Mr. Noodle

Mr. Noodle
Mr. Noodle

Saturday, May 28, 2011

more purging, packing, cleaning, etc.

One of the three bedrooms is completely cleared out. The front bedroom is where I am putting everything I will be taking with me to North Carolina. So far I have started eight Rubbermaid bins, labeled them, and am compiling a list of the things that are going into them.

I have another big pile of things to take out to the garage, for the garage sale or for friends to pick over. I think I'm almost done with this task, actually, I think I'll be done with the sorting by the end of tomorrow. It is really coming along swimmingly. Someone is coming to look at the house tomorrow, interested in renting, so I am going to bust my butt to make sure it is presentable.

I need to take a trip out to the landfill, but I don't know if I'll be ready tomorrow. I have started filling the truck, so it might just have to wait until after work on Monday, on my way home from Tofino.

I started going through the kitchen, but that's a two-phase process, because I have to decide what tools I will need until I leave & what food I will eat, as opposed to what things I know I'll never use and what foodstuffs are either no longer edible or simply unlikely to get consumed.

Here's what I still have left:
Futon we got from Dean, going to K2 when they get rid of their current couch
Dan's old futon, which might go to a coworker at the hospital or the fish boss if she doesn't want it
The slider rocking chair that was my mum's - no one wants it (really) but I will likely keep it until I leave
Table & chair set from Toni & the Skipper, going to K2
Table & chair set from my mum, going to Faye
Table with drawer from Toni & the Skipper, also going to K2
Spice rack going to K2

And lots of little things. Faye wants the ice cream maker. K2 might be interested in the slow cooker. A few friends who picked through the stuff in the garage last week indicated interest in coming back for another round. By the end of tomorrow, everything that I'm not taking with me will be out there. Maybe I'll have a garage sale next weekend.

The yard needs a bit of tending too. I have been using the push mower, which I love, but it does have its limitations. With a power mower, tall grass is no problem. In this case, I am really going to have to learn to use a weed whacker, because after spending an hour and a half with my little hand snips today, I realized that in that same space of time I could have finished the entire yard, and not just a small fraction of it. I found my protective eyewear today, if I can find some ear plugs or other ear protection, I might have a crack at it tomorrow.

I also need to fill in the newly created raised bed and plant some stuff in it. Darnit! I gave all my seeds away. I will happily go buy some romaine lettuce seeds and plop them in the ground - what doesn't get eaten by deer or slugs will likely not have a chance to bolt here.

There is also the rectangular depression in the back that in the winter fills up with water (there is not much soil above a clay bed here), and that I found a source of free fill for. I need to go through and pick out the big rocks, even it out, and tidy up that area. I thought about planting potatoes there but I might just seed it with grass.

A few other things. Dan wasn't able to part with the diesel engine or the Albacore sailboat. It may well fall to me to find homes for them. I also noticed that the pile of red brick, which our landlord had no use for, is no longer a nice neat stack. What happened to it? I get the lovely task of restacking discarded bricks that in many cases have lots of mortar attached to it. Great.

And O yeah there are the boxes of books in the crawl space, and the trombones. Dan used to play low brass when he was in high school, still has three trombones that he will never ever play again, that he's been dragging around for years. What to do with all this stuff? The horns might come with me. Honestly, I'm going to a place where there is tons of music that requires brass instruments. If there is a place for brass instruments, its the South. The books... I think it will all depend on how much room I have in the truck. I will take all I can, and leave the rest somewhere to be sent at a later date. The 'somewhere' might be Victoria, though friends have offered to ship them from Ucluelet too. I think it would make more sense in Victoria though, because of family who can cart that box across the border and ship them stateside.

Ugh. So many details to think about.

There are a couple of things that I have not come across in my cleaning, purging and packing. I would really like to find my Master's degree. Why did I not frame it? Why isn't in the safe place I thought it was? I absolutely remember packing it last March before we moved here, surely it must be among our things somewhere. (Perhaps in the said boxes of books in the crawl space? Due to lack of shelving, we have never even unpacked them). I might need to present it to the nice US Immigration people when I go for my interview. I could get another one printed but... you know... The other thing I would like to find is my pendulum.

Yes, I use a pendulum. It's nothing at all fancy, just a piece of raw crystal crudely strung up with some red embroidery thread, and it should be inside a little silk bag with the Om symbol on it. I can't recall having seen it in months. It's my quick  & easy divination tool for when I have simple Yes or No questions, when I feel a bit unsettled or need to make a decision about something. I do have other things I can use as a pendulum, but that little rock has been with me a long time. I miss it.

I'll go to bed early again tonight, perhaps get an early start tomorrow and get everything done tomorrow. All that will be left for me then is to wait out my time here, knit & listen to audio books (just finished Voyager, yesterday I started Gone With the Wind), and go swimming in Kennedy Lake as much as I can before I leave.

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