Garden Time

I've lost track of how many days I've been hanging out back here. 8 maybe?

I've filled 9 - 33 gallon bags in total ( I think)

Thank goodness tomorrow is extra pick up garbage day. 

I have no room in garage as it is filled with totes

 and boxes full of purged items for garage sale.

Hannah and maybe? others coming in early May to help.

Last sale was 2019! 

I've been sidetracked with painting and garden and need to get back to it. 

I'm hoping to at least purge 25% more of what I've already done.

Gotta set those goals.

Tomorrow I install another fountain with new pump,

(old one gave me a good shock yesterday!)

and finish planting a few veggies.

Not doing many this year.

They weren't huge success last year.

Pain patches on knees- Aleve - 

lots of breaks are helping.

I've noticed a huge difference in my abilities,

just since last year. Not sure I'm aging at 

the equivalent of only 1 year at a time;

sure doesn't feel like it some days.

Gotta love this weather - for now

the dark days are a comin'

Z

 

Toyland

I bet you remember these, or your kids do.

This is probably the last I'll see any like them

as a gal coming by today to purchase.

The other sets already sold the day of the sale.

I am amazed at how well my kids 

took care of their things and then I've

 had them safely boxed up for nearly 25 years.

These were great toys

where kids used their imaginations

and happily played for hours.

Not following the flashing lights

or shooting at things.

Don't get me started..

I had hoped to pass on to grandkids

someday but the kids say to let them go,

so I do.

It is difficult.

The Worst Is Over

...and we all survived.

It nearly took a village to get

through it all but it's now in the past and

I'm moving forward.

We shot these quickly for the ad before 

we had all the furniture out on the front yard. 

Obviously so much more as we nearly hit the $3,000 mark.

We may hit it as just now a gal 

wrote from the craigs list and may come

for FP toys.

We had a preview for invited guests Friday 

night as usual and then decided to put up a couple

signs by the entrance and we nabbed a few more shoppers.

Tidied up a bit, closed the door and tried to sleep

and raised the garage door at 6:30 to waiting folks.

Hauled out everything stacked in 

the back yard and living room

and fired the starter pistol.

By 3 we were winding down

 and kids convinced me to

 do 8-10 Sunday morning, something I never do. 

Slashed prices and Hannah bless her heart went back out

and modified signs.

Glad I did as we were able to give some children

2 train sets that had them beaming.

Meanwhile, through it all Howie 

was vomiting his medicine off and on for three days 

and also the stress of all the people and cousin dog Tubs.

AND Hannah had her HS reunion squeezed in there,

along with renting a truck to 

take some furniture back to CA. 

My daughter to be, and daughter were doing dishes

 non stop and cleaning up. Ben was feeding us

 and doing some home repair for me.

It really was a 3 day frenzy.

Many friends stopped by to say hello

and shop and ask "where are you going?"

My love and gratitude to my three blessings

DD and DS and DD2 for 

always being there for me.

To Annie, Sue and Pam :

Could not have managed without you.

Thank you so very much.

I have some vintage toys left including both 

American Girl Dolls and one overstuffed chair.

Two carloads full to the roof to donation.

One carload to the roof to library.

(took them three trips to get into library with huge cart).

DD2 cooked some lean burger and rice for Howie

and he has not vomited since, and this will

be a lifesaver if it helps him recover

from this infection.

Whew! right?

Now phase two. 

Is there any way I can stay in house? 

Move to Ca? When to sell? How to sell?

Where to rent? What can I afford?

and what the hell is wrong with my health?

Today is more sleep and slowly putting

garage back together and then I am going

 to sew and craft for days and days.

Ben will now have time to get 

my beautiful new website tweaked so that I can sell

again and it's a brave new world..

If we survive the election.

I love the folks who populate my world

including all of you.

Those I've emailed with for a decade and those

who just follow along unknown to me.

Blogging has been a gift.

Thank you for sharing your lives with me.

 I wish I could have you all over for lunch.

With much love

Z

Our Children Are Our Future

I mentioned a few posts back

that the kids were very busy and doing fine.

