i'm your handy man

Butcher and Baker, bibliodyssey

Sorry for the earworm, if you're old enough to even know the reference. If it's any consolation, I've got it too, and Sweet Baby James is far from one of my favorites. I'll agree that he has a nice, smooth tenor, but it's always been a little too smooth and slow for my tastes. One might even say lazy. And after reading some old scuttlebutt recently that he was a heroin addict and even worse, a sonofabitch to Carly Simon for so many years, well, I really can't stand him. I mean, who could be mean to Carly Simon? Really? But I digress.

Being a single gal and head of the household a girl has to learn a few things about how to fix things, or at least give it her best try. I have become a frequent fixture at Lowe's recently, my DIY destination of choice. I'm not sure why I head there first, as opposed to Home Depot. They are equidistant from our place. If you ask my brother it's like the Apple vs. PC thing. I'm an elitist at heart.

Anyway, I have a variety of projects either started or concluded at the moment. And that's apart from my part-time "real" job. But I am managing to fit it all in without losing it, so far. I found some grout under the sink and repaired some fallen tiles in my bathroom. I've been re-framing and hanging pictures all over the place. I've constructed a new TV cabinet. I've set up my wireless internet connection/hub. I put together two large beds that we moved from D.C. to here.  On the list of unfinished projects: I'm repainting the porch cane furniture ( and got new pillows for all of it) and reorganizing two large closets. I've unpacked over 100 boxes of our stuff. I've also thrown out bags and bags of trash and organized two pick-ups by the Salvation Army of things no longer useful here, or things we brought with us that we just can't use or need.

Candlestick Maker and Goldsmith, from bibliodyssey

As tired as I am at the end of the day I feel good about what I've accomplished so far and am eager to tackle some more. I've also got tons of ideas for my blog and for some other creative projects. Where is all of this energy coming from? Am I making up for years of inactivity? Some of it is definitely influenced by a feeling that I am racing against time. My daughter goes back to school in two weeks. My mom's memory fades and I want to get this place in shape for us all to enjoy together. My dear cousin died two months ago and I don't want to waste a moment I have on this earth. My birthday is coming up and that always gives me a kick in the pants.

But don't think that I'm all work and no play. I am able to write my own schedule these days, so these projects are all punctuated with a lunch out, a jaunt to a nearby fun spot, a dip in the pool or a shopping excursion. Like I said, I want us to enjoy each other. What else matters?

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war babies

My friend Jane's recent post on her blog Brigitte inspired me to think about what we save and what we toss.

I am still unpacking all of our stuff and finding myself in a similar quandary to Jane's cashmere sweater question. What to discard and what to save? Some things that I take out of our boxes seem fine—treasures I am glad I brought along with us—now I just need to find a place for them. Some, in the harsh light of day, seem too shabby or no longer have a use, at least not here. Why did I pack these? Oh right, at some point in my packing I reached the saturation point of making sorting and culling decisions and started to throw anything that wasn't nailed down into an empty box just to be done with it.  So, for these question-mark items I have built a pile for the Salvation Army. They will now make the decision of whether to keep or toss, without any of my emotional baggage.


As I look around for the proper place to put our stuff I'm also finding lots of things my mom has saved over the years—I come from a family where no one ever wanted to throw anything out. Everything is useful and interesting. This is a wonderful trait to inherit when it comes to old family photos and letters. Not as wonderful a personality quirk when it's cabinets full of old shopping bags. Or folders full of odd news clippings—all about art or travel or books—incredibly interesting—but beware if you start to sort through them, as you will get sucked in to reading fascinating decades-old torn-out articles from National Geographic or Smithsonian magazines, possibly for hours. But the question that keeps hovering is really, do we need to keep it all?  And if so, where?

Some would just label us as a family of pack-rats. They might be right. But I think this urge to keep things is also definitely influenced by my family's living through the "Great Wars." My grandmother was a young child in WW1, and raised her young child, my mom, during WW2. My mom told my brother and me stories when we were young of her helping in the war effort by collecting bits of tin foil and other items.

I would never want my daughter to have to live through a major war like my mother did as a child, but when I look at the drawers full of her plastic toys I wonder what it would be like to have only a handful of precious items rather than the modern abundance that surrounds us. But you can't live in or live like the past. My twenty-first century child needs to be a product of her own generation. I am going to try and continue to use this unpacking as an opportunity to review what we have and maybe reduce and recycle some un-needed items to folks who could use them. Call it nouveau-rationing.