Have to come up with a raffle item to have table at convention

I'm not sure what I'll do for that.  Bottle of wine would work I suppose, or buy a halter or rein safe from the dude that ties them.  Or possibly I could donate my Cloud stirrups if I get them cleaned up good enough.

I was going to put a broken down cardboard box and a small bag of trash in our dumpster this morning and forgot it;  I was driving down the road and several miles later noticed my trunk lid bouncing.  Thankfully I took a back way so no traffic and was easy to pull over.  So I put the cardboard in the cardboard dumpster at work and will have to deal with the bag this weekend.

But I can see parts of that countertop in the garage.  Now that I have set my mind to it, my stubborn nature should refuse to give in to the stupid clutter.   I got water seal on my old canvas horse blankets that I had never tossed.  So now I will use them as temporary very redneck fix for the shed roof and then throw them away when I fix the roof properly when we get back to warm weather.  So kind of killing 2 birds with one stone.   Hopefully it will keep the stuff in the shed well enough protected from the weather.  

Last year I did an online youtube type course on python programming -- I enjoyed that instructors accent so much that I listened to every lecture instead of skipping the basic stuff.  Python is different enough than perl that it seemed useful to get the extra practice anyway.

This year I bought an introduction course for c++.    I am having NO problem skipping ahead quite a bit with the bits that are close to c which I know at the very beginner level.   I hope I can stand to listen enough to learn the new points when I get to the object oriented lectures.

Yesterday I wandered around the next lab over for 20 minutes trying to find where they were doing the 'free-cycle' collection for office supply things like 3-ring binders, and finally just put the 3 that I had on a shelf in the big copy room in that building.  I don't know why they discontinued having a collection bin in the lobby.   I guess I will sneak some of mom's binders into our own binder area at work that is not completely over flowing.  I'll ask dad if he wants some for his magazines,  he was using binders for some for a while.   I want enough shelf space to get dad's overflow of magazines off the floor in the living room.   That should be doable but I have to get him on board to either take a bookcase downstairs for the 'zines or put them in the downstairs office on shelving which I have cleared of mom's kiddie books and can clear of other stuff by taking that stuff upstairs or whatever.  I'm thinking I may remove the metal binder piece and use them for mulch - at least the 5 that are fiberboard and not plastic/vinyl.

I've been punting all week on texting the hog hunting outfitter.  I don't know why.  Its a bit painful for me to type texts but its not that bad and I need to get that info so I can buy a red dot site or know that I need a bit higher end low light scope and what time we will have to get there on first day of hunt and so on.

Got some waterseal today

Took me two passes down the paint products aisle to spot it.  Its store brand but that is fine.  They also had metal flashing which I guess I'll need to buy when I fix the shed roof properly since the gap is so large at the west end.   I suppose I should find a youtube on roofing to see what all should be done.   

I'm hitting mental resistance on my de-cluttering.   I shall have to push through it.  There is plenty of binders of paper handouts of Mom's that I can just recycle, no thought required.  If I can keep the habit going during these ughhh spells I believe I will keep coming up with ways to re-use or re-home stuff that isn't just plastic or paper to recycle.  

I have to fetch Lady home on Saturday.  Its cool that they kept her this long, I figured I'd get a message shortly after daylight savings ended, but it will mean I have to do a quick redneck fix on the roof between the time dad gets up and when I have to take off with the trailer to fetch her.   Weather forecast is flurries on Sunday so I'd like to get the temporary fix done on Saturday.  

And I have to make a commitment to start sorting out tack items to take to convention on Sunday.  I hope the on-call at work will be nicely behaved just sending emails.   I have to look at my ground-based set up.  Usually I miss something there and have to do some edits to get things going again.

Dad called his sister

So now I'm more up on the family news.   Two of the daughter families celebrated in MN with kids this year so M just had Christmas with youngest daughter.    That daughter and DH have a fairly full house as their daughter and SiL are staying there.   The 2 years married couple sold their condo and are buying a house but couldn't move in right away.    And we got the Christmas card from that daughter, from sis, and from the one farmer up in northern ND that rent the land mom and then dad inherited.  The other farming brother had put in a card with gift box of cookies.   They send the gift cookies annually, I guess they make decent money on the farmland and like to keep the owner happy.  Sure works for us to have the same stable leasers every year too.

