Sorry for the spam, y'all.  My decluttering efforts this evening involved sorting through some of my old cassette tapes (I have several hundred to go through, dating all the way back to the 1970s).  Prior to tonight I had been working on the noncommercial tapes that were unrelated to my many years as a fiddler; tonight I got started on a box of tapes recorded at festivals, parties, bar gigs, and of course a few commercial tapes put out by old friends over the years.  I had been dreading this with good reason.  I already knew that commercial tapes tend to disintegrate/mold/whatever more readily -- I guess the manufacturers use cheaper materials than what my my friends and I used for our private endeavors.  So tonight, as I had suspected, I had to throw out most of the stuff that my old pals recorded professionally, because the tapes were full of chalky white spots and fun stuff of that nature.  What upset me, though, was that a good percentage of the personal tapes were similarly ruined.  Not all of them, certainly, and there were some happy surprises, such as the pristine condition of the tape that I made the very first time I went to a bar gig by the band that literally changed my life.  That was back in 1980 and I recorded it on a freaking MEMOREX tape (!!!!), and it has held up all these years.  But for every "oh wow, it lives!" moment there was an "oh shit I have to throw this one out" moment.  So many memories...right into the trash.  It really sucks.
 

It's so nice to walk into that back room -- freshly vacuumed and aired out, then drenched in toasty warm scented candle smells for a couple of hours while I picked through bags of junk mail and sorted old cassette tapes -- and realize that it no longer smells bad in there.

It's also really nice to look around at what I still have left to do and realize that this hill is NOT insurmountable.

I am absolutely worn out right now, but it it is so worth it.

Up at 7:15 on a Saturday morning?  Me?  Really?  If anyone had told me a few months ago that I could even DO that I wouldn't have believed them.  But I did just that today so I'd be all fed and watered and ready to walk out the door after my neighbor stopped by at 9:30 to load a bunch of dead computer components into my car so I could take them to a special dropoff that the county recycling program was running this morning.  Afterwards I ran a couple of other errands, including bringing another chair to Goodwill...it's sturdy as hell but needs reupholstering because the [very ugly] fabric is very musty/dusty.  Someone'll be able to make use of it, I'm sure.

So here I am, just after 11:00 (when normally I would be fixing a late breakfast if I had even gotten that far), and my busy day most definitely does not end with this early flurry of activity.  In an hour or so I'll be heading over to the hospital for my final Solu-Medrol infusion, after which I will GRATEFULLY have the catheter apparatus removed from my arm.  Then I''ll get my oil changed and hopefully get home in time for the start of ALCS Game 6 (if the weather holds in New York), and do my exercises in front of the TV before using the game as background noise while I get my butt into the kitchen and start on the dishes and do some cooking prep.  Then I need to muster the energy to do my daily work in the back room -- it'll be sit-down stuff this time.  Going through papers and triaging them into "recycle" or "shred."  I suspect that the "keep" pile will be neglible.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll get some Internet time in before bed.  I owe e-mails to treasured old friends, and hopefully I can make a dent in that.  I also started a pretty fascinating book yesterday, but more on that later because I realize that I'm getting longwinded.  I'll probably read in bed for awhile, but tired as I'll be by tonight, that probably won't last long!

ETA: Ahaha...FAILHAT on the game time, yes?  And it got postponed to boot.  I've crossed off everything described above except for cooking, which I'm about to do.  That said, I am so utterly exhausted that my evening will probably consist of reading that book rather than trying to formulate thoughts and express them to my two closest childhood friends.  If I get up early again, with Game 6 not starting until 8:20, I have a big honking chunk of time in which to be productive again.  Me likey!

This courtesy of my cousin Danielle, who sent it to me, of her mom all bundled up during Game 2 last night (and she stayed for all 13 innings despite living a ways out on Long Island -- there's no telling what time she actually got home).

 

I'm squeaky clean here after a shower following 2-1/2 hours of kamikaze decluttering that cleared so much space that I think Raye will be very surprised when she comes here for a session on Wednesday.  A couple of boxes of junk are now totally gone to the garbage and the back seat of my car is full of stuff to take to Goodwill tomorrow, including a chair, a mirror, a magazine rack, a box of clothes, and a box of knickknacks.  I tossed the World War II vintage Army cot that my dad had passed on to me for festival use (and which I had never used).  I was sort of sad to do that, but it's too contaminated with mold and dust to give to a surplus store.

Late in the afternoon I found yet another box of books, most of which will probably get gone because they're no longer of interest to me (from a quick glance through them), but that's for another time, because right now I have to eat, do dishes, and deal with e-mails and such.  I'll be back later to answer comments from my earlier entry.

