Oh, What a Day!

I tidied up Ernie's Room.  Ernie's Room is the laundry room, at the back of what you people in the States call "garage."  He was such a noisy dachshund that I had shut him up there at night so he wouldn't bark at the shadows and the leaves falling.  I never let him in the house because he always did his business inside.

I tidied up Ernie's Room, and even mopped it.  Meanwhile that nerve, the "Nervio Siático" has been killing me since yesterday, such a pain that I almost cried last night and had to take Neurontin.  I'm woozy, but the pain is leaving finally. 

I can't believe I threw out so many things from that room.  Cushions and cushions we hadn't used in years, towels which were, who knows what color they used to be, and bottles I can't think what I can do with them.  Then I take a look at the rest of the house and think, BLECH.  A man can get used to anything, even to being hanged, as the Irishman said.  And one can get used to an ugly house, which, in my case, is inevitable if you want to get out of debt.  I told The Man I Call Husband, "Ed, how can we make this look better with what we already have, and for less than 100 dollars?" He looked around and started making plans and had a de-clutter fit.  Oh boy, I should have guessed this would happen and if I had been in my right mind, which occurs rarely, I'm sure Dave would think, I would not have said anything at all. 

Suddenly he wanted to get rid of half the things we own.  Oh no!  What had I done? I summoned all the negotiating skills learned as a teen, acquired in that Place of Learning we call "college" and as the Mother of the Danny Boy, and started to use them on that Declutter Maniac who used to be my husband.  At any rate, I ended up offering a Technics turntable that he no longer uses in his audio business, and a 200 CD carousel, offered both on Freecycle.  He *almost* had me offer an iBook, but then he took a look at it and said that it was the first iBook that Macintosh ever made, and since he is an audio collector, the Audio Collector in him didn't let that happen, haha!  It was funny, watching the transformation occur on his face.  Ah, Eddie, he's SO not a pack rat.  Me, I think that I might need something and keep it for 20 years.  I do clean out the rooms, every once in a while.  I finally got rid of some magazines I had had since I was 12.  They were so nice and brought back pleasant memories, but they take up space.  Too bad.  I could have my own personal museum if Eddie would let me!

Now I have to offer an Apple G3, Mac OS 9, on Freecycle, and will wait to see if Eddie wants to part with anything else.  I told him that the AR turntable that was my father's was NOT leaving this house.  I also have a tiny reel-to-reel player, it fits in my hand, practically, that was Dad's.  He used it in Viet Nam.  No, will never part with that.  Ever.

There are so many things one can do without.  Why do we keep them?  Because we're going to use them Some Day.  Eddie says that Some Day does not exist, but you and I know better, don't we?  :)  :)  :)

River

P.S.  I'm thinking that *maybe* that *perhaps* it's high time I threw out my high school notebooks, too.  :D