I was telling dad we HAVE to do something about shed now there is a big gap in the roof!  -- "I KNOWWW"  Grrrrrr,  if he knew the situation had gotten that bad why didn't he arrange to get the roof fixed before winter hit.  Winter was late coming; we had extra time this fall so he could have bought the felt and manned the tractor so I could tack down the shingles with a bit of instruction in November or first part of December after my ride season had ended.  Or he could have hired it done, I'm pretty sure he isn't hurting for $.   Now I think it is too cold to mess with trying to shingle until well into spring but I will have to put up some kind of redneck fix.  I'm thinking old horse blankets with a coat of WaterSeal and some tires will have to do to keep the shed dry until roofing weather is back.  

Today I have to get the bits of recycling that I will dump at work out of my car later.   I needed to drop M's b-day card in the mail and didn't want to juggle too much in my hands while doing that.  I'm a bit frustrated because I still have so much clutter in the form of extra clothes and various stuff in my bedroom even after I have tossed and donated a lot.   It will be better once I tackle my closet shelves and they are up next now that my walk-in closet is pretty well cleared out and cleaned.    There is also now bookshelf and file cabinet space upstairs and I need to switch to utilizing this new space to remove clutter from downstairs soon.  

I need to find new homes for jigsaw puzzles and adult games and some of mom's kids games and toys.   Need to make some calls to see if VA could use the adult games, and call a place or 2 about the kids stuff.  I suppose if I can't find  happy takers I can just drop them off at Salvation Army, but I'd like to have confirmation that wherever they go expects they'll get used.  Oh well if it comes to it, the stuff will have better odds at SA then remaining on shelves at home.

I also need to get busy with sorting out what I will take to the endurance regional convention, and cleaning, making minor repairs to those things.   As convention approaches I'm getting cold feet about the whole enterprise of taking stuff there and hoping I don't end up having to drag it all back home.  I need to remind myself that even if nothing sells, I will be in a better position to list things on Ebay after organizing and cleaning it for public display so no matter what I wont lose anything by doing that.

Car load of magazines safely dropped off at the recycle place

And it was free, rather than the $3 vehicle fee I expected.   Perhaps they're trying to encourage folks to take in the Christmas aftermath rather than putting all those boxes in the trash.

Around a dozen boxes of magazines dropped off at the recycle place this morning (mom was saving pictures for pre-school kids to cut out and got way carried away). Alas we have got to fix the roof on the storage shed before I want to use the freed up space. When it was just a few shingles off I was ok with ignoring it but now the peak of the roof has a large gap so I will have to get Dad to help me fix it or hire someone to do it.  Sighhh,  always something getting in the way of just making my life easier by getting rid of crap and doing a bit of re-organizing.

My first book listing on Ebay was a no-sell.  I did not re-list with a cheaper initial bid.  If I decide to re-list or change how I'm listing things I will increase the initial bids and Buy it Now prices to include the shipping estimates and offer "free shipping"  

I got the parts ordered to fix dad's big recliner.  Now if I can get him to order me a red-dot scope that will work on the rifle I will take hog hunting.   I suspect I'll have to settle for him just showing/telling me what kind of attachment set up I need.  But I'd rather tear up one or both gift checks from him and have him order me a scope so I may suggest that. 

I am annoyed at sibs again.  Well sis did call last night after I texted her and probably would have called anyway.   Bro called while sis was on phone with us and left a less than 60 second message.   Dad did not call him back later.   I guess that is partly on dad.   I am trying to nag dad into calling his older sister M.  I did not suggest it for Christmas eve or day, I figured she was probably at family celebrations or tired from them.   But he hasn't called her in quite a while.   We got a card from J's widower with the wedding pic of him and new wife.  I'm happy for him, but there was not even a quarter page form note with wedding date, how they met or anything.    We have not gotten cards from M's other 3 daughters and spouses or any of their kids.  Well I didn't send cards/letters out when I was younger so I don't expect from the grown kids and the one cousin has had a habit of February cards to reduce Christmas stress.  

Still its a bit deflating not to get cards from the relatives.  Perhaps they are annoyed with us not doing a summer visit the last couple years, or are just busy and figure they exchange all the news all year on FB now so why mess with Christmas cards and letters.   I do hope we get more cards.  After all the 12th day of Christmas isn't here for another 10 days.  I intend to leave decorations up that long. 

