A Journal of Sorts

Friday, 26 March 1999

Empty boxes

There should be a law against spring cleaning. At no other time of the year do I manage to get so many things out into the open as I do in the spring. The biggest problem is, after I drag everything out, clean it, organize it and put everything back, I have too many leftovers.

So, what do you do with the leftovers? I've always been a pack rat. Unfortunately, my husband also has tendencies in that direction. (Tom is worse than I am. He saves empty boxes.) So we have a lot of stuff that is somewhat useless. We also have limited closet space and only a one car garage.

Some things we can safely call mementos. Others . . I don't know. Are clothes that have been out of style for 20 years considered mementos? Boxes and boxes of clothes? er . . .and even quite a few in the closet - just in case I happen to drop twenty or thirty pounds tomorrow. Any project I've ever started, I still have. I have some fabric and patterns I got when Teresa was born (32 years ago). Such CUTE little dresses those would have been.

Ok . here's one. What do you do with a case of blasting caps? Or how about old computer disks. The last two computers that I built, I didn't bother to even put the 5 1/4" drive in there. So, why do I have so many of these 5 1/4" disks? Tom has maybe two-hundred disks (3 1/2") from computer backups he made when he was still in the monastery. We -need- those. Should I admit that I have a stash of 8" diskettes out in the garage? I don't think I will.

But I've always liked a challenge.

I did do some stuff in the yard this morning. Hank brought over two more clematis in plastic bags the other day. He told me how much space the original one would take up, so I dug a place for the two new ones on either side of the original one so I'll have two blue/purple ones with white in between them.

I finally planted the baby's breath and the poppies under the new rose bushes and I cut off the old blooms from the bulb gardens font and back. I noticed while I was out front that the mums are confused. I mean really confused. They aren't just growing, they are making nice flower buds. So they think it is August, I suppose. Too weird.

I repotted a few house plants and put the tomato seedlings in pots, then went back outside to finish the clematis project before watering. Cricket had chewed and emptied both bags. I found one of the plants and planted it (it's a wildflower - it should survive, right?), but the other one was nowhere to be found. I looked in all of his favorite stash places, too. Darned dog.

(reminds me . .when Hank got here the other day, he asked me what I called the dog. I told him shithead. He said, "That's what you used to call Jason when he was little". Why do my friends always remember this stuff?)