That's because I had to clean the garage.
I know that doesn't sound like a particularly compelling reason to not blog, but our garage was an embarrassment, a horror of sorts and an eyesore.
Two years of not cleaning a garage creates a turning point. Instead of cars it starts to house things like an old washing machine that's lost its bearings (for real), a dryer that screams (for real) but does not dry, a busted dorm fridge, broken garden tools, cracked snow shovels, summer tires for a vehicle we haven't owned in years, dead birds (pretend you didn't see that), dry, cracked pieces of horse tack, a lawn tractor that hasn't run in two decades, a small generator that doesn't work, pitchforks with missing tines, mallets with ill-fitting, flying heads (eek!), a tent with a hole chewed in it by a puppy who grew into a dog who's now been dead for over a year, empty containers, hundreds of plastic plant pots, dozens of old rotting shoes and boots and over one hundred dollars worth of empties. That's two thousand empty cans and bottles.
We started Friday, cleaning the two bays where the cars go. My husband and I both wear pedometers and I registered 18,000 steps on mine. His registered 20,000 steps. We sorted, culled, cobwebbed, swept, shopvacked and went on a "bottle return date." We donned latex gloves ("snap" "snap") and prayed we would not develop repetitive motion injuries - bend, grab, put bottle or can in "bar code tunnel", repeat. Over and over. The machines got sick of reading bar codes, they filled up, they overheated. We went from store to store, finishing at Geissler's in Granby where we met the nicest kid who told us about financing his school D.C. trip with $800 worth of cans and bottles. He had to come out and help us twice. The guy at Stop and Shop had to help us three times. We came home with $68. I sorted the rest of the cans and bottles for the couple that raises money for our church's cleft palate repair ministry down in South America somewhere.
| Who needs gold and silver when you have a couple thousand of these lying around? Just make sure there's enough air in the bottles so the machines can read the bar codes. |
Saturday we emptied out the "tack area" of the garage ... the place where our daughters keep all their horse stuff. More sorting, culling, cobwebbing, sweeping and shopvacking. No bottles, though.
Even though the whole garage thing only took a couple of days, it's been hanging over our heads for months. It's a beautiful post and beam building that should be an organized place, serving the purpose of housing cars and outdoor supplies for lawn and garden. And horse stuff, since those rather large mammals live exclusively out of doors (although both girls, on occasion, have tried to get at least the front feet of their horses into the mudroom.)
It really is a nice feeling to know that I know where everything is, especially with winter setting in. Shovels. Rock salt. Sand. The generator that works. The snow rake. Sleds. And when spring comes, all the gardening stuff has been sorted and stored for easy access. As soon as the peonies bend a little, I'll have those nifty peony supports up and doing their job in a flash! My gardening box is all set, all the tools gathered up and tucked away for the spring. The tomato stakes are in a bundle and tied, along with the rolls of landscaping fabric and netting. Uncle Elmer's one hundred year old French hoe is up on the wall, along with all the other long-handled garden tools.
And I can write. It's like something that was holding me back has been cleared away. Lovely feeling, I must say!
Best of luck with NaNoWri(almost)Mo. I know you can do it even with a few days shaved off!
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