Pecking here, pecking there

It is the total opposite of advice I have read over the years for breaking a cycle of being a clutter bug; but its about 8 weeks and I'm still removing things.  Well I did start with the car, did not finish it before starting some on entry and other things but the car is free of loose clutter (we won't go into the glove box and whether I need 2 shopping bags over the front seat backs worth of stuff right now.)

But in three steps forward, two steps back, dad found a bag of stew meat on the floor.  When he showed it to me I foolishly said "just feed it to the dog"  I was trying to take a computer break.  Dear lord.  That tells me I do NOT want to ever do crime scene cleanup.   I had been thinking "oh I'm not squeamish, I could do that."   Well my nose is sensitive enough that I wouldn't ever want to mess with it.  Sure could use a respirator, but the smell would get into clothes and hair.

So I ended up taking the dog dish outside when the smell hit me,  left the dish even after rinsing and just brought Mia's old dish in for Toby to use for a bit.   Sprayed febreeze heavily.  Opened windows.  Did some more cleaning, including starting laundry.    The coats that were in the entry don't seem too bad so I may not have to wash all of them.   Decided that since the scent might drive me to eat out I might as well baptize the Little Green Machine I bought from Bissel.   It did pull a good amount of dirt out of the chairs, but didn't pull as much of the water out as I had hoped it would.   The web site made it seem like the machine would leave the fabric nearly dry.   Hopefully the chairs will be good and dry by morning.    

I spilled coffee at the meeting today, feels like a metaphor

Not for the day, but for how clumsy I feel with the new POD scientists.  One having become the group manager now.   I don't know the c++ and boost programming styles they use and they seem utterly resistant to taking anything from the old system.  I'm not trying to thwart progress on their new system; but I feel like they could progress faster for some points if they were willing to take level1 files from old system to start to get to the level2s and then go back to fill in the tools for zero to one, versus being dead set on building the tools right away to go from level0 to endpoints.   OH WELL.

I WILL keep taking photos and listing books on Ebay and generally clearing out the house.  I will try to learn the new programming tools so I can remain useful at work; but if worst came to worst I'm not a special snowflake and I could probably make a living until I'm ready to fully retire doing some kind of cleaning business.  Maybe doing yard cleanups if my body would hold up, but for sure I'm willing to use some bleach and elbow grease to clean up grungy bathrooms and so on.

I need to call the hog hunting outfitter in Texas and pick a date.  I've got to get over being so reluctant about making phone calls and committing to do an activity on a given date.

De-cluttering for the day was tossing a couple pairs of of pants.  I had to convince myself that the material is not good for cleaning and I'm not going to need to make any improvised saddle bags; but the pants are in the dumpster in the trash(feed) bag that I tied up before it was filled too full to tie and tossed in the dumpster myself, because dad overfills and then tosses them in w/o tying them shut, NOT GOOD with a shared dumpster,  I do not want our trash to end up spilling on the ground where the neighbors have to pick it up.  

Dad gave me a check for my B-day.  Sigh, I hate checks, I wish he would plan ahead and at least get cash, but I have to go to bank within a couple weeks to sign a paper to catch up on my Roth anyway.
 He did include a nice note thanking me for all I do for him.   I ordered Dave Ramsey "Total Money Makeover" for  my brother's grown stepson.   Ordered online and there was no screen to include any gift message so I will have to text brother that it is for S.  I almost ordered a copy for sis and B but wimped out on them possibly feeling like I was being a judgmental nag.  But I should give them the book or something similar.  If B would pick up on the idea of not wanting to buy fancy cars and furniture for bankers and adjust his habits (if he gets money from insurance company or SS for his disability now) it would really help them reduce financial stress vs his old habit of getting short term loans from the bank (paycheck advances) with fees that equated to interest rates that would make the mob blush.

LOL,  I hate checks but sent them to the sibs.  But mailing cash is risky.  Dad just left my card on the table, so cash would have been perfectly safe.

Almost stayed home today

The roads are not bad but hardly anyone was  coming in and with Christmas bearing down I thought about just staying home.  That lasted until dad got up.   I almost immediately felt restless and irritable at home but realized I was not in a mood to channel that restless energy into clearing anything out upstairs.   So I'm at work.   I should call local nursing home; friend in VA posted a few days ago about one putting out a call for residents needing shampoos and stuff.   I hate phoning and was trying to just search online to see if any homes in this area had residents w/o family needing things but no luck finding any info on the web  I will have to call or just forget about it.

