Saturday and All Is.... Well???

Today I'm doing a spring cleaning thing in a major way. The curtains are even down and I have donated about five car loads full of stuff to Goodwill. After seeing all the junk (er, treasures) my aunt had that had to be given away, donated, tossed or somehow "stored" until she passes away (for some of it is too precious to her to give to a stranger or a good cause and none of her relatives want or need it) it has given me a wake-up call to end all wake-up calls: "How much of the stuff in your garage, closets, bedrooms, den, front room do you really use or need?" The answer was quite revealing: "Not much!" And someone with less could be putting it to good use and could be feeling blessed and lucky. Which is not to say that I don't feel blessed and lucky to have extra "stuff", but hey -- the rule of thumb is, if you haven't used or worn it in a year, donate it!

For example, I have utensils that are almost as old as I am, because I "inherited" them from Mom! You know those old-fashioned rubber and metal bottle stoppers from decades ago? I have two of those. I have a metal ice cream scoop that has that flange-y thing that runs around the mouth of the scoop to dislodge the ice cream from it. Know what I'm talking about? Probably not if you're under 40! I rarely cook, but have numerous cooking and baking utensils.

I'm giving it all up. (Well, except for the bottle corks and the metal ice cream scoop. I'm going to wait another ten years or so and e-bay them or find a museum that will want them!)

I was going to take Aunt Tod to Wal-Mart this morning, but her back is hurting and she can't find the $50 or $60 that Jackie left with her -- we looked everywhere logical before I gave up -- so I left her there still looking and drove to Wal-Mart alone and picked up what she wanted.. she can write me a check later if the money is well and truly lost and gone for good. What she needed me to get only cost $12 and change...

I took a box of china to her and will take her another one this afternoon, then took out of there a box of old, chipped dinnerware she had. I tossed it. At 1:45 I'll go back there and drive her across the street to dialysis and then will go back and fetch her at 5:30 when she finishes, because the shuttle service messed up big time on Thursday and it took her two and a half hours to get back home (just across the street) because she hadn't taken our numbers along and so was unable to call either of us to come get her when the shuttle didn't show. Jackie is calling to raise Cain with the shuttle company and with dialysis, because dialysis has both our numbers and they could have called us to let us know she was waiting for Godot... and had Maple Creek known she was waiting all that time, they assured us they would have driven over and picked her up themselves.

I couldn't even believe her story at first-- that she had waited two and a half hours for the shuttle -- thought she had to be exaggerating or delusional -- but Maple Creek confirmed it, so Jackie is going to knock some heads together at the transit company. An 80 pound, 94 year old dialysis patient should not be waiting two and a half hours for a shuttle that is supposed to respond to a "will call" within 30 minutes... ya know?!

Jackie, Phil and Wendy went to a home show this morning to look at modular homes. They wanted me to go but I felt a commitment to be with Aunt Tod this first weekend morning after her arrival here. As it turned out, she wasn't feeling well enough to go out, so my morning with her became a morning for her, instead (shopping in her stead). I may go get her just before dialysis time and bring her by my condo if her back is better, because she has never seen it and wants to... after dialysis she will probably be too tired.

What else?

Alison (Senorita Invierno) has decided to stay in the good ol' U S of A for a time following the August STAR TREK convention in Vegas (where we will meet face-to-face for the first time), so she will be flying home with me after the convention and staying here. We'll have to share this PC to keep both our blogs going! She can blog during the day when I'm at work, and I'll dash one off in the evening just after I return home from work. You'll get "both sides of the same story" at that time -- from two perspectives -- or maybe we'll blog together, taking turns at the keyboard -- and post both blogs in both places. Now, there's a concept! Has that been tried before?

It should be a lot of fun -- two creatives sharing the same abode for up to 90 days. I'm looking forward to it.