A little brag fest for my journal:

 Thursday night Hannah and her friend 

Zach flew up to Portland 

for the 48 hour film project festival.

They had entered their short film in the project 

and had made it to

the final round.

Bare bones explanation:

It is what it sounds like

You and your team have 48 non stop hours

 to make a short film start to finish.

This is the text I got from her

piece by piece

Mom-Having fun ?

Hannah:

So far so good. Won best actor and actress.

Best cinematography too for a tie 

Best production design 

Best writing 

Best editing 

Best direction 

BEST ^%$#ING FILM 

Now the film enters International in Amsterdam next year.

Ben

 has been working 

on Chasing the Cure the new TNT series

with Ann Curry.

If you know anything about the show

 it is indeed very ironic,

as I am still "diagnosis free" so to speak.

Helene, Ben's fiancee

 is working countless

hours on the homeless and housing issues 

in LA which are in crisis, as they are

in many major cities.

 Tom

works a full time day job and

 most nights and weekends

is either in rehearsal or in a current play

with The Actor's Gang, Tim Robbins group

in Culver City. 

They are very busy, productive and happy.

I am so proud of these four young folk.

They bode well for our future.

Only a couple weeks till I see three of them

coming to help with sale.

Tom has a play, so we'll miss him.

The sale has taken on nightmarish

proportions. If I remember, I will try 

to get a snap of the roll out before we open.

Aren't we all incredibly proud 

of all these young people taking a stand 

today for climate change.

Dear heaven, if the "powers" would only listen..

Pretty weekend to you all. 

Z

Granddog And Friend

Darling daughter has been dog sitting 

for a neighbor.

(David the grand-dog on the left)

Yep, another Husky.

I think Hannah would take in

 a thousand huskies if she could.

Seems every time we speak

she is on a dog walk.

Oh, she also walks Tubs, my other grand,

after she leaves work 

as Tub's Mom and Dad work later.

Remember this shot?

All kinds of great things have been

 happening work wise for the fabulous 

CA four. I am so proud of all of them.

I also miss them. 

Sometimes, 

more than I can stand.

Once this medical mess is over 

or at least has progressed, 

I will be driving straight away to CA to 

hang with my favorite folks.

Meanwhile there is a towering stack

 of bins and boxes all labeled for a sale,

that are waiting in the garage for either 

cooler weather, or help, or both.

Plan to binge the first couple o' Handmaids Tale

tonight or tomorrow.

I'm saving up as there is now a drought in 

my viewing arsenal.

GoT gone

Killing Eve 

Gentlemen Jack

Russian Doll

Barry

Call The Midwife

Walking Dead

(all off for now)

There is Big Little Lies

I enjoy, but not the same passion.

I've avoided Netflix so I'll have some new 

ones for the summer.

I play silly games like that with myself.

I've been rereading in order, all the Robert B Parkers,

for the third time;

but at half my usual speed, not wanting them

 to end all over again. I will get the Spenser series continued

by Ace Atkins from the library,

 as I do not own them.

I think I may change my mind and buy them

after all. 

We're off to a hot summer already.

I am stressed about the overgrowth in the yard

and I will try to hire help this week.

Wish you were all closer.

There's some nice stuff stacked up for sale,

and I'd love for it to find good homes. 

Yeah I know, silly. 

and

I miss you Dad

every day.

Z

and So It Goes

Several weeks ago I tried to sell 

two of these milk cans I have, 

but I got no takers.

Bored one evening I decided I would take

 some leftover florals,

pretty it up a bit and sit it by the front door 

until my next sale when I will sell it as it is now.

Leftovers are always better. 

So two runs back to Urgent Care and I am 

still not great.

See the cardiologist today.

I'm not a huge fan of this guy.

We'll see if he stops typing long enough to 

learn what I look like. 

Back on O/2 full time - depressing.

CT scan of sinus throat etc next week.

I am sick of all of it as

I'm sure you're sick of hearing.

This is the only journal I keep 

so I keep dating everything

 in case I need it some day.

I did see a wonderful Dr in Urgent care

 but of course he does not have a private practice.

Damn!

He really listened and gave me some good 

tips on fighting this.