Daily writing therapy

I'm thinking I will drop the bag of clothes for Salvation Army off tomorrow if I am not running too late.   I had thought I would wait and try to have more stuff designated to go to them but I think I need the motivation factor of having that bag gone.   I have the bottom shelf of bookcase in workroom nearly clear.   So I could move some of the horse books and magazines and old mystery books from the downstairs coffee table and then put some of dad's gun magazines in the coffee table.  That would be much more tidy than his stack next to the TV.   As I make progress upstairs it may make sense to bring one bookcase downstairs for those magazines, but this would give me some reward w/o having to get to the point of moving a big bookcase.   There is also now shelf space in the downstairs office and I can probably move magazines there as well.

I am trying to get rid of some of the crap I have just dumped in the garage.  If I get rid of crap that I put there first then Dad should be OK with me moving some of his stuff so we can find things.  It will take me a month or more just to get my crap out of there, but I have recycled enough stuff that Mom had in the storage shed that I can see shelf space there so I am starting to think about moving yard and garden items that have lived in the garage to the storage shed where it makes more sense for them to live.  

I must get moving soon

So of course I'm dashing off a quick blog post instead.   Oh well it is just the Monday blahs.  I'll shake them off in a bit.   DL is ready for me to take Lady back for winter and early spring.  I had been wondering when I might hear from them and just coasting along waiting for them to contact me vs initiating contact.  But this will eat up one day that I had thought I'd have extra time to work on my "take this place back from the clutter" project.   Oh well.    Yesterday I threw away the 2 very ratty quilts from the couch and loveseat and replaced them with some quilts that were not being used on any beds.  Little by little I am gaining ground.    I'll probably add more from work, when I need some blogging therapy.

First item  is posted for sale on Ebay.  I posted the set of 8 Dell Shannon books in the computer room upstairs.   Ebay thinks they have a high chance of selling.  I suppose all the bulky Psychology textbooks will be harder to move.  But we shall see.   The USPS media rate is more expensive than I thought.  But I left in the Ebay shipping estimate tack on so any buyer(s) will pay for most of shipping.   I suppose I should look up whether UPS would be more economical for a heavy box of textbooks but perhaps Ebay does that automatically.  That would be too cool.

Having dipped my toes in the Ebay water, I hope I will stay on track to list things that I don't want to just drop off at a charity thrift store because specialized item or something I want to know will be appreciated and not end up in a dumpster because store staff didn't think it would sell or it sat on shelves for X weeks and proved it would not sell to thrift store browsers.   It is a bit more work, taking pictures and having to type up the listings but at least for these books it was not bad.

I am starting to peck at the garage and garden shed.  I should take before pics of the garage.  Should have taken before pics of entryway and walk-in closet, to remind myself of progress made.  But every morning commute I see my cleared car; although I still need to feed the gas station vacuum again.

This is a great habit to be establishing, and starting with my car has turned out to be a good motivator.  Funny that I got started thanks to B telling me M's story about remedial safe driving course and the picture of the tissue box embedded in someones head.  

Mini retreat on Friday was pretty OK

There was a fair amount of "what training can we arrange to help the group be able to redo the big code monolith in modules and taking advantage of new technology, what we did the past year vs goals announced at AMS meeting and what goals will be set out for this year.

I ended up staying pretty late at work getting something debugged and between that and the fact that more thinking and action will be required to get rid of a lot of remaining clutter I am dragging along today.   Oh well, marathon and new habits, not a sprint on this project.   If I didn't have the retainers I'd be stuffing my face constantly today.  I do take them out and eat when I'm hungry, but so far am resisting taking them out just to stress eat when I don't have hunger pangs or a definite craving for any particular thing.   

I have my walk in closet ready to be swept.  I need to wipe off my shoe shelf and move the cat box to the back of closet and the few items in back of closet to another closet.   I also emptied the old litter into a bucket and took to Tommy's box downstairs so I can see if getting rid of the lightweight kind will reduce the dust level.    I put of box of old "school/HW" papers in my car to go to the recycling bin.   I have peeked at some of my old notes in the past and I can't even read my handwriting at first glance so there is zero reason to keep these.  I'm feeling more like "so why am I only now tossing them?" than "WooHoo, more deadweight gone for good" right now but better way late than never.  

