new month, new hope

Okay, so I took a month off from writing. I've let my deadline slip. Hey, I'm an amateur, what do you expect. Well, I don't feel too badly right now, for I did get some headachey stuff dealt with.

One isue that'd been hanging over my head for nearly a year now was the last bits and pieces of the stuff from my dad's apartment. It had been sitting in storage since may last year, every so often I'd fiddle about, trying to sort and organize, but I'd made very little progress. So this March, I made a big effort...

Furniture and some stereo equipment went to Jose. Old, mold filled refrigerator went to charity, it hadn't run since more than 5 years ago, anyway. Washer and Dryer ended up going to Betty and Gerardo (and when we took their old one out of their basement, we saw how truly old it was). What was left got moved to fill half of my garage while I began to dig through it.....

Lots of papers. Some mementos. A lot of really obsolete computer disks and software and documentation. (One item found referenced requiring a 16 color monitor!) Slides from decades ago. It took me two weeks, but I emptied it.

The slides I'm going to scan into digital format and make cd's for the family. The extensive jazz collection on LP's and 45's will be an ongoing project to record into digital as well. And geneology stuff I"ll look at eventually.

It was emotionally draining to go through so much stuff, even more so than when we emptied his apartment last year (by just boxing everything in sight). However, it's done, and I have gained a greater appreciation for the things in life that last. Those photo's, for example, include most of my brother, sister, and I, growing up through the late fifties and sixties.

Anyway, I feel like I dumped a 80 pound backpack this weekend, finishing that. Yes, there's more to do, but it's constructive stuff, not like going through boxes and deciding what to throw out, what to donate, what to keep.

Back to writing now. I did some fiddling about with ideas this week, no formal writing, but I'm ready. More to come.....