Annie and I doing another sale probably in early May.

Hannah, maybe Ben, will be in to help

their poor decrepit mama.

My new name 

I was so hoping to go down there this month.

Patience is not my strong suit. 

These made me laugh

Been bingeing: How about you?

Russian Doll

After Life

Turn up Charlie

Working Moms

Seems the only thing I catch on tv anymore is 

Walking Dead - John Oliver and Bill Maher 

(  my kids now hate Maher)

and oddly enough North Woods Law (no idea why?)

Holding my breath for Game of Thrones

 and Killing Eve 

... and because I've been too ill to make it to library

I am rereading my entire collection of Robert B Parker

The Spencer series

Makes me so happy. 

Even though I am downsizing I am determined to buy 

as many of his as I can in hard cover, as I have 

so many in paper back.

My other wish is to get all the Louise Penny

in hard cover some day, but even paper back would 

be good as I have read all of them through the library.

When you love you love

 and I have been such a good girl

purging everything else.

and so it goes

Z

The Three Amigos and The Sale

Howie David Tubs

How cute are they, and everyone behaved

 for the most part. The exception being for 20 scary minutes

on Sunday when Tubs hid from me

 and I was in a total panic I had lost 

Helene's dog while they were all out to breakfast.

I had just met my son's sweetheart for the 

first time 2 days prior!

She told me "he's a manipulative asshat"when I met Tubs,

 and I said "no he's adorable." 

Helene said "just wait..."

She was right.

Yeah, he can be a bit of a dick, but oh, he's also 

super smart and adorable.

We'll say mischievous instead of devious,

even though he almost gave me a heart attack.

SO

Friday night we had previews and set it up

as it would be for the Saturday sale 

all dragged out into the driveway

and the garage full.

Under the 7 tables were boxes and bins full.

Invited girls came and treasure hunted and visited.

When the pre-sale ended,

everything had to come back

into the garage, with all the tables and all the boxes 

tucked underneath.

It looked

like this

THEN

My pal Sue was headed home 

and couldn't find her purse.

It was somewhere in or under here.

We called and called it and searched inside house,

her car ...NOPE!

20 minutes- 30 minutes...

So I dropped to the floor and crawled under 

and Viola! Got it- but then couldn't get out.

The kids had horrible allergy reactions

to the horrible pollen and wind, and felt sick.

I was overwhelmed and needed O/2.

Annie broke a tooth. 

BUT

 Wonderful gals I hadn't seen in ages came by, 

lots of hugs and happy tears.

I behaved myself and barely insulted anyone.

My kids once again let me know

I am loved and appreciated.

A local gal who reads my blog,

saw our Craig's list ad, and figured out

with all the white, it must be my sale

and came by to say hello.

What a nice surprise. <3 

I hope she gets in touch again via email.

We all fell in love with a sweet gal named Nicole,

who came twice on Saturday and brought

her bestie to meet us. 

We are thrilled our things have found good homes

in their homes.

We love you Nicole and Jessica <3

About that Craigs List ad, I asked Ben to do it for me

as I was uber busy Friday.

I said in passing, 

"get a shot of the nice corner display if you can."

He did this, and a poem

See poem at bottom

and lots more photos

(Sue still has the Sew Be It Dolls if any of you collect...)

I am convinced his great google phone photos

 were why we did so well. 

Then after:

One huge oversized truck load,

one SUV load to donations.

We walked the walk ladies.

You gals struggling with this issue,

pull up the big girl panties 

and let it go.

I kept one bag of vintage silverware,

and 2 bowls I occasionally used 

but felt I no longer "needed."

Everything else went bye bye,

good riddance.

It feels sooooo good.

I love my kids and those they love

I love my friends

I love my three amigos

I love that this nearly 5 month 

saga of the sale is flippin' OVER,

and a couple thou in the pocket doesn't hurt either.

Don't you just love the 

exhausting day after?

Thanks to all of you who still listen

and still offer me love and encouragement.

The Craigs List Poem

Meet the three women--not one over the hill

Whose houses were bursting. Stuffed to the gills!

