Last week we were lounging about the hot tub on the cedar deck overlooking the water on Salt Spring Island, then after a 'mini cruise' across the pond courtesy of BC Ferries, we celebrated Mother's Day with family. A quick trip back to the condo to do several loads of laundry, air out the suitcases and then repack for another house sitting trek out to the suburbs of Coquitlam.
No lounging during this gig...in fact the books never got opened we were so busy. I did some serious purging of paperwork, stuff, old stuff and really old stuff. Imagine my surprise to find, hidden in the antique buffet top drawer the following:
- 6 calculators
- 12 wooden rulers!!!!
- 2 three hole punches
3 staplers - 4 boxes of staples
- 4 boxes of paper clips
- 5 cameras...1 digital and 4 film including 2 extra lenses, 2 flash units and a timer cord
- 4 cellphones and about 12 charger cords
- 6 picture frames....one actually had a picture in it
- Over 200 black and photos ranging in size from 1x1 inch to 8x10. It would appear that everyone I have known who has died managed to send me all their photos moments before they died. Some have notes on them such as 'Ray and Ollie'.....I know who Ray is (my dad) ..but who is Ollie? And I guess my dad's mom was proud of his new bride as a photo of my parents cuddling in front of a 1943 ?Packard has my grandmother's handwriting saying 'Son Ray and his lovely wife'. A 8x10 photo shows about 100 handsome men in uniform where each of their faces is about the size of the end of a pencil eraser. On the back, my dad has written a note to his dad: "I'm the third one from the right on the top row...in case you've forgotten what I look like!" I brought the photos home tol sort through and scan selected ones into the computer to save...some day.
- a dozen golf balls
- My house budget books from 1996-2004. In 1996 I have written under the column for $$ for gas purchases 'gas price war--gas is 39cents/L'...WOW...those were the days.
Once all the paperwork was sorted through, THEN I got to sit down for 8 hrs at least and shred all the delicate information so that the neighbours won't go through my trash and see how foolish I was to hang onto my Nortel shares and ride them all the way down to the bottom! Oopps, hopefully they don't read my blog either!
Other tasks I accomplished was to go through my 200+ CDs and keep the ones I like and box up the ones I don't...including the dreaded 'ABBA Greatest Hits'...am I the only one who doesn't like them?? I took the excess ones (yes, ABBA too) and the now empty CD faux wooden holders to the church thrift store for their annual garage sale. Come Saturday, I'm sure someone will yell 'Heh! Look over here what I found! Some one has thrown out a perfectly good CD of ABBA!'...well, dancing queen THIS is all I can say.
Ok, buffet drawer clean--check.
CDs done and gone--check
Now out to th
e garden for two full days of chopping of daff and tulip heads, pulling up slimy...what WAS that dead plant? things, weeding, lawn edging (thanks Doug), more weeding, pruned rose brushes, set up the bird baths and their drippers (discovered I had 'pruned' the rubber hose to the bird bath so had an emergency repair to do), pruned the rhodos...ok, it was more like a serious hair cut judging by the four full garbage cans and huge pile of prunings, ....
....and then, just because there were still day light left, brushed the dog and gave her a bath...which then meant cleaning both bathrooms that I used to wash her and blow dry her AND then clean up where I had brushed her.
Left fresh flowers on the kitchen table for the daughter as she was returning home on her first wedding anniversary after a weekend away with hubby. I was exhausted but the house was tidy, the yard looked great, the dog smelled clean and the kids have 6 calculators they didn't know about! They thanked us profusely so I know it was worth it....
..and that dear friends...is Life in the Slow Lane???
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