January 3, 2009
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It really would have been nice had Don ever cleaned out stuff. Just once, maybe? Hmmmm?
I've been going through the boxes and bags he'd hauled home last July and dumped in the dining room.
Discovered from his brother, Richard, a couple of days ago that he (Don) had called him (Richard) months ago to inquire about storing this stuff in the latter's storage shed. Richard said fine, come on ahead, only Don never did.
Either too busy getting set up with Terra, I suppose, then later being too tired due to the undiscovered-at-the-time cancer.
Whatever, it's still here, and a more motley collection I've yet to see. There's quite a bit of stuff I'd have loved to have had for his memorial service, plus some photos I suppose he had in one of his offices (including a darling one of Bethany and Brianna in their first Halloween outfits, taken at Picture People). More computer mice than you can shake a stick at. The name tags from various shows and conferences he attended. I've found stuff dating back to 1986, for pity's sake!
Quantities of pens that no longer work, dried-out markers, mouse pads, coffee mugs with businesses' names on them, vendor-provided flash drives and calculators, plus various computer bits and pieces (including the jolly cool DigiTab or whatever it was thing I gave him for Christmas a couple of years ago that allowed one to write on a pad then have it digitized and sent to a computer).
And he was going to haul the whole kit and kaboodle - dried markers and all - over to Richard's storage shed.
It creates a massive turmoil of emotion as I vacilate between tears and, quite frankly, irritation.
It's going to take me ages to clear through all his stuff. Ages!
Comments (9)
The oddest thing so far has to be this unopened box of Cracker Jack (a gift from Integrated Network Corporation of Bridgewater, New Jersey, based upon the label affixed to it), found in a box with receipts, etc. dating to 1985.
From employer to employer he hauled a box of old Cracker Jack. :rollingeyes:
Uh oh, I've got a son like that. The good thing is that you have little emotional attachment to the stuff and can Ebay it, Goodwill it, or simply junk it. Your reward? Lots of new space for the wanted stuff, and fewer dust bunnies and Heaven Knows What Else That Might Be....ALIVE!!!
I love cleaning out stuff. I did it for my mother when my dad was gone, and some of hs books were worth thousands. Paid the rent on her condo for a couple of months until she sorted her life out enough to decide to move here. Then after she was gone I gave my brothers the run of the storage shed where I'd put her stuff from her apartment, and auctioned off the rest. That was a little harder, since it involved furniture, but we did give away a bunch of that to folks who needed it. Still have some of the better antiques.
I fear this isn't that sort of stuff, Eleanor. :hmmmmm:
Unless you really think there's a big market for gimme caps with telephony industry names on them, vendor-labeled mugs, playing cards (found about half a dozen packs), etc.
The stuff I've found of interest is purely sentimental, such as two photos I've never seen before: one of him with "the gang" at NEC, and one of the two of us, I'm thinking in Hawaii but I'm not sure. Will scan them in a little while.
I wish I could come and help you organize it all. We'd eat chocolate and laugh at those silly marker. We could make a silly wall collage with the "best" of the worst. The rest of it we'd burn in a large backyard fire if I did not fear the chemicals from the plastic would give us cancer too. Ask someone you laugh with to help you. I truly do wish I could be there. We'd have it done in less than a week.
Oh I forgot..............I love you Ann. You are a dear, dear sister.
Don seems to have graduated summa cum laude from The School of Never Throw Anything Away. I've known people like that and have always wondered - do they do it because it gives them comfort to have lots of stuff around them, or do they just hate going through things?
Lois, it probably depends. I have a friend like that, who just moved all her junk from one house to another without doing more than a small amount of downsizing, and NOW has decided she needs to go through it and organize it so that her new house has some order to it.
Only she needs help from friends, because she Just Can't Do It herself. She knows on a rational level that some of the stuff has to go, but she just really, really hates to part with stuff. I'm pretty sure that when someone is there to say to her, "You don't use this. This needs to go" she won't fight them on it, but she can't make those decisions herself.
And this is a highly intelligent, well put together Christian woman. It's just one of her weaknesses.
Oh, and I wanted to make the point that in her case, she doesn't really like "having lots of stuff" around. She longs for that uncluttered, organized existence, but for her to go through stuff is like climbing a mountain.
OTOH, I'm thinking there are people who do find security in the idea that there's stuff around, "in case I need it" or just because they like stuff. So I think it depends on the person.
kudos to you for going through all this. You are in my thoughts.
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