab it, and as I worked my way out, I sat on this little bench-like thing in there...and discovered the tie hanger had come off the closet rod and covered my left shoulder. The ties were draped all over me. I couldn't help but laugh. Mom heard, and I called her over to come see. Yeah, I got a little tied up in there.
Dad spent almost the entire time in the tool room. My grandfather was into machining, so he has a lot of stuff. It was all willed to dad. The good news is that a lot of the small parts are in containers which are all labeled. (I wasn't kidding about all the labels. My grandfather labeled much of what's in his house--just nothing in the kitchen, which is why he could never find anything after we cleaned in there, but I digress.) The bad news is that there's a crap ton of stuff. We filled the back of my dad's car, and it's a drop in the bucket. It's clear we made progress, at least. I managed to take his one phone off the wall; this was the cordless he kept just outside his computer room, off the hall to the kitchen. He'd built himself a holder out there that he'd screwed in, so I managed to unscrew the holder and undo the phone. It took some time, but it happened. And his computer room was basically his office, so there were all sorts of office supplies there, too, and cards and pictures and things. There's just so. much. stuff. Half the time, you're finding something and realizing you have a pile of it in the other room, so you go there to drop it off, and then you get distracted by something or someone else and you don't make it back to the original pile you were dealing with. There were three or four boxes of things I'd started sorting in the computer room that I just never finished. A lot of that had to do with grandma asking me questions or wanting me to do something for her; she helps, but I think it was a little easier before she got there today.
We were there from 10:30 to 4, so naturally we got hungry. There's a Walgreens a couple blocks away so my parents went over there and got snacks--some pop, cookies, Fritos for grandma, and Vitner's pork rinds, my dad's favorite. He was excited. Well, whatever gets you through the day. It wasn't great, but it was something and helped fuel us for the afternoon. When we eventually left, we loaded so much stuff into the car that mom worried dad couldn't see out the back. He was fine, but any bump or turn seemed a little dicey. Montrose has been under construction for some time, with the street being closed at different points, slowing heading westward. You can tell that we haven't been in the city for a while because mom kept saying, take Menard, take Menard, it being a street we could take south that would have a light; we were already west of Menard by then. We ended up on Melvina, which took us directly to St. Pascal's, which had the ABC7 news van sitting across the street from it. The new archbishop ended up doing the mass there tonight, in part because the school is combining with another one under the name of Pope Francis. I'd seen St. Pascal on the news this morning, but only saw it, and it wasn't until after we got home that I found out the whole story. The good news is that my school will be one of two home bases, but the four schools total that are combining will be under the new name. Well, no wonder the Channel 7 van was out there. It was after 4 by that time, and we don't have news until 5, so it very well was likely the other channels hadn't gotten there yet. It was still curious, though.
We didn't go straight home; we were hungry, and about all mom could talk about was food. This isn't rare, but she was insistent about going to this restaurant in Elmwood Park where she and grandma had gone on Thursday. Like, within a few miles of my grandfather's house, we asked her to give it a rest. She didn't. Oh, my goodness, shut up. She then kept strongly suggesting (i.e., practically yelling) that my dad should go *this* way to the restaurant, and we ended up driving through alleys trying to get there. By that point I was seriously annoyed and went, just turn already! It worked out, and the restaurant was fine, and the portions were huge so we have lunch for tomorrow. And, stuffed, we then ventured over to Rich's Fresh Market in River Grove to pick up pirogies for dinner tomorrow, plus some for dad to give to his coworker. And a poppyseed coffee cake. We do like our poppyseeds in our family.
Overall it was a fruitful visit, but we know we have our work cut out for us. We're anticipating going back every weekend, or close to it, for the foreseeable future.
Mom, who was on vacation this week, and grandma were over there Thursday; it's obvious other family members have also been over, as some stuff is definitely missing or moved around. My older uncle took one of the bookshelves out of the dining room, for example. And grandma had started collecting like objects in one place. My grandfather apparently never met a pair of scissors he didn't like. We've found like 10 of them so far. And Mr. "Such a deal!" had duplicates of pretty much everything. He collected containers. Some were used, some were not. Now I know where my love for containers and office supplies comes from. I may never need to buy labels again. I'm not kidding. Though I think I'll take them to work. I also came away with several brand-new binders, some with stuff in them, but mostly dividers, the good photo album. I also bequeathed to myself the famous photo cube, which has always existed in my life. There's a picture of me in it from around my first birthday. The only reason it's there is not because I'm in the picture, or grandma, but the dog. All six pictures in the cube star his dog, Duchess. Thanks, man.
