May 28, 2021
Dear Everyone:
I live in a
condominium. It has two
bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a living room, dining room, and “shoebox”
kitchen. It is quite
comfortable for me. However,
it does not include an attic, a basement, or a garage.
There is a relatively small outdoor closet off the patio.
This is where the heavy tools (hammers, saws, etc.) live, along
with any currently-not-in-use floral decorations, i.e.,
Christmas/Holiday decorations and such.
Consequently, all
those things that we humans regard as semi-necessary, but not exactly
right now, which should be kept “out of the way” tend to land in the
second bedroom. Also known
as The Really Big Closet.
To wit:
Plastic bins filled with yarn, either left over from past
projects, or in anticipation of possible future projects, or sometimes
both. Plastic file boxes
containing paper records for the current and past three years (as
recommended by a tax accountant a long, long time ago.)
Auxiliary equipment for the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure
(CPAP) contraption that I deal with every night.
Assorted linens, blankets, extra pillows, the down comforter not
currently is season. And so
on.
And lots and lots
of books. Not so many as
before. I have been culling
through my library from time to time.
Donated a great many to the County Public Library and the
Martinez Senior Center, which boasts of a “lounge” whose walls contain a
casual library for anyone who wants to take a book home and return it
whenever, if at all
Every once in a
while, I get the urge to clean things up a bit.
This usually takes place after I find that I can barely get into
the room. Too much stuff!
Just recently I filled several large trash bags with things whose
value had dropped below that of the space they occupied.
I also decided to do something with a lot of shoes.
Some people are of
the opinion that one can never have too many shoes (cue Carrie Bradshaw
of Sex and the City.)
I am not one of them. I just
have a tendency to keep shoes even if I never seem to wear them.
I had (past tense) a large cardboard “shoebox” which occupied one
whole shelf in the Really Big Closet.
It actually was a
large cardboard box. But,
instead of one pair of shoes, it had individual compartments that housed
nine pairs. More if you
doubled up. In any case, far
more shoes than I typically wore.
Many were still in
very good condition and had cost a pretty penny (think, “Mephisto”.)
So I was loathed to just throw them in the dumpster.
Instead, I put them all in a large plastic bag and took them up
to “Jeannie’s” place last weekend.
The cardboard box I did put in the recycle bin.
The idea was that
“Jeannie” would cull through the shoes and keep any that she thought she
would wear, then donate the rest to either Good Will or one of the
“thrift” stores that support some of the local hospices.
When “Jeannie” got
her first hip replacement, it resulted in her legs being different
lengths. The orthopedic
surgeon recommended wearing a lift in one shoe.
When she had the other hip replaced, her legs came out the same
length and lifts were no longer necessary.
This means she can wear a great many more varieties of footwear
than before.
She was delighted in
the first few pairs that came out of the sack and even wore one pair to
lunch that day. It now seems
highly unlikely that either Good Will or the hospice store will see very
many shoe donations. That’s
all fine by me. The
important thing is that I got rid of them.
As for the shelf that
was emptied of shoes, I promptly filled it up with more yarn and other
things that I “really” need to keep.
For now.
Everyone enjoy the
Memorial Day Weekend.
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |