Remember When?

I could stand and look out a window or doorway alone? My constant companion. We've had Riley for one full year now and the little guy I picked out as "my" puppy is now 75 pounds of gorgeous muscle and legs. Riley sleeps in our bedroom these days and groans and sighs during the night. He is quite entertaining. And he barks now. Protects us from anyone opening doors or driving into the yard. A nice, deep bark. Beware.

Remember when I promised to rid myself of 50% of my stuff. Still working on that. I took my white linen shirts to the resale shop and brought them back home when no large sized customer came to buy them. The shirts are in a bag. (2X if you want to trade for them) I have only six larger than I should be wearing white tees on the floor of the closet. I have an idea to make new tees out of the old tees by cutting and sewing. Generation X. I sewed new side seams in all the sweatshirts so they fit now. All the jeans and all but three pair of size 20 cords are gone. I have just enough undies to get from one wash load to the next. Still too many socks. All the big sweaters are gone.

I haven't done as well with domestic stuff. It's all still here. I expressed a wish for street front (traffic) property so I could stack things by the road with a "free" sign. Stuff that's broken or goofy or just plain junk. Not stuff you actually feel good about taking to Goodwill. I could stack stuff out by my mailbox and it would still be there come winter. No traffic. I HAVE stopped at other people's piles and brought home plastic house shutters. Nice ones. And a new bucket for my fertilizer. Perhaps I should leave something of mine when I pick up something of theirs? But the sign says "free" not "exchange".

I also have a new, 4 foot tall bag of donated fabric. Not quilting cottons. Strange stuff. Shiny. Napped. Woven. Lacy. I dig around in the bag when I need something and darned if I don't always find it. It's like a "magic" bag of junk. I'm not sure what all is in the bag. If I sorted it, the magic would be lost. Yesterday I found a rectangle of black velvet for a project in the bag. I may bleach discharge the section I cut off. See what happens.

I shopped at the "other" grocery in town and now remember why I don't go there. But I got the $3.99 watermelon and the $1.99 tomatoes. I also got a big can of non dairy creamer for $5.79 and 6 packages of Knorr Roasted Turkey Gravy Mix. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. And I bought coffee filters.

I also remember I was supposed to be moving my studio up into the guest bedroom suite upstairs. We never have guests so having a large empty bedroom and full bath up there unused is pretty ridiculous especially with skylights and good light. There's plenty of room in the space I'm using now for twin beds loaded with the 30's quilts I've been collecting. I think I remember saying I would be selling them.

We finally got our "tax incentive" check from the government. They subtracted the penalty the IRS charged because we didn't have as much withholding as they would like us to have. I had already sent a check for that. Now they have twice the penalty. Think they will refund it? Ha! We're spending the tax incentive on heating oil.

Our daughter Slambo is buying a new car today. A Honda FIT. She did it all by herself and we are very proud of her. I'm sure her blog will tell the whole story later today or tomorrow. I remember how I had to go along when she bought her first Honda. That was 127,000 miles ago.