Paper Dump and More...

Absolute Data Shredding here in Norman is a wonderful company. I really mean that. Republic Bank is a wonderful bank, even though I don't bank there. Why? They have teamed up to give the towns folks a way to dispose of their documents, financial or otherwise for free. Over the past 6 months I have taken advantage of their services. This past Saturday Dave got up into the loft of the shed while I held the ladder and pulled several boxes down of old financial statements from the 90's. We managed to clear out 18 boxes of documents. We loaded them into the back end of the Suburban and I drove them down to Noble, OK where the shred truck was and watched as they were being taken care of. It was rather liberating.

The next shred date will be sometime after the beginning of the year. I'm sure I will have more items to shred. Yippee!

I also went through more boxes in my bedroom and came across items from eons ago.  The notice from Social Security of what was to be paid to my grandfather, $101.00 a month, mind you this was in the late 1940's. My grandfathers death certificate.  I finally have the maiden name of my great-grandmother.  How much my grandmother's 1948 Buick cost, $2865.00 new. Amazing what we hang on to. I'm sure there will be more items I will come across.  I will scan them, put the information on a hard disk, but even that is starting to become obsolete, ok then, a flash drive.  What to do with it afterwards?  When it comes to family records I think a safe deposit box is a wise investment, besides the cost comes off your taxes if you itemize. 

Boxes and more boxes to get through. Having 4 photographers in the family, you can just imagine all the pictures we have.  I would say at least 10 large boxes if not more.  I think when we are all together again I'm going to sit the girls down and have them sort out  their pictures and make them take them.  Besides I have lots more to give them when I finish the book that I am working on for each of the grand kids, "Love letters to Teena, from Franklin".  A story about how their grandmother met their grandfather during WWII.  My mom save all of dad's letters.  Dad did not save any of hers.  I know it's a rather one sided story but my mom told me lots and I need to get it down before I forget. So I have been diligently transcribing the letters and have lots of pictures to go with with them.  It's a long process but thankfully one that can continue out on the road.  I will just need to make sure that I take the right box of pictures to scan so they get into the book.

Here's wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We have much to be thankful for.

See ya out there!

Boy, Was I Stuck...Now Unstuck!

Have you ever been to a place in your life that you were stuck and felt like you could not move forward? I have been there for the past 6 years. I know this really sounds stupid, but have you ever lost something, couldn't find it and felt like you couldn't move forward because you couldn't find it? Been there, done that! Moving forward now!

 
Six years ago I had a Colonoscopy and before the procedure I took off a ring that was the last thing my mother had given me before she passed and tucked it away somewhere for safekeeping. Anesthesia does strange things to me. I have always heard that the more surgeries you have the more memory you lose. Whether that is true or not I don't know, but I keep losing memory after surgeries. Two weeks later I went to put the ring back on and could not find it. I thought I knew where I had put it, but it was not there. For the past 6 years I have quietly been tearing my house apart trying to find my ring. I thought I had put it in my desk drawer, but I’ve unloaded that desk three times to no avail.

Saturday I decided to halfheartedly look again, nothing. 

Sunday morning I’m lying in bed watching a Mystery Woman who done it movie on the Hallmark station and I keep hearing my husband’s still voice saying, “You know you could get lots done in your room while watching your shows, you need to be up and moving around”.  Normally I would ignore that inner voice, continue to lie in bed, drink my coffee and watch my movie.  But I realized that we are never going to get out on the road unless I make some hard decisions about all the clothes I have. I have tons of stuff from former family and friends piled in my room.  It all has to be sorted through and gotten rid of, so what better time to do it. Believe me when I say this is not typically me, but
I wasn’t doing anything else. 

I have had this little green box that once housed a single teapot and cup combo, which is now sitting on my dresser, I had decided to store some things in it.  I know I had looked in that box I don’t know how many times, but this time I was going to get the stuff out and dispose of it.  I took out a foldable hair brush some Kleenex specialty tissues, old pill bottles, hair clips and a ring and some other jewelry.  I have three or four rings that all look alike. You know those rings with the fake 1 Carat Zirconia diamonds in a solitaire setting in silver? I looked at this ring and started to think that it was one of those but I looked again and the setting seemed a little off from those other rings.  I got out my magnifying glass and checked the inside of the ring. 14K white gold!  It was the ring, my ring!  This little puppy went on my finger so fast and it’s not coming off again. 

My mom wanted to give this ring to me when I graduated from high school but the jeweler looked at her and said that he could understand if I was graduating from college but not high school as it was one of the finest blue diamonds he had ever seen.  Me, I know nothing about diamonds so I don’t know if that is good or not. 

Having the ring found and back on my finger gives me new energy to get things sorted and disposed of. I was afraid to toss anything for fear of tossing out my ring.  Now I am no longer afraid and can proceed with a vengence ridding the house of “STUFF”.  The countdown has begun!

 
See ya out there soon! 

Packing the Bins...

While in Walmart the other day I picked up some storage bins. Dave asked "what are you going to do with those?" As Miss Kathy would say "If you gonna shoot...Shoot! Don't Talk" - Tuco in 'The Good, The Bad and; The Ugly'. I have finally decided to shoot. It has come time that if I don't get a move on I never will.