Just watched the latest press conference related to the "balloon boy" incident, and I've got to say, I think the authorities are overreacting a bit.  And no, that's not the cop-hater in me talking.  I was able to look at the individuals as they spoke without feeling revulsion or anger.  I just listened and tried to be objective, and after hearing everything they said, it baffles me that they want to press felony charges on these folks.  I do feel that they need to make restitution for leading the authorities and media on a wild goose chase, certainly, but "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" and a boatload of other potential charges?  You've got to be kidding me.  What do my readers think about this whole thing?  I'm just curious. 

Last night's warm and fuzzy feeling of watching the Cardinals celebrate (a soaking wet Albert, a mischievous Julio spraying champagne everywhere, among other amusing sights) did NOT carry over to witnessing today's division-clinching win by the Yankees at the expense of the Red Sox.  Just sayin'.  Hey, at least the Rangers lost too, so our Wild Card lead remains the same.  I also didn't much care for the scene later in the afternoon when both Julio and Albert were stranded by a game-ending, game-losing GIDP by Ryan Ludwick.  Just sayin'.

In happier news, my decluttering continued today with a vengeance.  Although I'm absolutely exhausted (probably because I haven't yet ingested enough calories to make up for the energy I expended today), I managed to squeeze one more box of old books into my car to take to recycling, and to the Goodwill bags I added a bunch of drinking glasses that I found wrapped in newspaper in a box.  They're in good condition but definitely not anything I need to keep, especially after finding the "jars with handles" glasses yesterday, which were really cute and sparklingly new -- they even still had the price tags on 'em.  Tomorrow evening my very full car will be cleared out, as I will stop by both the recycling center and Goodwill on my way home, and then the decluttering cycle begins anew.

By the way, today's very small "keep" pile included my paperjournal from my "summer on the road" the year I relocated from NY to NC (a bit odiferous, but ALL paperjournals must stay, I'm sorry -- and a quick glance through the book had me itching to sit down and read it cover to cover).  Also, I found a large bag of REAL silverware.  It's old -- I think it was my grandmother's silver.  It's definitely good quality stuff -- I love the weight and heft of it, and am looking forward to using it in place of my cheap lightweight stuff!

Time for more calories, but before I go, I'm sending happy birthday wishes to queen_dream as well as to redsox_njdevils (wherever she may have gotten to); both of them have birthdays today.  ALSO...a very happy birthday TOMORROW tonew_world_smurf (giving the big birthday shoutout a day early just in case I don't make a post tomorrow).  I hope wonderful days are had by all!

And now...salad and shrimp pasta, or something like that.  Cheers!

Started out being lazy because it's been so dark and chilly and wet out all day, but once I got rolling?  Never fear!  I got a hell of a lot of decluttering done -- spent about two hours on it this afternoon with the help of a heretofore unheard R&B station that I put on in the back room while I was working back there.  First I cleaned the windowsills so it wouldn't be such a grimy proposition to open and close them.  I also cleaned the panes on the front window while I was at it.  Then, window fan working furiously to clear the air, I got down to business.  The end result is that the entire back seat of my car is full of a) flattened cardboard as well as a box of musty books that Raye said need to be recycled because no one will accept them for reselling if they smell, and b) clothes and miscellanous stuff to go to Goodwill.  My city garbage container is nearly full -- I maybe have room for a couple more bags, but garbage doesn't go out until Tuesday night so I need to pace myself.  My big throwaways included an old exercise mat and a tarp that I got to use for camping at fiddle conventions (I never used either of these items and they've gotten totally nasty).

I'm starting to see an appreciable difference in that room, and I already have my next couple of sessions planned, which should result in three fewer boxes rotting back there.  Bonus points today for finding a bag filled with really pretty teacups and a couple of glass beer steins!  I'm going to wash them and then decide whether they stay or get donated.

I'm hoping that today's baseball games will be made of win, unlike last night, when both my teams lost (causing the Cardinals to fail to clinch their division).  RIght now the Sox/NYY game is a pitcher's duel in the 7th, with the only score unfortunately coming on a HR by Cano.  Hopefully our bats will wake up before it's too late.  As for the Cardinals, they'll be on MBLN tonight, although I may just catch the game here in the kitchen so I can start catching up on a whole shitload of e-mails as well as a sinkful of dishes.  Nothing like a little multitasking!

ETA: Well, that sucked.  At least VMart's win streak continues at 25.  And the massive area of rain will finally move out of here in the next couple of hours.  The bad news is that all this rain is the harbinger of a cold front and it's supposed to drop into the 40s for the next several nights.  I won't turn the heat on yet, thanks to my stubbornness and the hardy Northern blood in my veins, but atm I've got a long-sleeved shirt over my Bay t-shirt, and it looks like I'll have to sleep with my bedroom window closed tonight for the first time in months.   :::sadface:::

I wish I hadn't parked my car in the yard yesterday (I did so in order to sit outside in the carport and sort through books).  It is POURING and apparently has been doing so since the wee hours.  The area has already seen a couple-three inches of rain, and the radar looks like more of the same for the rest of the day, seeing as how this stretches all the way down to Atlanta and is moving really slowly.  And...I have to go to the laundromat TODAY -- no way around it.  Hello, muddy floors.