Feeling stressed today

I used to always get holiday/winter blahs in December.   This year I am trying hard to de-clutter and also just have a generally cleaner house and car.   Well I didn't set out thinking I wanted to worry about the cleaning aspect but without the layer of paper, boxes etc scattered over the surfaces the dirt is more visible so then I feel like I have to wipe it off.   All well and good, except that in the process of staging some things before sending them to recycle or giving to Salvation Army, etc.  I am re-cluttering some areas temporarily.   Between that and life with dad and dog and cats generating a fair amount of new dirt and clutter every week, I've been getting stressed at least a few minutes every morning.  I have at least been fairly good about letting go of that stress within an hour or less rather than carrying it the whole day.

This week I've been clearing out some handouts that mom had filed in the upstairs office.  I'm pretty close to being able to make one of the 4 filing cabinet drawers a place for filing papers I think I should keep for a few years.   Yesterday I searched online and found that I can take boxes of magazines and old microwaves (and probably toasters) to special recycle drop-off place in Boulder for $3 per carload.   I can handle that.   They have changed the fee for computer stuff, cables etc. to a price per pound.  I'll have see how outrageous I think that is.   I'm inclined to probably take the monitors and stuff there but keep searching to see if there is a place that salvages copper that would take the power cables without charging or at least not charge nearly as much per pound.

Small group at work is having a mini-retreat tomorrow.   I had thought it would be quite useful to agree on a road map to start getting to where the boss and most of the group wants to go.  But looking at the agenda email today it feels like its heading way more towards everybody do a bit of self-promotion and not likely to iron out what are the main objectives and what is the route we should start taking to get there.  Blech.

Dropped stuff at the learning center this morning

Hoo boy,  it felt like a marathon of effort grabbing the stuff to take this morning, then trying to find a parking spot before giving up and just using a lot 1/2 a block away across a street and making 2 trips.  Plus dad looked like he was afraid I'd haul him out next and was pestering me about Xmas cards.  I will go ahead and order an extra 20 I think, even though I bet we have 20 old cards from 2 years ago because I do like how the composite picture and background came out for this years cards.  

 But the stuff is in its new home,  I rewarded myself with stopping at ChikFilA on way to work and was just in time for the meeting.   My test of taking out a second psuedo-range clock solution for LEO POD orbit solutions worked.   I have now got to look at the orbit overlaps and see if the orbits make sense or if there are good CHI-square and RMS values but the solutions are junk.

I was laying in bed this morning excited with thinking about all the stuff I can take to convention to see if it will sell.  I have got to decide whether to stay Friday night at hotel, I am thinking I might do this since I want to sell stuff and I always have such a hard time getting there in the morning (but that tends to be me dragging my feet because of 'ugh, go and interact with a bunch of people ALL day' more than that it is not possible to feed horses and get going in time to get there before it starts.)

I am getting into full nerd mode on the de-cluttering, but its good.   There is a lot of stuff that needs dealt with and if I can plug into the nerd/ almost OCD mode but not burn out it increases the odds in favor of me actually dealing with most of it. 

I must force myself to take pictures and put stuff up for sale

I don't like the hassle factor of having to reply and ship stuff but I want this stuff gone, sooner than MRER convention and without the strong possibility of having to take a lot of stuff back home after doing a 'vender table'

Or do I?    I could pay for a table and just put the stuff there w/o doing much monitoring and then I'd only have to take pics of whatever doesn't sale.   If I set up some boxes or bags of what I would take I would still be sorting through things and getting them ready and I could take pics afterwards only of whatever didn't sell there.    Hmm, I think I will do this.  I am not getting a good vibe out of the endurance tack and horses FB group.   I may just go with EBAY for stuff I have to sell online.   Well, writing things out has clarified the issue in my mind.  This should help me focus on finding homes for mom's toys and books.

I need to post some books in lots on EBAY.  I'm ready to re-home the Dell Shannon books unless sis wants to take them.