Each bin is lockable and will hold the items we want to take with us when we start fulltiming and will store nicely in the underbelly of the rig. Dave gets one for his clothes, I have one for my clothes. One is for winter gear, one for summer gear. I have 3 three for kitchen items, including pots and pans. So on and so forth.

I never realized how much "STUFF" I have. I could use another word but I will refrain.

Several of the boxes will be zip tied and taken to my daughters house for storage, pictures. I am in the process of writing a family history and will need the pictures when the time comes. It's time to start delving out the things we want the kids to have and get rid of the rest of it. Wish us luck!

See ya out there!

Making A List..

I'm a list person.  If I don't have my list I get stuck and go in circles.  Lately it has felt like I have been going in those circles of indecision for too long.  Happy to say I'm back on track now and have a new list. 

This list consists of what I want to go into our trailer when we get it.  I have it pared down to Dave's clothes, my clothes, linens, appliances for the bedroom, storage items for the bathroom and what goes in them. 

The other day I caught myself looking at the living room and making a mental list to put on my computer list of the items I wanted to take to decorate.  Nothing fancy just simple stuff to make the trailer homey.  A few paintings...small ones, of course. My angels, I have 6 of various sizes, nothing too large.  My book rack which will fit nicely (I might reconsider on this one), I've already checked. A few lamps and other things such as folding TV trays that can be moved outside for me to paint on.

The major pare down list will be the kitchen.  I have enough stuff to outfit at least 3 kitchens.  I will be looking at taking the lightest weight storage containers I can find.  The most efficient appliances and cookware. My Kitchen-Aid mixer, dehydrator and bread machine can go in the basement.   

Can't wait to get back doing this!

Outdoor items consist of chairs, carpet, grill, hoses, tools, small garbage can and other items as I think of them.  I have already started packing and putting things away in storage boxes and space bags.  I just about have our clothes pulled together. Once I have it all done I will hire an estate company and have them come in and conduct a sale and get rid of the rest maybe, maybe not. I will just have to see.  But I am getting there. Lists help!

See you out there...

Dreams...

There are always dreams out there floating on the ether. Your dreams, my dreams, things we want to do, places we want to go to, sights we want to see, people we want to visit.  Let us never give up on our dreams

See you out there...  

365 Days...

It's hard to believe that 365 days from now I am suppose to retire and I'm not ready.  Don't get me wrong, I'm ready to retire I'm just not ready, as in my house is not ready, my bills are not paid down enough, I'm just not ready to go out on the road full-time.  When I started with this idea, it was over a 1000 days ago and seemed so far away, where has the time gone? 

I am so ready to get out of here, but at this time our leave time is going to have to be pushed back, how far back, I don't know.  Trying to find the right trailer, gas prices, finding the right truck, on and on things just seem to be getting in the way.  Lots of things depend on our youngest daughter.  If she makes it into Law School, which Law School, if it is here in Norman, we are a stones throw from the OU Law Barn. It would be stupid for her to incur the expense of living somewhere else. She could have our house and rent it out to 3 or 4 other people. Just so many ifs at this time.  So we wait and see and continue to de-clutter. 

We get a lot of paper boxes here at work and I have been bringing them home. Dave asked me "why"?   I replied that I was starting to pack into them the things I wanted to put in the trailer once we get it, then everything else can go when we have our estate sale. That means clothes, towels, CD's, Kitchen items, I have so much kitchen stuff, I can pack up what I want to take and still have a complete kitchen in which to cook until we leave. 

I have decided to start buying some of the items that we will need out on the road, tire pressure sensors, a tom tom, telescope, slowly of course, as I can afford it. 

I admire people who just up and get rid of everything. But I'm sure their debt is not as large as ours, everyone keeps saying get out of debt before you get out on the road.  At that rate that will 4 more years. Ugh!  I just want to leave now.  I guess Dave will just have to win the lottery. 

See you out there when we get out there.

Things, They Is A Movin'...At a Snails Pace

It's been awhile since I last posted in October but little bit by little bit we are making progress in getting rooms cleaned out. 

I can now see the floor to my office and it feels great to have that behind me. Now I'm working on the surfaces of the office. What to keep, what to toss.

Dave is working on his office, H A L L E L U J A H!!!!!  Now being a journalist he has saved newspaper clippings for years (what for I have no idea) and in sorting them out realized that it would take forever to scan them into his computer (why!?). After going through a stack that started in 2001 the headlines have not changed much.  The same ole stuff going on today.  So I say PITCH THEM! And he has! Woohoo!!!

It's amazing how much dust can accumulate in an area, and we keep on trying to find the source of it.  I have come to the conclusion that it's the carpet, as it's the same carpet that was in the house when we purchased it 34 years ago.  However we do have a new house going up in the neighborhood.  Actually it's across the street from us. So we are getting dust from that as well.

I've made the spare bedroom the room that we're storing the items that we want to bring with us when we get out on the road.  It also has some garage sale stuff in it as I am pulling stuff together for our spring garage sale once it warms up.  Surprisingly the weather has not been bad here this year, no snow, or for that fact very little rain.  We really need rain here, or we are going to loose more trees.  We lost 7 big trees during the drought last summer. 

Well that's it for now.  We just keep plodding along and making small dents in the mess.  As they say you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time, and that's what we're doing.

See ya out there...sooner rather than later!