Take a Critical Look

I must be an obsessive/compulsive kinda gal. Or, I'm easily entertained by organizing, re-organizing and purging our home of useless stuff. Either way, I'm at it again.

Truth be told, aside from fixing a couple meals, vacuuming 2-3 times a week, hauling in fire wood, building a few puzzles, reading, doing laundry once a week, rarely dusting, and then reading the blogs, what else is there to do? Especially in the winter when it snows nearly every day. Take a hike? Well, I'm still using my walker, so that's out. The possibility of falling on ice beneath the snow and breaking something would keep me inside anyway. Yeah, I know, excuses, excuses! So here's a few more: We're retired. We ain't got money, honey. We live 10 miles out of town. We don't have anyone else living with us. So keeping busy or entertained is a challenge!

Sweetie says I could paint a couple ceilings. I say "why me?" and besides, why paint ceilings when we're still heating with wood? I prefer fresh air and better light before I do my best imitation of Picasso.

For Sweetie the constant snowfall has been a Godsend 'cause he can plow. Otherwise, he'd play Freecell 10 hours a day and snack more often. And drive me batty. Always asking me to repeat something or not hearing me to begin with 'cause he doesn't hear well and we can't afford hearing aids. And being a man, if I discover that Medicare pays for hearing aids, and he gets a pair, he'll just turn them off to further irritate me. He has a wicked sense of humor at times. Ain't growing older and being with one another nearly all the time wonderful?

Careful how you answer that!

Once again, we'll have plenty of company in that department. As millions of people have no work with time on their hands and not a clue as to how to care for themselves - and probably no motivation - the ground is fertile for family disruptions, mental health problems and worse.

So I'm sorting through drawers and boxes and shelves and occasionally muttering: "what in the world did I ever buy that for?" And, "When was the last time I wore a dress or a suit?" And, "How many mystery books do I need?"

Aside from the extra coffee pots, the boxes of fabric, the tin of quilting thread and our canning supplies, everything else is fair game.

So I'll sort and price and repack and wait for the first good spring weekend.

Which leads me to a few more thoughts:

Will yard sale prices be higher this year? I'd say yes.

Will the used furniture store in town be overwhelmed by requests to buy furniture from people desperate to raise cash? Yes again. He added on last spring and outgrew the space by July.

And, will we ever find a buyer for this place? We still hope so. Our last offer was for a land contract from a couple who wanted to relocate from Grand Rapids. He'd lost his $100,000/yr. GM job and she'd found a job at Munson Hospital in Traverse City - an 80 mile round trip from here. Sorry, we need to sell for cash.

Anyway, the New year is a great time to re-evaluate your prepping, your excess baggage and anything else that comes to mind.

So enough blabbing, I'm off to tackle another box. Later, Treesong