Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

For the past couple weeks, I've been going through my stuff, throwing out things that are worthless or broken, setting aside items for a yard sale and boxing up items I want to keep, making daily runs to the new place to drop them off.

Some containers have been in storage in my basement since I first moved in four years ago. It was funny to discover some things I had to wonder why I'd kept, such as a tape recorder that, after I put batteries in it, didn't work anyway.

And there were a few items of clothing that just needed some repairs to make them suitable to donate, like an oversized jacket I used to wear in the 80's. Don't ask me why I kept it so long. Maybe I thought it would come back in style.

And of course, I ended up throwing out a lot of papers like old bills, receipts and such, some of which need shredding. But I'll have to get a new shredder first. I killed mine by shredding too much. To be fair, it did warn me that it could only shred five pieces of paper at a time. What a wimp.

My dog, Una, does not like this process. Or, to be more accurate, she only likes half of it. When I'm moving things around in my apartment, she follows me around with a big smile on her face, sniffing everything and licking them when she thinks I'm not looking.

She also occasionally tries on my clothing, but only for photos.

When I'm loading up the car the next morning for another run to the new place, she whines and complains. Still, I figure I might as well make use of this time before our big moving day, since we also have The Gryphon's apartment to move, as well as all our combined furniture. Everything I can get out of the way earlier will only make things easier. And with every bit that's done, I feel better about what's left to do.

Because of this process I made some discoveries. For example, I discovered that the reason one of the containers in the basement was so heavy was because it contained a stack of record albums, records I had lost track of. Now that I know they still exist, in the new apartment I'll have them on a shelf for easy access.

I made another interesting discovery. There was a shirt that the Luser used to wear that I hadn't given away because of a cigarette burn on the pocket. I figured I could use it for scrap cloth. Out of curiosity, I looked at the size and it said 15 1/2 x 34. I figured the chest size was 34, and I slipped my arms into it. It fit! This was a huge surprise, because when I was involved with the Luser, I always thought of him as being very small. He might be a bit small for a guy, but not as small as I used to think. It's funny how perspective can warp things.

The weather can't decide what it wants to be. Last night I turned the heat back on, and this morning it's nippy even when I'm wearing my spring jacket. None of this bothers Una, who trots along every morning with a smile on her face, as if the weather is perfect.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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