It's cold in Dodge

We have had a couple of interesting days and have actually got rid of STUFF, so this is somewhat to the point.

First of all, it snowed here in Dodge, which is an unusual-enough occurrence that I actually took a picture of it.


Doesn't look like much, does it? Trust me, it wasn't much, but that doesn't stop people here from panicking. It did, however, snow off and on for most of the day, so I mostly stayed inside and went through bags of clothes and bed linens to donate. Lots of things needed to be washed -- a good snow day activity.

I also had other projects to work on, like balancing the check book and paying the bills and studying Torah. With help.

This morning, very early, I took all the bags of clothes and bed linens that we were donating down to the curb for pickup.

Six bags. Not bad, considering we haven't really gone through closets and drawers yet. A lot of the things in these bags were left behind by my mother-in-law and the Drama Queen, or were things that Sports Nut had at school but no longer needs.

In the background, remember that I am continuing to work on converting cassette tapes to computer-friendly formats so that I can load them onto my iPod. I am definitely making progress.

Now that I look, I see that there are a few non-musicals tapes in that pile. I already have copies of those cassettes on CD; I'm just looking for worthy recipients. Next time, I will make sure that those aren't in the pile of cassettes I have successfully converted to mp3 format.

Despite the cold, I ventured out into the garage this morning to find a box, a bag, a shelf or a pile to do away with today. Instead, I found 5 boxes which were clearly marked Not My Problem.

Some belong to Future Vet and some belong to Sports Nut. I will make them decide what to do with the contents. In the meantime, I am moving them to Future Vet's empty bedroom so that they aren't in my line of sight any more.

Next I went prowling for things to Freecycle. All kinds of STUFF presented itself.


I know that those stacking file sorters were from an attempt to sort everyone's mail as it came into the house, back when everyone was living here. But we don't need them now, so they are gonzo. The shelf, however? I have no idea where that came from. I can't imagine ever buying or using a book shelf quite that small. Also gonzo.

Next, I came across these lovely items:

The box is going into Future Vet's room with all the rest of his detritus. With any luck, he will be here long enough over the summer to go through his STUFF. Otherwise, it will be at my mercy. If you want to call it that.

The TV stand is probably the one from my Grandmother's apartment. She had a computer on it, not that she used the computer much. She was 103 years old and mostly blind, after all. But when we visited, we would check her email and send replies that she dictated. But.... we really don't need another computer stand, so it is also going away.

Still looking for a box to empty, I finally came across this one:


Cool! One with actual STUFF that I could deal with. Inside the bottom of a Tupperware cabbage keeper (just the bottom? why did I hang onto that?) is a pottery oil lamp that we bought years ago to give to one of my sisters. Yet there it is, in our house, having been moved across the country five years ago. I'm sure that someone out there can give it a better home than a box in our garage.

Then there's the STUFF that is hard to get rid of, even when I know that I will never ever use it as long as I live. In the bottom right-hand corner of that box is something that has virtually no use in modern homes. Yet it belonged to my Grandmother, and I'm having a few pangs over it. Here's a better view:


That holds a big box of wooden matches. You put the box down inside and the "strike" areas from the box are available on the sides. Matches load down into that little reservoir at the bottom. Grandmother had this on a nail next to her gas stove for many years so that she would always have a match available to light a burner. Now, of course, most people have electric stoves and gas stoves have much better electronic ignition systems. Matches are rarely needed to light burners.

I'll have to think about that one for a while. Maybe one of the sibs has a gas stove and would like to have this.

So here is most of my final pile for Freecycling:


Toshie, checking out the give-aways, will undoubtedly stay although I have Freecycled cats before. About a year ago, a friend of a young woman we know left her two cats at our house. When she made it clear that she wasn't going to take them back, we found them a new home. And just last month, we found a home through Freecycle for the cat that Drama Queen left behind. All three cats found good homes with people who give them much more time and attention than we could, so it's all good.