I'd started in the kitchen, and I pitched all the spices that were in there. Mom had to use the bathroom as soon as we got there, and to make it handicapped-accessible, the door was removed. In its place is a curtain. Dad had a smoke while we went inside, then went to use the bathroom--no! It's occupied! After mom came out, she went into the adjacent dining room and discovered...well, it appeared the neighbors' dog or dogs had visited and left a gift. Ew. The good (?) news was it wasn't fresh. I still cracked open the bathroom window once it was no longer occupied.
It's so easy to get distracted there. I'd poked around the kitchen, then something distracted me and I ended up in the bedroom, where I then decided to start organizing what was in his closet, to see what he had. It was a jumble of clothes and empty hangers. I got all the hangers off to one side, then started putting the shirts, pants, and jackets together; we ended up finding a nice, brand-new suit jacket that we gave to my dad. There was also one special hanger that had a bunch of ties on it. In moving everything around, I discovered that what was behind the clothes wasn't a wall; the closet went back at least another six feet. Holy cow. None of us knew that space was there. Because of how the ceiling angles, it sort of looks like it curves down and just becomes the wall. Not so much. So, in making space, I noticed a box of pictures and stuff and made my way over to grab it, and as I worked my way out, I sat on this little bench-like thing in there...and discovered the tie hanger had come off the closet rod and covered my left shoulder. The ties were draped all over me. I couldn't help but laugh. Mom heard, and I called her over to come see. Yeah, I got a little tied up in there.
Dad spent almost the entire time in the tool room. My grandfather was into machining, so he has a lot of stuff. It was all willed to dad. The good news is that a lot of the small parts are in containers which are all labeled. (I wasn't kidding about all the labels. My grandfather labeled much of what's in his house--just nothing in the kitchen, which is why he could never find anything after we cleaned in there, but I digress.) The bad news is that there's a crap ton of stuff. We filled the back of my dad's car, and it's a drop in the bucket. It's clear we made progress, at least. I managed to take his one phone off the wall; this was the cordless he kept just outside his computer room, off the hall to the kitchen. He'd built himself a holder out there that he'd screwed in, so I managed to unscrew the holder and undo the phone. It took some time, but it happened. And his computer room was basically his office, so there were all sorts of office supplies there, too, and cards and pictures and things. There's just so. much. stuff. Half the time, you're finding something and realizing you have a pile of it in the other room, so you go there to drop it off, and then you get distracted by something or someone else and you don't make it back to the original pile you were dealing with. There were three or four boxes of things I'd started sorting in the computer room that I just never finished. A lot of that had to do with grandma asking me questions or wanting me to do something for her; she helps, but I think it was a little easier before she got there today.
We were there from 10:30 to 4, so naturally we got hungry. There's a Walgreens a couple blocks away so my parents went over there and got snacks--some pop, cookies, Fritos for grandma, and Vitner's pork rinds, my dad's favorite. He was excited. Well, whatever gets you through the day. It wasn't great, but it was something and helped fuel us for the afternoon. When we eventually left, we loaded so much stuff into the car that mom worried dad couldn't see out the back. He was fine, but any bump or turn seemed a little dicey. Montrose has been under construction for some time, with the street being closed at different points, slowing heading westward. You can tell that we haven't been in the city for a while because mom kept saying, take Menard, take Menard, it being a street we could take south that would have a light; we were already west of Menard by then. We ended up on Melvina, which took us directly to St. Pascal's, which had the ABC7 news van sitting across the street from it. The new archbishop ended up doing the mass there tonight, in part because the school is combining with another one under the name of Pope Francis. I'd seen St. Pascal on the news this morning, but only saw it, and it wasn't until after we got home that I found out the whole story. The good news is that my school will be one of two home bases, but the four schools total that are combining will be under the new name. Well, no wonder the Channel 7 van was out there. It was after 4 by that time, and we don't have news until 5, so it very well was likely the other channels hadn't gotten there yet. It was still curious, though.
We didn't go straight home; we were hungry, and about all mom could talk about was food. This isn't rare, but she was insistent about going to this restaurant in Elmwood Park where she and grandma had gone on Thursday. Like, within a few miles of my grandfather's house, we asked her to give it a rest. She didn't. Oh, my goodness, shut up. She then kept strongly suggesting (i.e., practically yelling) that my dad should go *this* way to the restaurant, and we ended up driving through alleys trying to get there. By that point I was seriously annoyed and went, just turn already! It worked out, and the restaurant was fine, and the portions were huge so we have lunch for tomorrow. And, stuffed, we then ventured over to Rich's Fresh Market in River Grove to pick up pirogies for dinner tomorrow, plus some for dad to give to his coworker. And a poppyseed coffee cake. We do like our poppyseeds in our family.
Overall it was a fruitful visit, but we know we have our work cut out for us. We're anticipating going back every weekend, or close to it, for the foreseeable future.