It's curtains for the curtains
Another Saturday, another trip to the city. This time, it was just me and my dad; mom stayed home, in part because she's going out tomorrow, and also because she already had Papa dealings this week. I won't go into it now, but suffice to say, she was looking forward to a day left alone.
With mom gone, that meant we had more room to load things in the car--which was good, because we packed it. We got up early to go grocery shopping this morning, and after we got back and had a bite to eat, we were on the road about 10 and made it there about 11, which is pretty good, all things considered. I was just glad to discover the spare key I was given worked; mom wasn't sure. We had something for his landlords, so I slipped it under their door, then got to work.
It was clear that someone had been there since last Saturday. A number of things were missing. We knew that a guy named Joe, who had known Papa for decades, was coming to take some of his hobby items. We'd been hoping to get that all done in one trip, but Joe will have to come back, which is fine because there's still more stuff. Part of why Joe will return is that he wanted to bring a friend of his; Joe's wife had brought him this time. The friend will know more about what is useful and what isn't. But the pile we'd collected last week was gone, as were two under-bed boxes that had been filled with other items. I did move some stuff around and managed to get a banker's box emptied, so I used that to collect some of the other hobby-related items I came across. Might as well keep it together.
Aside from the hobby items, the first thing I noticed gone was the TV. Mom's older brother had planned on taking that, but we were surprised to see it was still there last week. I'm glad it's gone. The sort-of paper cabinet next to the couch was emptied, as was the dresser underneath that. There had been two sets of inexpensive drawers, a metal base with cloth drawers, in the dining room and living room; those were gone. Probably some other items out of the dining room were taken, too. Two of the desks were out of the computer room, though I probably hadn't been in there past a certain point last week and I think my cousins took those. And, most distressingly, the curtain hanging in the doorway of the bathroom--the only thing separating the bathroom from the rest of the place, essentially--was no longer there. This was bad, because I had to go when we got there. And, so did dad. So we made sure we stayed in other rooms until the all-clear was sounded. This is why it was great that it was just the two of us there today; last week, when we had as many as eight, that would have been bad. The good news is that dad went poking around on the porch and did find the door, so we put it back on and did get to use the bathroom in actual privacy for the first time in months. Yay.
Dad spent a lot of time in the hobby room in the back. Of all the crap-filled rooms, that's the crappiest. There are just bins and bins of items that have to be gone through. I spent my time in several places--I made sure the drawer area next to the living room couch was cleaned. I finished cleaning out the cabinets in the bathroom, though I did leave some things. There were three bottles of rubbing alcohol that hadn't expired, several unopened bars of Irish Spring, a number of cleaning products under the sink that might be useful. However, it was clear no one had gone under the sink in ages; I found possibly mothballs and rodent poison, and the smell was so awful I immediately took the trash out. It was full, at least. And I then left the cabinet doors open to air it out under there. Ugh. It was bad. There are still some things piled in the tub and on the windowsill, which is kind of deep, that we'll need to sort through, but otherwise that room is good.
Most of the useful items are out of the bedroom. There had been more hobby stuff in the closet, and it was clear someone had been in there--much of the hobby stuff was gone, and things had been moved around. All the Christmas paper was stacked next to the trunk it had been in; I grabbed that. Under the paper, the trunk was full of linens. I have no idea if they mean anything. There's a tags-on sweatshirt in there, plus one from Princeton (where his brother went to school and subsequently lived) that clearly had been used. There was this old quilt-y blanket. And there were items that, well, I'm not sure what they are. The trunk seems nice but we could probably leave it. I did manage to sort through the rest of the banker's boxes that were stacked up in the bedroom; that's how I got the empty one. Papa liked to print things he found online--he often told me about how he "downloaded" this or that--so my recycling pile grew and grew.
When dad went out on the back porch to sort through things, he came across several containers of Papa's stuff that, as per usual, were a melange of items. There were hobby magazines and newsletters. There were brightly-colored folders. There were these thick pieces of paper, blank. There were more articles he'd downloaded. And then, unexpectedly, there was family information, stuff I hadn't seen before. Aha. Now this is treasure. There were four pages of information about his mother's family; somehow the pages had thinned or otherwise been compromised and there's literally holes in them. I'll want to photocopy them to get them on better stock, but this is exactly the sort of thing to put on Ancestry.com. This was all separating the wheat from the chaff, and I think I managed to get all the good stuff, but I didn't finish sorting the chaff before dad wanted to pack up the car. We'd pulled enough stuff that even though it wasn't long after 3 that we started loading things up, it was probably 3:45 before we were on the road. He filled his vehicle, I filled the recycling bin. There's plenty more to sort, but at least we're making progress. Now if only we could find a light for the dining room. It worked last week, but it's not working now. The best I could do was turn on all the lights in the adjoining rooms (living room, bedroom, hall light to the kitchen, bathroom) and work on the edge of the living and dining rooms. Funny how my grandfather had tons of everything, but not so much when it came to lamps.
Dad and I likely will go back next week, but past that I'm not sure. It depends what all is left. I know I still have a few things to go through in the computer room, and there's a shelf in the dining room filled with binders of information he downloaded; we need to sort through those to see what's useful and what's not. But in three weeks, it'll be over. It'll have to be.
