Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Wow...Where Has The Year Gone...

8 days until my retirement from the University and I am no closer to getting things decluttered than I was last March, but you know what, I really don't care.  I don't have a club to my head forcing me to get it done.  I don't have to be out of my home and since it's just me I will take my time and feel better about it than worrying about a deadline. I have Spinal Stenosis and Scoliosis in the same area and I can only work so long before standing and doing anything becomes a real problem. I really have to pace myself, otherwise it lays me up. 

I have been going through things and tossing, but there is so much to go through I will wait until family comes in to help me for some of it. 

I bought my motor home and will be getting it ready to take out on trips. It is a 35 ft. Winnebago Voyage with three slides.
2005 Winnebago Voyage


Main Living Area

Pull-out can be pushed back to make more room.
 I am excited, but there is always that little niggler in the back of the mind saying "Are you sure about this?" Yes! I am sure. If I don't do it I will have failed myself. Besides it will make me a stronger person. 

These last eight months have been difficult and I find myself crying at the oddest times. Thanksgiving was especially difficult as Dave's birthday was Thanksgiving day.  The girls put a great picture of him and his favorite beer on the desert table.
 I saw it and lost it. Up until that point I had been doing pretty good, but that did me in. 

I feel like the odd man out. New feeling for me. Not sure I like it, but will have to get use to it I guess. 

Well time is a wasting and I need to get the living-room in order.  I have a Christmas tree I need to put up.  

Have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

See you soon out on the open road!

Happy Trails...




Saturday, August 16, 2014

Sorting and Cleaning...It Has Started In Earnest!

Have been busy cleaning, sorting, tossing out and packing up stuff.  What to keep...what to get rid of. HUGE CHORE!!!!

In going through stuff today I found my first reader, "We Look and See" brings back memories and not particularly good ones.  I hated having to read in front of my fellow students, the snickers, stares and shaking of heads when you made a mistake and then the
In decent condition for a 67 year old
Paperback school book handled by lot
of kids
glares from the teacher and her making you try to say it over and over again. It was humiliating for a 6 year old. It carried all the way through my education. So different from the 50's to now.  

As you can see I have a lot to go through. I have 10 shelves that look like this or worse.

This is actually half way decent. It's the ones with videos
that were cleared out that was the fright!


This is what I got cleaned today. Two shelves don't seem like much, but to have to find a happy home for the stuff that was on the shelf is another story.  Some of the video tape and such were some of the many projects that Dave worked on
Packed away lots of Video Tapes!
at the University. He made at least 4 trips to Japan and 2 trips to Europe. I have each one of those films. Also I have the recruitment films he made for the University and the 100th Anniversary of OU film. These I will save as I want his grandchildren to view and appreciate what their PomPom did.

Nice and organized Tastefully Simple Stock
This is what I got cleaned a couple of weeks ago to put my Tastefully Simple stock on. As you can see it looks rather nice and organized. 

The UGH! Corner
This one corner was so bad I only had a little foot path to be able to walk on. After much tossing and rearranging it looks so much better. Even better will be when it will be shipped to the daughters of it's previous owner.
Dave was Ned's friend till the end and held onto many items that he thought Ned's girls would want. I have about 20 boxes and 15 large format prints to send East.
A vast improvement!
 

There is so much to get done...I have 89 working days left till retirement, but it may take me a year to get the house cleared out.  I am not going to rush it. Yes I would like to go full-time by the first of they year but I have to be realistic since I am by myself now.  I can only do so much.  

This morning I also tasked myself to clean a shelf in the garage and lo and behold I found my Juicer! I scrubbed and tubbed that baby and made myself some carrot juice.  It's been a long time since I had any fresh juice. Need to get some carrots, spinach, apples and beets. Great concoction.

I guess Charisse Ward had it right when she said "Bottom line is, if you do not use it or need it, it's clutter, and it needs to go". Besides I have no place to put it in my RV when I get it.

