NO MORE PETS

Date:11/08/2007 06:34

Dennis and I started in early today and cleaned off the front porch. It
filled the pickup. It was junk. Dennis and Sean hauled that load to the
dump.

Meanwhile . . .

Another 'room' reclaimed today!

The little hallway from the kitchen to the living room - I know; sounds
small, doesn't it? It took all day of continuous work - sorting,
hauling, and one small 'Mom-frontation' when she wanted to look at what
I was putting into the boxes. Nope, not going there . . . and Dad
supported me. "Daphne knows what she's doing, that stuff's not
important."

Meals on Wheels delivered Dad and Mom's second lunch, and the fresh
strawberries were a big hit with both of them. Dad's shingles are
driving him crazy, but he doesn't complain out loud. I heard him
calling the doctor to get some more prescription meds for it.

By lunchtime, I'd cleared out an entire bookshelf (taller than Dad) in
the hall. Dad and I moved it into the bedroom, and moved OUT the wine
boxes that the the videos had been in. We moved out at least 6 wine
boxes and a small cabinet from the bedroom. Later in the day, Dad
cleaned a shelf of magazines so that we could move Mom's poetry from
the hall to the bedroom.

Midday, Rebecca helped me clear off another shelf unit in the hall. (I
had Dad clear off that shelf in the bedroom (of magazines) so that we
could move Mom's poetry from the shelf in the hall to the bedroom.)
Rebecca hauled bags of garbage and donations from ANOTHER set of
drawers in the hall. (I plan to remove that tomorrow, so we can use
that alcove to store the wheelchair.) Then, we cleaned off ANOTHER
shelf unit, and Rebecca hauled that out, too. I asked her if she knew
what 'irony' meant. She wasn't sure. I asked her if she had heard the
term 'ironic'. Yes. Then I handed her several books off the shelf we
were cleaning: Get Rid of Clutter, Organize Your Closet, etc. She is
such a sweet kid, she said, "Well, at least they had good intentions."
She cracked me up later, however, when we pulled a few boxes out of the
living room that were already packed. She pointed to the stacks and
said something like, "Well, half of the work is done with those..."

Meanwhile, Dotty was busy getting rid of dead plants and replanting the
LIVE plants and organizing the plant buckets in front of the wheelchair
ramp.

Rene 'helped' by carrying various leaves to the truck. Rene also spent
some time laying in bed with Gramma, offering quite a bit of emotional
comfort. Late in the day, we took a walk to the front porch to admire
its emptiness, and she picked up a cat poop scoop to use as a dustpan.
I had her put THAT back in the box, so she grabbed the broom. Good
little sweeper, she about swept me off the porch.

Rachael was a big help with picking up trash in the living room, then
dusting anything and everything in sight.

Rebecca and I found one nonusable phone, then located the 'real' phone
and put it back into the kitchen/laundry area.

Meanwhile, Dennis was busy out in the yard removing the filbert tree,
maple tree, a 'spirit tree', and he's starting on the bamboo. The
pickup is loaded with yard debris to take to the dump in the morning.

By the time we all called it a day, Dotty's van was loaded with
donations for the library and the second hand store, along with two of
the MANY cats that live at 403/405 SE 15th. They are going to a special
place for cats . . . .

A summons for jury duty showed up for Mom today. I called, was on hold
for 12 minutes, then finally got her excused. (forever)

The sidewalk area is full of things to take to ARC, a load of garbage,
and boxes of books to get rid of tomorrow. Grampa is hoping Donny will
be able to take him to Powell's this weekend to resell some of his
rarer books.

The saddest part of the day was when Dennis and Sean discovered that
the cats had used the front door (no longer an entrance) as a cat box
area for who knows how long. They had to shovel out the litter, feces,
and then cut out the carpet. No doubt we are all in agreement: NO MORE
PETS.

Mom and Dad are set for food: Dotty brought the weekend meals for them
and for Steffan.

We will be back at it tomorrow, Dotty and Forrest will be with us
tomorrow, too.

Please call or talk to Dad or Mom when you can over the next couple of
days. It's a good diversion for both of them.

I've probably forgotten many important parts of today, but at least
it's a snapshot of progress.

Love,
Daphne