With mom gone, that meant we had more room to load things in the car--which was good, because we packed it. We got up early to go grocery shopping this morning, and after we got back and had a bite to eat, we were on the road about 10 and made it there about 11, which is pretty good, all things considered. I was just glad to discover the spare key I was given worked; mom wasn't sure. We had something for his landlords, so I slipped it under their door, then got to work.
It was clear that someone had been there since last Saturday. A number of things were missing. We knew that a guy named Joe, who had known Papa for decades, was coming to take some of his hobby items. We'd been hoping to get that all done in one trip, but Joe will have to come back, which is fine because there's still more stuff. Part of why Joe will return is that he wanted to bring a friend of his; Joe's wife had brought him this time. The friend will know more about what is useful and what isn't. But the pile we'd collected last week was gone, as were two under-bed boxes that had been filled with other items. I did move some stuff around and managed to get a banker's box emptied, so I used that to collect some of the other hobby-related items I came across. Might as well keep it together.
Aside from the hobby items, the first thing I noticed gone was the TV. Mom's older brother had planned on taking that, but we were surprised to see it was still there last week. I'm glad it's gone. The sort-of paper cabinet next to the couch was emptied, as was the dresser underneath that. There had been two sets of inexpensive drawers, a metal base with cloth drawers, in the dining room and living room; those were gone. Probably some other items out of the dining room were taken, too. Two of the desks were out of the computer room, though I probably hadn't been in there past a certain point last week and I think my cousins took those. And, most distressingly, the curtain hanging in the doorway of the bathroom--the only thing separating the bathroom from the rest of the place, essentially--was no longer there. This was bad, because I had to go when we got there. And, so did dad. So we made sure we stayed in other rooms until the all-clear was sounded. This is why it was great that it was just the two of us there today; last week, when we had as many as eight, that would have been bad. The good news is that dad went poking around on the porch and did find the door, so we put it back on and did get to use the bathroom in actual privacy for the first time in months. Yay.
Dad spent a lot of time in the hobby room in the back. Of all the crap-filled rooms, that's the crappiest. There are just bins and bins of items that have to be gone through. I spent my time in several places--I made sure the drawer area next to the living room couch was cleaned. I finished cleaning out the cabinets in the bathroom, though I did leave some things. There were three bottles of rubbing alcohol that hadn't expired, several unopened bars of Irish Spring, a number of cleaning products under the sink that might be useful. However, it was clear no one had gone under the sink in ages; I found possibly mothballs and rodent poison, and the smell was so awful I immediately took the trash out. It was full, at least. And I then left the cabinet doors open to air it out under there. Ugh. It was bad. There are still some things piled in the tub and on the windowsill, which is kind of deep, that we'll need to sort through, but otherwise that room is good.
Most of the useful items are out of the bedroom. There had been more hobby stuff in the closet, and it was clear someone had been in there--much of the hobby stuff was gone, and things had been moved around. All the Christmas paper was stacked next to the trunk it had been in; I grabbed that. Under the paper, the trunk was full of linens. I have no idea if they mean anything. There's a tags-on sweatshirt in there, plus one from Princeton (where his brother went to school and subsequently lived) that clearly had been used. There was this old quilt-y blanket. And there were items that, well, I'm not sure what they are. The trunk seems nice but we could probably leave it. I did manage to sort through the rest of the banker's boxes that were stacked up in the bedroom; that's how I got the empty one. Papa liked to print things he found online--he often told me about how he "downloaded" this or that--so my recycling pile grew and grew.
When dad went out on the back porch to sort through things, he came across several containers of Papa's stuff that, as per usual, were a melange of items. There were hobby magazines and newsletters. There were brightly-colored folders. There were these thick pieces of paper, blank. There were more articles he'd downloaded. And then, unexpectedly, there was family information, stuff I hadn't seen before. Aha. Now this is treasure. There were four pages of information about his mother's family; somehow the pages had thinned or otherwise been compromised and there's literally holes in them. I'll want to photocopy them to get them on better stock, but this is exactly the sort of thing to put on Ancestry.com. This was all separating the wheat from the chaff, and I think I managed to get all the good stuff, but I didn't finish sorting the chaff before dad wanted to pack up the car. We'd pulled enough stuff that even though it wasn't long after 3 that we started loading things up, it was probably 3:45 before we were on the road. He filled his vehicle, I filled the recycling bin. There's plenty more to sort, but at least we're making progress. Now if only we could find a light for the dining room. It worked last week, but it's not working now. The best I could do was turn on all the lights in the adjoining rooms (living room, bedroom, hall light to the kitchen, bathroom) and work on the edge of the living and dining rooms. Funny how my grandfather had tons of everything, but not so much when it came to lamps.
Dad and I likely will go back next week, but past that I'm not sure. It depends what all is left. I know I still have a few things to go through in the computer room, and there's a shelf in the dining room filled with binders of information he downloaded; we need to sort through those to see what's useful and what's not. But in three weeks, it'll be over. It'll have to be.