Today's decluttering will involve more books, as I'll obviously have to work indoors and the books aren't as yucky as the two boxes of ancient VHS tapes that I was going to clear out.  Between that and the laundry, I'll have to miss today's Sox game.  At least I can do some work on the bedroom while watching the Cards on Sunday Night Baseball.  I'll probably sort through a couple of drawers of clothes.  I'm sure the local Goodwill store would be glad to see another bag or two from me!
 

Howdy howdy howdy...just stopping by to let folks know that I'm still alive.

Late this afternoon I start working with the professional declutterer for real.  I had a delayed reaction to the cleaning I did over the weekend, probably from tracking dust and mold all over the house, and folks have given me a few extra ideas about keeping that from happening again.  I think my lungs have recovered sufficiently that I'm good to go.  She's supposed to arrive at 5:30, and we'll probably work for at least a couple of hours.  After that, it'll be into the shower for a good scrubbing, and then finally I can have dinner, but I probably won't get much done beyond that.  If I'm really lucky I'll get to reply to my growing pile of LJ comments and PMs.

I don't anticipate getting to watch much baseball, needless to say.  I was lucky enough to have the Cardinals on last night while plowing through a bunch of housework -- Julio had a triple that brought in two runs, then Albert brought him home.  I just LOVE when my boys work in tandem.   :::hearts:::   Hopefully more of the same will occur tonight, as well as a good showing from my Boston boys.  I'll have time to enjoy them all again soon enough.

That's it for now -- I have a bunch of work that I should be doing, so I'd best get to it.

Has it really been a week since I've posted?  I think that's my longest hiatus since I've been on LJ.  It's been one of those weeks, though.   Just so much going on that I hardly know where to start.
 

My stomach is rumbling so I will (mercifully) stop writing and go fix dinner, after which it's time to tackle a good-sized backlog of e-mails.  Thank goodness for the holiday weekend so I don't have to try to do them all at once!

I'm posting this to remind myself how well I'm doing with decluttering after slacking off for at least a couple of weekends.
 

Time to reward myself with baseball!  The Cardinals game starts in just a few minutes, and with both Julio and Albert in the lineup tonight I'll certainly be checking that out on MLB.tv.  The Red Sox are on MLBN a little later, so I'll be watching that as well.  Guess I'll burn some calories dashing back and forth between kitchen and bedroom.

I hope all of my buddies had an excellent Saturday.  Much love!

Hey all, what's going on?  I think I may have just missed a rainbow (although the sun retreated behind the clouds again), but couldn't get outside to check without putting mud boots on, so I decided to pass.  For probably the last 45 minutes we've had an impressive downpour that is just now letting up.  Now don't get me wrong, I love rain; however...my little house sits at the bottom of a sloped driveway, and when it rains this hard it takes no time at all before the water runs down from the street and overwhelms the drainage system that sits just outside my carport.  The result?  A couple of inches of standing water in the carport and for several feet beyond, and it takes awhile to drain after the rain stops, and it sometimes stays muddy for a couple of days.  Amazingly enough, in all the years I've lived here, the water has never come into the house, not even when we got walloped by back to back hurricane remnants in 2004.  I have that to be thankful for, but it does get inconvenient at times, especially if I really need to go somewhere when the carport is flooded.  I've developed a system of stretching out to open the cardoor and more or less leaping into the passenger seat and crawling over to the driver's seat, LOL.
 

That's about it from here.  And yes, I'm still catching up on comments.  Almost done, actually.  Hopefully later this evening.  I hate when I get behind on that, because I don't want my friends to think I'm ignoring them (I'm not...really).

Smooches to all!

ETA: And...we have rainbow!  It blossomed from barely there to bright -- not knock-your-eyes out bright, but a lovely full arc, with the faintest of doubles.  Wheeeee!!!!

I'm wearing the posting FAILHAT again, I know.  Considering that it was a semi-nonbaseball week for me with our boys out west, I did manage to do most everything on my list except post here!  So, in no particular order, here is an update:

 

Checking in at weekend's end while I listen to the deluge outside that is currently flooding my carport.  Judging by the radar, the rain should blow through in another hour or so, which is good.  In all the years I've lived here, the carport flooding has yet to spill into the house, but I don't relish the muddy shoes that I'll have tomorrow morning!
 

That's about it for now.  I think I'll celebrate my little bit of decluttering with some chocolate/peanut butter ice cream.  :D