The Great Purge - Day 3
It was another long day today. I’m just about finished with the laundry room and there’s a little left under the stairs. I’d say we’re about 95% done with purging the crap in the basement. There are still some cabinets that need to be sorted through. We still have to haul out the rest of the stuff to the garage and then I have to do a deep clean. I think Jeff is holding out on moving some of the stuff because it’s heavy, garbage day isn’t until Tuesday because of the holiday and the garage is full. Yes, full. The trash men are going to fling refuse at our home in retaliation for depositing more garbage than the rest of the block combined.
There was some water that leaked into the basement and we had the pleasure of investigating that little event this afternoon. We pulled up a bunch of floor tiles where it was still wet so that we could get things to dry out properly. The neighbor told my mom that the water just cascades off her roof like a waterfall so Jeff went up to take a look in the gutters. Apparently they haven’t been cleaned out in at least five years. Yep. My brother cleaned them out once and that was about five years after my dad died. As a result the gutters probably need to be replaced since the weight of the sludge and whatnot caused them to pull away from the house a bit. I can’t tell by looking at it but Jeff was up there most of the afternoon cleaning them out so I’ll take his word for it. It was really hot today and by the time he was done, he was covered in the muck that had taken up residence. We got a really heavy rainfall this evening so we’ll see if it passed the test and helped keep the water from entering the basement. Another problem is that the grade dips and the grass is pretty much dead so there’s nothing to absorb the run off. Fun!
My brother was actually there before we were and finally got his things out. Well, sort of. There’s still this huge Bow-Flex machine (if you knew my brother you’d laugh and laugh about that) that he says the UPS guy was interested in but I’m not exactly going to chase down the UPS man to see if he’ll pay my brother money for something that’s taking up space for free where he lived for free off his mother for years. Oh, wait, he paid the utilities he used in bulk — what a guy. He also has posters he claims he’s going to sell but how much would anyone like to bet they stay there until I give him a couple days to remove them or else I toss them? And the stuff he didn’t want? He just left for us to throw out. It’s not like he could have hauled the stuff up himself or anything. I mean, why when he can just have everyone else do his work for him?
Tomorrow we start on the upstairs. This will go much slower because my mom will be there and she will be fighting her every urge not to hold on to everything. She can’t throw anything away and that just isn’t going to work. We have to clean out the kids’ rooms, get the carpets cleaned and ideally I’d even like to paint them. That may have to wait until spring though. We’ll see what happens.
It’s bad enough that I’m feeling sad about moving in the first place when I sit around here by myself. I’m finding myself near tears because of the way things are turning out. It’s even worse when I’m at my mom’s cleaning and I find things here and there of my dad’s. We had a complicated relationship to say the least. I’m not up to talking about it today but no matter what, he was still my father. I found one of his sweaters and I put it aside. I’m not sure why. It’s not as if I get the urge to hug it. I guess it’s just because it’s one of those last things I have outside of some snapshots that is sort of a connection. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since I’ve visited his grave. It’s been years and I don’t think I’ve ever visited since the kids were born. That probably sounds awful but it’s only in times like these that I think about him. Like I said — complicated.
Well, more tomorrow I guess. I just need to get some sleep and try not to let myself get upset.