The push is on, I have told the powers that be that I am retiring, so therefore...Let the games begin!


Friday, July 4, 2014

Hop…Skip…and a Jump…

Last night I un-boxed the Dorm refrigerator
New Dorm Fridge!
that I had purchased and decided to put it in my office as I am out of space in the other rooms of the house.
  In order to put it where I did, I had to move 10 bank boxes full of paperwork that was the culmination of my daughter’s soccer career for Club and High School to the living-room.  In my bedroom is a file cabinet full of more soccer stuff.
Boxes of Soccer memorabilia 

Lucky for me, she’s going to be home for the next two weeks, so now is as good-a-time as any for her to go through and see what she wants to save and pitch the rest.  I’m going to suggest that she scan some of it and build a Facebook page for all the archives her dad saved.  Fury ’83 was one of the premier soccer teams for the state of Oklahoma 10 years ago.  I know the old team members would love to see the pictures and such that we have.

Last year Dave helped Ned Hockman’s daughters clean out a storage locker full of Historic film and other items.  The girls threw away lots of their dad’s stuff.  Dave could not bear to see some of it head to the dump.  Last night I came across three WWII photo albums of combat photo’s that Ned shot in Burma (Ned was a combat photographer and at one time was thought lost).  They are outstanding.  They tell quite a story.  Now I know why he saved them as they are history that we can pass on to our grandchildren.  This was also in the space along with the soccer boxes, video tapes and wedding photo shoots. 
Picture of a crashed plane, the
medics that pulled the pilot out
 of the plane and put him on a
 stretcher.
WWII China-Burma-India Theater

My TS Display
I’m working on clearing some of the shelves in “my” office to display my Tastefully Simple Product.  The space was Dave’s office but my “son” advised me that he had the better computer and I might as well learn a new operating system and enjoy more bells and whistles.  It’s been interesting, but I will say so far I like Windows 8.  It’s very much like the apps screens on my smart phone.

Skipping to the kitchen…Even though I’m not going to be in the house that much longer I want to finish a project I started six years ago.   I figure it will run me about $150 to finish it.  “Why” you ask???  Because completing it will make me feel good and make me happy.  I have been living with bright sunshine yellow counter-tops since we moved into the house 37 years ago.  Five years ago my daughter painted the fur-downs a bright indigo blue.  I had purchased Mexicali Café Curtains to use in place of the doors, which I had removed many years before.

Mexicali Café Curtains 
When we had purchased the house the former owner had put down horrible .49 cent stick down tile in the kitchen, dining-room and living-room. It still remains in the kitchen.  I have found a lovely .89 cent stick down laminate that looks like parquet flooring that I can more than live with for the next 6 months.

I want to refresh the paint on the fronts of the cabinets.  I will have to go over the oil based paint with a flat white and then go over that with a semi-gloss white.  With a fresh coat of paint, new floor tile and colorful Mexicali Café curtains my kitchen will be the cat’s meow! 

Jumping out to the living-room…At the moment it looks like the wreck of the Hesperus.  It’s in a total state of disarray. I have boxes of Mary Kay inventory that I’m trying to wade through and get put away.  9 Boxes of Tastefully Simple Food inventory that I need to inventory and put away.  Taxes are still on the dining room table, have one more year to finish, almost done. Papers are everywhere, from going through boxes of records. Somehow I think I got the cart before the horse, but that’s ok, everything will work out. 

So you sort of know what I’m doing for the 4th of July and the next couple of weeks.  What are your plans for the Holiday?

Bite by Bite I’m eating the Elephant!


Please let me know you read this by leaving a word or two in the comment section, otherwise I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Gearing Up!

