The Big Guns

 

9/6/24 

Up until now, most of my downsizing/dejunking efforts have been about filling boxes and bags with excess stuff and hauling them to Goodwill myself (and rewarding myself afterwards, of course). Now I’m pulling out the big guns.

Unlike many junk-hauling services that simply take everything to the landfill dump, Kevin at We Take Junk sorts the haul and distributes it appropriately and responsibly. For example, useable building materials and tools are donated to charities, working items that can be sold are taken to thrift stores, dead electronics are taken where they need to go, paints and chemicals are disposed of safely, etc. Until I learned of his service, I was stymied and overwhelmed by the 40 years of junk in our basement that was difficult to get rid of. What a relief!

I also emptied our livingroom of the very old, worn couch and two matching chairs – all the decades-old seating that rarely got used. (The couch’s primary purpose was a place to sort and fold laundry.) Yes, I was hoping there would be a moment when my couch would rest on the sidewalk so that I could sketch it (and I was poised for it), but alas, it went directly into the truck, and surprisingly quickly. Watching from the front porch, I was able to at least snap a photo of the loading so that I could make this diary comics page later (above). Buh-bye, old couch. (By the way, Kevin isn’t done. He’ll be back next week to clear the rest of the basement, so I might have another chance for a live sketch.)

The next piece of action is to rip out old carpeting in our former “TV/reading room” and replace the flooring with composite hardwood. The first step, though, is to clear the room. When my neighbors helped me move the TV to the livingroom, all the wiring for our “surround sound” audio system was revealed (below). Although I am indifferent, high-quality audio for our TV and music has always been important to Greg. He spent a lot of time wiring that room for sound, which we enjoyed for many years. I’m fine with the basic audio that comes with the TV, so I will not have the fancy sound system duplicated in the livingroom. But disassembling his work all those years ago made me realize how much I had taken it for granted.

9/7/24

My reward for all that? A Top Pot doughnut on a beautiful afternoon (below). In the middle of it all, wearing matching team shirts, a bunch of fourth graders suddenly and noisily appeared in the outdoor seating area that I previously had to myself. I wanted to sketch some of the kids, but it was more fun eavesdropping and recording some of their conversations.

9/10/24 (For the record, I was afraid the doughnut would be overkill, but it wasn't! The pumpkin doughnut wasn't too sweet, and the chocolate balanced the pumpkin spice.)