The things I carry.

Now that the kids have skipped town, I keep trying to clean their leavings out of the house.
Lighten the load.
Convert to cash.
The things I've tried:
-- Garage sale-one day only. Come and get it! Evidence of success pictured in yonder box.



--Hauled carloads to the Salvation Army.
--Listed stuff on Craigs list. $120 for used Wedding Centerpieces. $100 for a left-handed acoustic guitar. $60 for a big-ass backpack. $20 for a hard-shell golf case. Joy. Cash is king baby!
--Put odds and ends on the curb with a FREE sign attached.
And yet, the stuff piles up. Seriously, the detrius is starting to get me down. I just can't get it organized.
Look at it. An entire cold storage room. Packed. To the ceiling. Hundreds of dollars worth of plastic storage units. All full.



-Three boxes labeled, "Nora winter". Well, it's winter. Her clothes are here. She's in New York. What, dare I ask, is she wearing?
- 2 boxes of high school notebooks and photos.
- 2 shoe boxes full of Nora-Erin-Cara notes.
- Austin's juggling pins and flaming torches (not lit).
- 38 framed photos, prints and paintings.
- Paddy's old turntable and stereo components
- old slide projector
- old school maps (the pull down kind). Cause you never know when you'll need to map out the Goths and Visgoths migration.
- 3 old wooden doors
- 1 guitar amp (big)


- Wrought iron curtain rod
- A wax hand (don't ask)
- Uncle Billy's vintage baseball shirts
- Paddy's messenger bag w/ his left-wing patches
- 3 boxes labeled: "Mom's stuff to go through and toss."
- 1 box labeled: correspondence, 1974 and earlier.



- Lawnmower, shovels, rakes
- Probably some cat pooh and dead bats
- laundry basket full of remote control car parts
- a 6-shelf unit full of dishes, pans, glassware, vases



-7 table cloths
- old sewing machine
- vintage ironing board. Missing rubber foot stoppers.
- 2 American flags.
- Old steamer trunk full of Austin's memorabilia (it's been here for 8 years. It's the early stage of his life).
- one box labeled, "Nora's life."
- VHS tapes including the Bruce Lee Collection
- 12 Shriner Fezzes
- box labeled "light system from Austin's apartment" (Lori gently refused to take it to Philly)
- at least 12 boxes of books including a United States Armed Forces Institute publication entitled, "the Mechanics of English," 1944.
- 4 chairs and a desk
- 3 jars of buttons and a tin full of rick rack
- 2 turtle doves
- and a partridge in a pear tree.



That's just what I see without opening boxes and rummaging through their stuff. I'm tired just thinking about it. I feel another encounter with Craig's List coming on.

Reading: The Mechanics of English (I couldn't resist it)
Listening to: Pandora. Nora was right. I'm hooked.
Eating: Who's eating between meals? It's Ash Wednesday!