Summertime and the livin' is easy...Ha! Yeah right! Things around here have been in so much flux I hardly know where to start.  I think I have lists for every corner of every room and what to do with all the stuff in each corner.  Daunting I must say!  
One of the corners to tackle

I'm trying to take each corner and tackle it with all the gusto that I must muster.  It's not easy when your body is hurting.  My body has been rebelling on me here lately.  I can only attribute it to the stress of Dave passing away unexpectedly, having to go to court to probate a lost will, looking at all the crap that has to be cleared out of the house, the house rebelling on me, the latest in the saga of things breaking down is the garage refrigerator, it has decided to give up the ghost. 

Then I discovered the man kept everything! Pitch, pitch and more pitching is due.  I had no idea to the extent of it as it was well hidden.  Well I really can't complain I'm just as bad, but I don't think that bad. It has to do with his being a journalist.  I have talked to others in his field and they all operate on their own brand of organized chaos. One of our friends wife said that she covers her eyes when she goes into his office. I can understand her saying that.

I have a lot to do between now and the end of December.  So I guess the ease of livin' in the Summertime will just have to wait!
The Grans at the water park, Summertime Livin'

See you out there sooner than later!






Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Moving Forward...

They say time stops for no man...or woman...boy is that ever true!  How to move forward.  If you read my other blog dasusmusings you know that my husband passed away at the beginning of last month.  It's been one hell of an ordeal! We just now got news that we can finally get the death certificate.  All I can say is dying sucks for the survivors.  But I digress.

Again...how to move forward.  Dave was taking his time de-cluttering, reading every story that he had clipped over the past 17 years. He would read them and then tell me that the stories stayed the same over the years just the players have just changed.  I don't have time for that, read or not, out it goes.  Boxes and boxes of newspaper clippings and complete newspapers, talk about a fire hazard!  I have so much to get rid of it's not funny.  

Several of our neighbors said they would come and help me get ready for a garage sale, which I really appreciate but they haven't seen my garage yet...I haven't seen my garage in years. Dave saved every box that every appliance came in. Reasoning...we might have to send it back in the original box. That has happened only once (in 41 years) when my computer died and I had to send it in as part of a class action suite. Also in the garage is a ton of equipment of a friend who passed away that I now have to dispose of.  

Clothes...what to do with Dave's clothes.  I've decided that I'm going to give them to the homeless shelter.  I know they will be appreciated and well used.

So much to do. Stay tuned to see how it goes.  I am determined!  

Sunday, January 5, 2014

JANUARY...

Time is a wastin' as my Grandmother would say.  The last year is here.  I go in next week to apply for Medicare. 351 days from now I will be retiring from where I work with tons to do and no time to waste.

Where do I start...First things first, let's finish up my Mary Kay inventory then get the taxes out of the way. I have long lists of projects that have to be accomplished before December, such as...

Buy the truck
Buy the trailer
Start selling stuff on Craigslist 
Sell books back to a Internet buyer
Go through lots of drawers and sort out stuff to be sold, given away, thrown away or kept.
Hold a garage sale or two
Have family decide what they would like to have and have them take it. 

First item to leave the house a painting my mother did

Our KC Daughter took her painting that her Grandmother did for her.  Mom was not a painter but she worked hard at it and managed to produce some beautiful work. 
Her last piece ended up looking like a Georgia O'Keeffe original. It was of pink water lilies. Her teacher said it was one of her finest works. 

The old Singer treadle sewing machine that was my great grandmother's, transported across the prairies of Oklahoma Indian Territory in a covered wagon, has been cleaned out and I have the task of sorting out what was in the cabinet
Singer Sewing Machine it still works
drawers and disposing of it. Just lots of little trinkets of the girls when they were little that amounts to Nada, why do we keep this junk? For what purpose? 
The KC kid will take it this spring when she has help getting it up to her apartment. 

I have an 1880's rocking chair that one of the girls will get and another 1880's chair that was my great grandfathers when they had the farm, will be given to a family member.  The last piece is a ceder chest that is over 100 years old.  

So lots going on besides the every day stuff. So it begins!

Bueller...Bueller...We are counting!!!