Dumpster Days 1 & 2

Day 1

Well, after much threatening, cajoling and reminding (occasionally) that the dumpster was to be ordered around the first of May….it finally came.

Of course it was 3 hours late, making our early morning rise of 7am sort of unnecessary.

We made the best of the waiting time with squeezing in an early morning music practice.

We are in the process of putting together a Civil War show of music and Harry has been working with his fiddle and I with my mandolin. My autoharp needs some work on the D chord. It must have worn pads or something, for no matter how hard I try, I can get only 14 of the 15 chords to sound right at the same time. It went to Speno’s Music for a check up.

I’m feeling pretty organized lately. Been trying to focus on the thing at hand and getting it DONE. Whether it be house projects, continuing the writing process, starting promised sewing projects for others, and new music under the belt…I seem to be making some progress with it all.

And now the dumpster has arrived!

How'ere.....

It sat for about 3 hours while errands were run. I think we were just getting used to the idea it was here, I guess?

It stared at us….

with it’s empty eyes and gaping belly.

Harry, to his credit, has been working on removing his gear and treasures from my yellow garden shed. I had deemed it to be used for garden tools, with a planting bench a bit of a work area for me (Harry had many of such places on the property and I wanted a spot too) oh, and also a storage place for “car stuff”. Two years ago, it took 5 of us, 2 whole days, and him 2 more weeks, to hose it out for just this purpose.

It was a thing of beauty when done. (The yard how’ere felt the toll of the reorganization for that whole summer). Then, I don’t know when it happened, but somehow it magically filled up again with gear and boxes over the last fall and winter. When I saw it this spring, I freaked out.

Well, as I said, to Harry's credit, and with only moderate bitching from me…He cleaned out a major amount of his stuff over the last week, and again finished it, yesterday. I got in there and sorted my stuff and swept it. I have a garden shed and a workspace for me now! YAY! I don’t know where he put the things that left, but he does have a space designated for such things.I am very hopeful now!

The garden is next for me.

Harry also started turning over the garden (by the lovely newly organized garden shed :)

I proceeded to weed all the perimeter of the garden and make it ready for the rototiller…hopefully tomorrow, “Mother’s Day”, that will happen?.

Day 2

Mother’s Day

Didn’t get as much done on the dumpster project as I’d hoped. But I did enjoy my time outside with my daughter Shawna and her friend Vicki, whom I went and retrieved from their new residential housing.

Harry gave me some money for some special groceries as a gift for Mother’s Day. That was sweet!

He’s been very nice, all in all, while we are in the midst of this project. I am happy about that. I know that in the past, it hasn’t been pleasant for him to do some spring cleaning, but this time, it’s not harsh at all.

It is just slow going.

I took the girls to the store and we bought the makings for a delicious dinner (Chicken and Roasted veggies ) and decadent Ice Cream Sundaes’. Pound cake on the bottom, bananas, strawberries, 2 kinds of ice cream (Chocolate Almond and Lemon Meriange) whipped cream and chocolate syrup on top.Mmmmm!

I mowed the front and side yards….and dreamed about starting to clean off the back deck…

Harry had the girls help him move some car parts to give away to the trailer and they were delighted to be of service. The girls were cute actually…they spent some time sitting in the sun together reading the Sunday paper. This is the first time that Shawna has had “real friends” and I am encouraging it.

As far as the dumpster project goes tho….

we didn’t get that far today.

It was hot and Harry didn’t feel good (too much sun) so we went inside for dinner and dessert and watched a couple of episodes of “The Seeker” together with the girls. Talon came over with some goodies and a gift of a beautiful Primrose for me and he rototilled the garden for us. That was sweet too. Harry had to go do a stage call load out in the evening for “Beauty & The Beast” so after I dropped off the girls back at their house, Harry went to work and Talon and I went and saw “Thor” for the evening. It was a pretty good movie and we were both pleased. Harry was pleased that he had some work too and the whole day worked out very well for everybody. We were all fed, happy together and got a bit done.

While it was a fun Mother’s Day, I hope tomorrow will be more productive.
The dumpster isn’t filling liked I’d hoped.

We have a week. But whatever we can do, I am still happy it is happening.

FYI~

I am VERY proud of Harry. I love him very much for dallying with the idea of cleaning out some space and getting organized. I know it is hard for him. And I also want you to know, that I, too, am a SCOT. I do keep things. It's not that I am "Felix Unger" or anything. I am not a neat freak. I do keep and recycle and reuse a lot of stuff too. I think it's all good. I just think that you have to "stack it well" if you want to keep it, and make it look palatable to the eyes and manageable. I don't want to live for taking care of my things.
My plan is to get through this trying time and whittle down and become more organized so that I can concentrate on what matters most to me: My family, Music and Writing.

Thanks for listening.