I wonder what is best time to call the learning center?  I suppose I should just call and if they are too busy to talk they can give me a good time to call or give me an email addy.  I'm not sure if getting the recycle items/trash out of the storage shed early is great for the mental rewards of de-cluttering since I don't go in there often, but I do feel like I need to make some space in there for stuff I want out of the garage but still want to keep at least for now and I am really ready to remove at least my crap from the garage, plus try to impose some order on tools and things of Dads and remove recycle jars and stuff that mom was storing in there before the overflow had to go to the storage shed.   Heh, when I get everything cleared out my work is going to notice a drop in the amount of stuff they are sending to the recycling center.   But they want to be green, they should be happy that the stuff is going into their recycling stream rather than a landfill and we only have dumpster service to a landfill available 'out in the country' where I live.

Well got outdoor decorations up yesterday

And I did a lot of cleaning in my walk-in closet.   Pretty soon I'll have that wrapped up and can start on the closet shelves and my waterbed drawers.  I don't think I have much junk in the drawers but I need to sort them out as I'm always struggling to find a place to put away the clean clothes.  I have way too  many clothes even after the initial purging that I have done.   But at least I have done some purging.   Hopefully as the habit gets ingrained and as an easier option than taking pictures to list the horse stuff that needs to go and searching for homes for mom's kids books and things I can easily remove more of the things I never wear.    I am also learning to become comfortable with tossing out the ratty old clothes rather than thinking "I should save them for patches , or cleaning rags (which I have super abundance of) or making rag rugs (which I do not do) etc.

I should see if there is or will be temporarily a bin at work for magazines.   But I'm getting more comfortable with the idea of just tossing them out too.   Having them just sit in the house rather than going into a landfill is NOT saving the planet, it is just harming my mental health.

Dad did help me quite a bit with getting decorations down from the attic, finding the solar timers and putting up the outdoor lights so that is re-assuring that he'll probably keep chugging along.  I have to call sis about the hog hunt.  It is a long drive but even with having to get a hotel room on the way to the hunt and possibly on the way back I think its the best option I found.  If she can take that much vacation time it will be good.  I could cover some lost pay for her too if needed and if she will take it.

I am thinking I might buy the Dave Ramsey "Total Money Makeover" or whatever for Ed's stepson Steven and his girlfriend and possibly also give a copy to sis and Brian.  I don't know how much of the program sis could follow but if it just planted the seed in Brian's mind to stop giving the banks so much money that would help them quite a bit, especially when (thinking positive) they get SSDI or whatever for Brian and some settlement from his  (fomer?) friends insurance company for the wrist injury.   I should buy myself   "Retire Inspired"

I had hit a wall though.  This morning I should have put the last of the poster board pics into the photo album.  Should be easy as they are just pics of her flower beds but I just could not make myself do it.  I did find the shoes that Toby chewed one up and tossed them in the trash so I did "at least one piece of clutter" and with all the extra efforts over the weekend that is good enough.

Aaack, drowning in clutter

I knew that dragging Christmas stuff out of the attic had the risk of highlighting how much clutter is still left.  Oh well,  when I put the stuff away after Christmas it should be like the old story about the overcrowded small house.   crowded small house parable  especially if I keep at the normal decluttering efforts.    I remember a longer version of the story with adding animals gradually and living with that chaos longer but too lazy to continue the web search today.

Plus mom had a bag of kids dress up stuff by the Christmas decorations and with the coloring it looked like some kind of Christmas figure so I took it down.  More incentive for me to call daycares/preschools, as now I have the dress up items plus songbooks that need to go where they can be appreciated.  

p.s.  I need to take a morning sudafed and some NSAIDs.   I am feeling congested sinuses.  Not quite a headache but at the ADR level.  Hopefully some pro-active measures will prevent getting a sinus infection.   Side effect of the over due dusting and maybe a bit of feeding loose hay to the minis.  But I need to get rid of the dust in the house and to stretch the mini's hay supply by feeding up some of the loose stuff on the ground from the big horse's stacks (plus this way I should be able to avoid the AACK, hay coming today and having to haul several big cartfuls to just dump on the ground some morning next summer.  

I should collect all the Christmas coffee cups and take them to Salvation Army but I will punt until next year.  Its too late in the season for folks to be looking to buy stuff like that; but mainly I just don't want to mess with it right now.   I need to focus on clearing out closets.  I may ride Tanza just in the pen today or possible skip riding at all.  It is already a bit breezy and he has been such a bundle of energy riding the local field roads that it is tiring to keep him down to a trot.   But less than 2 weeks and the days will start getting longer and that will help my energy level.