So they pooled their belongings and grabbed what they got

And when piled together it was quite a lot!

There was furniture, quilts, and dinnerware too

Craft supplies, scrapbooks, buttons, and glue

Incredible vintage pieces a century old

Luggage and linens and holiday ornaments gold

A plate rack, a wood screen, and a huge chest of drawers

A nearly-new Eufy Robovac--for super-clean floors

There were dressers and tables all shabby chic

A brand spanking new Amazon Tap--if you're a bit of a geek

Paper punches, mannequins, and a couple bar carts

And a hundred more things from these sassy old... ladies

So if you like crafting or vintage and antiques galore,

Come see this sale and see what's in store!

still here 

still kickin'

Z

Pretty - It Ain't Pretty

My pineapple guava in bloom for the first time 

after it's planting last Spring.

My bay laurel tree ( where bay leaves come from)

Peeking in from the right

Pretty

*******************

Ain't Pretty

*******************

Organized chaos 

Tomorrow we set up for preview

to invited guests

with the sale then on Saturday.

Of course the heat has arrived and the wind -

Of course!

This is only about 1/2 of the sale stuff

Furniture and two racks of clothing not pictured.

Not all mine - 2 gals joining in and now I hear

the kids are bringing sale stuff in their cars lol

Long day Friday, 

but we'll get 'er done.

Kids will be here by late tonight.

We hit the ground running early in the morning.

I have promised myself that no matter what,

anything of mine left over is to be donated.

Period

Even if I have to go inside while the kids fill the SUV 

so I cannot see what is going. Even if it takes several trips.

I am in love with empty drawers and closets,

the clean spaces under the beds, and shelf after shelf 

empty in the garage.

I am getting an inkling that this may cause

a rebirth of creativity for me as I feel that

finally all the flotsam and jetsam is gone.

I have been dreaming of paint and canvas 

and quilting. Yes! After all this time.

Whew!

Breath of fresh air,

and lord knows I need air.

At The Market

Went to my Smiths yesterday

and as I walked by the magazine section noticed

 Flea Market Decor, and so feeling silly, 

I stopped, opened to 

one of the pages of my house and snapped this. 

Couldn't tell you why?

I just did.

Shortly after I ran into a father and son

searching for hot dog sauce.

The son taunted the dad saying "you're making that up!"

Standing next to them I nodded to the kid and said

"I think he is pulling your leg."

An extended conversation ensued and 

a prolonged hunt for the sauce, since my Smiths 

recently remodeled and no one can find a damn thing.

Lo and behold

Wolf Hot Dog Sauce!

It's a no beans chili sauce.

Since he had been kind enough to introduce

me to hot dog sauce I showed him my favorite

Private Selection basil aioli sauce.

I use it on grilled sausage with grilled pepper

sandwiches. Heaven

So we each bought the others sauce and 

ended up leaning on our carts and talking the Steelers.

I love those kind of interactions.

Gives me hope that all is not lost.

Though you wouldn't know it by the nightmare 

in Washington

Going out to the market is the extent

of my social life most weeks.

This week I added

three full car runs to a donation center and 

dropped off over 50 books to the library for their 

fund raising. I use this library weekly,

 to the tune of about 12 novels so 

I want to give back.

When I go to the reserve shelves, often  

I am the entire shelf.

The shelvers know my name

"NORM!"

I had accumulated a massive tower of  stuffed bins

and boxes in the garage for a future sale in cooler weather

but I just could not stand it, and out nearly all of it went.

Sorry Annie, no garage sale likely.

Hibernation begets even more intense purging.

Although to walk through the house it appears the same,

it's the guts that have changed.

Empty closets, drawers, hallway shelves and cabinets.

Empty shelves in the garage.

Everything stored is either holiday or storage 

from childhood for kids and not much of that either.

I emailed my list of gal pals and 

they came and bought scads also. Thanks Ladies.

I may never get my wee house I covet or 

even get to move to CA but I can do what I can

to simplify and lessen my footprint.

Wish I had never made such a big footprint to

begin with. Ah but we learn...

I've learned I like 

Hot Dog Sauce

A lot

Z