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!
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!
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!