Well the SA store hasn't chased me out yet

I don't know if its proper procedure to just walk through the retail section and set my donations down on a bench they have in hallway that has restrooms on one end and door to processing section at the other end.   But they haven't hollered at me not to do that in three trips to drop off stuff in 3 weeks so its probably fine.

I could not find the button collection today to sew a button on pair of pants I was going to donate.  Grrr, substituted some pretty dresses that mom had in the sewing room closet.  Kind of hesitated to part with them because pretty and looked like I might fit them now after my weight loss; but reminded myself that I hardly ever wear a dress so its better to donate them so someone will have a chance to appreciate them vs them just sitting in a closet in the house.  So one bag of clothes and I will have to find the buttons later.  Still lots of clothes left in my closet so no biggie.  Also 3 or 4 mid size stuffed animals and a pair of shoes.  Toby had dragged one of the pair to sewing room and I have got enough junk off the floor in that room that I found it this week.  I *AM* progressing even though there is still a huge amount of stuff I need to go through and I also need to get busy and take some pictures and list some of the riding clothing and misc. horse tack on FB or EBAY.  

Dad did buy shields or disposable underpants yesterday,  I also bought him some of the underpants kind when I was in Safeway yesterday in case he did not feel up to shopping today.  I did not ask him if he made an appointment with dr.  I also showed him the place I found that sounds like fun hog hunting experience this morning to give him incentive to take care of health.   It is a longer drive that I thought so I may do more web searching to see if there is something closer, but probably one has to drive about that far to get to wooded country where feral hogs are abundant.    My unaddressed envelope did end up at our house and the USPS didn't even cancel the stamps so I was able to just add the address and drop it in a box today.

So in my effort to get rid of clutter I have my bathtub full of wicker baskets

I felt like I had to clean them a bit before taking them to Sal. Army to donate.    Was feeling like I will never get to having the house and personal paperwork in order and went "Well DO what you can do in the sewing/project room, which was deciding that some bagged stuffed animals and the wicker baskets can go to Salvation Army tomorrow after the baskets have had a day to dry thoroughly after their showers.

Monday I wrote a thank-you card to B for riding with me to Moab,  buying some of the diesel, doing some driving and keeping me sane.   I used a big envelope from work and printed out some of the MRER newsletter with convention speakers in case B would want to attend and/or join the regional group next year.   Tuesday I wrote a thank-you to the RM whose free ride I won in raffle last year and never used and on the way home I went "I'm pretty sure I forgot to address the envelope to B before dropping it in the mail last night.   I hope my return address label stayed on and it comes to the house so I can remedy things and not have any "you shouldn't use work envelopes for personal letters" blowback.

Rolling rolling rolling, keep those doggies rolling

I feel like I am slowing down on the de-cluttering.  Its only a slow down from the t-day weekend when I tackled quite a lot and forming a habit is way more important than getting this or that surface clear but burning out.  But I have a bag of clothes on the sewing table.  I want to sew a button on one pair of pants before sending to Salv. Army.   And there is a skirt that the elastic probably should be replaced but I'll probably just donate as is.   I feel like negative progress, putting stuff on the table that I got almost clear, but it makes the best sense for them to be there until I get a button sewn on and find some more stuff to be donated to make the swing to their store on the way to work worthwhile.  

I have a bag of papers on my desk that I need to shred, not just toss in the paper recycling bin.      I have 3 out of 6 poster boards transferred to photo album, so I am progressing on things, its just not super fast.

The  contractors showed up to start the gutter work this morning.   They are about a month behind when they first told dad they would come.  I was beginning to wonder if he had been hoodwinked by some phony outfit that got a deposit and then disappeared so very good to see them starting on the project.    Toby was excited by the commotion and Bella had to come over to join in on play time.  I expected Toby might spend a lot of time in their yard after the dogs playing together a lot for 2 weeks  while we dog sat; but Bella figuring out she can get into our yard is an unexpected wrinkle.  Oh well,  the neighbors like that the two dogs play together, as long as they just play in either our yard or theirs it will be cool.

