Up and At 'Em

A good night's sleep can really make a difference in one's outlook! I feel wide awake and ready to face the next bunch of tasks.

Everything yesterday went swimmingly smooth. We took stuff to the dump and then headed south to Thornburg, VA to meet up with my sister Flyn and my niece Katie. I had some mementos from our mother, who passed away at age 58 back in 1983, that I wanted to give her. We shared lunch at Burger King (veggie burger and garden salad for me) and lots of memories and laughs for over two and a half hours. It was really delightful.

In the evening we also headed north in the rental truck to Baltimore. We went to Cindy's house, my other sister, to leave Mark's comic book collection (in about 26 plastic tote bins) in her garage. That also went remarkably well. Lowell came as well so we could return his Swiss army knife that he accidentally left at our house and to get his house key that I forgot to ask for Sunday. It was great to hug him again. We also got to ooh and aah over her brand new remodeled kitchen, which our brother Kip built for her. It's magnificent.

However, in between the visits with the two sisters, we went back to the house to spend an hour just tidying up some last minute things. That's when we faced two major setbacks.

ONE: The recycling men did not take anything. Over thirty feet long and three feet high, the piles of magazines and books were still sitting there. The recyclers had taken similar batches the last two Mondays, so I think when they saw this batch, they just didn't feel like dealing with it. They left us a note that it was too heavy (possibly some were, I will give them that) and that recyclables cannot be in cardboard boxes (despite the fact that cardboard is a recyclable item and the note also said we could recycle in a "container of our choice," so I chose cardboard boxes). DOH! OK, even given that, there were plenty of smaller stacks that did not weigh too much and were not in boxes. What about THOSE you recycle men??? HUH?

TWO: The new buyers do NOT want the shelves in the basement made of cinder blocks and boards that cover all the walls, floor to ceiling, and used to hold the comic book collection. All emptied out and cleaned, they still looked very good. But no, they don't want them. There are fifty cinder blocks, yes 5-0! Each weighs a LOT, so Mark would have had to make 50 trips up the flight of 13 stairs to put them on the curb. I would have made about 30 trips carrying the boards. And there was no guarantee the trash men would take them. We do NOT want stuff laying on the curb when the new family does its walk-through on Thursday. AAGGH!

SO...ka-ching. More money flying out the window...or as my sister Cindy said, "This is the time when you are moving when you feel like you should just open a vein and bleed money." YUP. That's the feeling. We called our wonderful contractor. He is coming over tonight to clear out the recycling and all the shelves with a crew. Great. All will be gone tonight, but at what cost? He could not give an estimate over the phone without seeing it. Oh, well...we have to do it.

With all this work, you'd think I'd be losing a ton of weight. It's Tuesday, so I weighed in at 218. Hm...back up 3 pounds. Whatever.

Today's tasks: (Items 1-3 are with Peggy's help, God Bless Her!!)
1. Empty the pantry and two cabinets of spices.
2. Empty and clean the fridge.
3. Sweep and clean the upstairs of the house.
4. Close one bank account and deposit all the funds into the other bank account. (No PNC banks in our new location.)
5. List the items for donation to AMVETS so we can get a tax deduction.
6. Load the truck with AMVETS donations.
7. Deliver the items and unload the truck at AMVETS.
8. Possibly pick up Mark's car: OY the AC repair will cost $1750.oo, more bleeding of money!)
9. NARFE printing and some business for Mark to do while I'm cleaning with Peggy.
10. Deal with Erick at 9 p.m. when he comes to load the shelves and recycles.
11. Who knows what else will come up!!