Sorting through old papers

When we first moved here we basically camped out indoors while working on the new place. We slept in our camp bed, ate TV dinners cooked in the oven because we hadn't brought our microwave or dishes, and had very little "stuff" underfoot to deal with.

Then in December of last year, we rented a big UHaul truck and brought all of the "stuff" from our Lowell place. Where did all of the boxes go? Why where stuff like that always ends up when you move: the garage!

I've decided that I want my garages to actually be garages. With that in mind, I have embarked on an adventure into the pile of "stuff". When I go on a mision into the garage, I bring my flashlight to get a better estimate on what is in the boxes, sometimes a drink, and always my cordless phone becasue invariably, when I get myself wedged in behind a "stuff" pile, Wendy will chose that moment to call me on the intercom. So there I'll be...one foot on a box of antique bottles, the other on a storage box of who-knows-what with a box of books balanced on my hip, answering a tech question for Wendy while she answers an email.

Some of the "stuff" will go right to the "swap shop" at the dump. The swap shop is a building where you put things that you no longer want, but are still good and you don't want to just throw away. Kind of like a free rummage sale. I get some good books from it.

A good portion of the "stuff" is actually just plain old trash and not worth keeping to anyone, so it gets tossed into the back of my truck for the next dump run. There are a lot of books (a pallet, at least). Some of the books are quite valuable, I just haven't gotten around to selling them yet. One of the more annoying things to see out there are boxes of assorted papers, notebooks, etc. (kind of a subcatagory of stuff: "paper stuff") Tonight's diversion was to sort through several boxes of this class of "stuff". Filled up a trash bag and found all sorts of things.

Here are a few examples:

-More than half a dozen partially used notepads, these will go on my desk to get used up once and for all

-Five issues of old science fiction magazines that someone had given me, I used to read them between runs when I was a bus driver all those years ago

-A bag of musketballs (gee, what will I ever do with those?)

-The printout of my hearing test that shows exactly what tones I can't hear anymore (ALWAYS wear your hearing protection when shooting)

-A stack of "congratulations on your new baby" cards

-The three ring binder that I used to keep records in when I first started this business back in 1993

-A bundle of 8-track tapes (there is a working 8-track player here in the shop)

-Some newspaper clippings about historic stuff

-A series of communications about an incident that happened at a Highland event we ran a few years ago, I had rented a stone castle for the weekend, and one of the redcoats found his way to the attic and managed to stick his foot through the ceiling, the castle people were not amused

-A big stack of resumes from when I was laid off and trying to get another high-tech job in the early 90's. PC's were new to me then, and my friend Dave printed a copy in Hebrew, one in Arabic, and one in the picture alphabit font called "dingbats"

-A framed photo of myself, Al, Mac and Bob back in the old days when we had a militia group. We've all gone our separate ways now. I also found the document from the Adjudant-General of the Massachusetts National Guard that gave us permission to form a colnial militia.

Sorting through this crap is a good thing, because it is one step closer to reclaiming my garages. At the same time, it's a fun little walk down memory lane.

Judging by the pile of "stuff" in the garage, I still have a lot of walking to do down that lane!