I have got to dig in at work.  I'm still a bit flat over finding out the new POD scientist is just writing specialized programs; so the work that I did to get the big package we use to do a couple things properly will only be utilized by me until she finishes her project.   Her and group boss are kind of doing the silo thing, doing their own thing and not sharing with the group.   IF they would kick the problem dude out of the weekly meetings maybe they wouldn't feel like they have to just do their own thing w/o keeping the team in the loop, but whatever.   I like the money and flexible hours at this job, but if they make me redundant in 3 years I feel like I'll be ready to move on.  

I hate when I'm sleepy at work

I don't know how to prevent it though.   Typically I will get a burst of energy, born of guilt at not getting anything done if not from a more wholesome source at least the last few hours but this is one more bit of self-improvement I should tackle some day.

But for now I'm focusing on the de-cluttering and then getting my affairs more in order.  I have some ratty old t-shirts and have been forcing the "use them as rags and then toss" by cutting a couple of them up.   I am doing actual house cleaning as more of the surfaces are exposed with the removal of clutter.   I ran the glasses from the wine glass holder thru the dishwasher and dusted it thoroughly.   I wore a ratty old sweatshirt and jeans last week and through Sunday and after getting them very grubby I just threw them away.  

I have signed up for an endurance tack FB group and will sign up for a more general one too and will take pics of my now too big (YES!)  fleece riding pants and some misc. riding clothes and horse tack and try to sell this stuff.   I will also call some day-cares and the local elementary school/library about mom's kids books (and toys with the daycares)  and I will continue to use the work recycle bins heavily.   I've got most of 3 out of 6 of the poster board pics transferred to the photo album too.

I'm annoyed at the sibs for not calling T-day weekend or last weekend AFAIK.   They called for dad's b-day and that has been it.   The annoyance is mostly due to my angst over dad's health.   I found out with mom, when I thought she was better than she was that I am lousy at assessing medical conditions but I am worried that dad is fading.   I guess I need to phone sis and mention this so she will at least know, and know why I want to get the hog hunt in fairly soon and maybe she can plant the seed in bros mind that waiting until next September when he and M will be at Tae Kwon Do tournament in NM might be waiting too long.  

I also have to keep reminding myself of how good they have been to help me out when my vehicle broke down in Utah (Bro driving overnight with parents p/u to come fetch sis and I and our horses) and overall he has been pretty good at visiting folks and inviting them to visit and sis has been great to come out and hunt elk,  to trail riding with dad and so on.  Last few years they are feeling money pinch and I have to work to remind myself of all the good stuff they've done for me and the folks to avoid feeling like I'm just considered the family piggy bank and that they are not just anticipating inheritance, resenting dad for spending money mom got from her parents.    

And I am trying also to not 'borrow trouble' with thinking dad is going to die before I have even dealt with half of mom's odds and ends.   Wow, no wonder I felt tired/sleepy with all that fear of death in my subconscious.  I need to address it and keep plugging along with the general tasks.

My car is cleaner than it has been in ages

Sadly, there was so much grime on the outside that it is still not clean after being run through the car wash.  That happened last time I used a car wash, I had forgotten about that.  Probably that clear coat last step makes it harder to wash the dirt underneath it off.   I guess I'll have to scrub a bit at home and run through another car wash in a week or 2.   I also vacuumed the interior,  got the seats and passenger floor areas.   I need to pull more small garbage like dropped straws from under the front seats and get the drivers side floor areas vacuumed.   I have a plan to see if some stray items I was saving just because I liked the fabric will work to cover over the stained cloth upholstery but I needed to get the interior vacuumed first.   I would still cringe a bit at having someone ride in the car today but I have got it to a state where it is fairly nice for me to commute in it.

I also plugged in the sewing machine and fixed the velcro on a fly mask this morning and then took it out to the tack room.   Just a few stray items left in on the table in the project room.   Last night I started putting some of mom's pictures from her memorial service into a photo album.   5 years of just having them on or falling off the poster boards we did for the memorial just propped in the corner by the encyclopedias.   That is a bigger project, because I'm taking time to write names and dates for each picture.  But it will be very good to get it done and have a nice album of mom pics instead of that posterboard mess.

Eventually I have got to force myself to sit down and write out my will stuff.  I am using the de-cluttering stuff as a "but this is important" excuse.  Of course I had the will forms for over a year and didn't fill it out when I was just wasting time surfing the web on weekends I was at home, but the baseball season is over now so I am hearing Dave Ramsey saying "You NEED a will"  2-3 times a week on my commute home so I'm feeling the nagging again.