26 April, 2007

It's raining, it's pouring,

and if there was an old man around, he would probably be snoring!

The weather bureau says it's going to rain today, and tomorrow and then next day and the day after that - I heard someone say that it's supposed to rain for two weeks. I really really hope it does. Keep your fingers crossed for us, we desperately need it.

Yesterday was a public holiday here and I spent a lot of it being quite ruthless.

Unfortunately termites have shown up in our shed. We've had them in a side fence a few years back and so had the whole house done by the pest control people. Not sure if the shed was done but I'm presuming not. Anyway, they got into some boxes of old stuff I'd had stored and forgotten about. So I dragged them out and went through them to see what I could salvage and what needed to be tossed. A lot of it was paper, so not a great deal was salvageable. So I ended up tossing out a lot of letters I'd had stored for about 20 years. Some of them had stamps worth 33 cents on them! I reread a couple that were readable (there weren't a whole lot that were) and the memories came flooding back.

I ended up saving only a handful of things. A couple of photos, a bit of jewellery, an old Apple Portable brochure (J tells me there's a website that looks for that sort of Apple memorabilia), my notes from my radio course and my notes from when I was learning Japanese (don't remember much but I have a hankering to take it up again) and a couple of things that belong to an ex that I'll send off to him, one of these days.

I feel kind of strange throwing out some of the stuff. I've been married before and I had to toss a lot of cards and stuff from the wedding. I hadn't realised I even still had them, so it's not like I'll miss them, but it still feels odd to just toss them in the bin.

I keep way too much junk though. For some reason I still had a bunch of old pay slips from a job I had 20 years ago! Obviously I've just stuck them in a box and moved the box each time (I've moved quite a bit) and never opened it, done the needful, and tossed them out.

Next stop is to go through my clothes and toss out a heap. There's so much that is now too big and getting a new wardrobe, in the bedroom, is a great time to sort out clothes.

After that - painting the bedroom. Well, choosing colours at least. May need some suggestions soon!

6 comments:

Dogbait said...

The news tonight shows heaps of that strange stuff falling over your way. It looks like it's coming here tomorrow and hopefully you have left some for us.

Zazzy said...

Congratulations on the rain, I know how badly y'all have needed it. I hope it's a good sign that ends the drought.

On to throwing things out. I am always in two minds about this. There are things I have in storage that I will want again someday - but then I think if I've lived without them this long, perhaps I should just dump the whole thing. I have a tendency for hoarding that is countered only by moving. I hate moving and I am brutal (well, maybe not brutal but less wishy-washy) when it comes to getting rid of things I don't use. I'm afraid if I don't move every few years I will get buried in the things I "might use someday."

Oh great One said...

I'm a pack rat too. I tried to make a new start when we moved into our current home. I threw tons of stuff away! It felt weird but liberating at the same time. I had to shred lots of papers too. I found pay stubs from the mid nineties!

Yay rain!

The Phosgene Kid said...

what ever color you choose find one the repels termites.

You could toss your old clothes in the shed and let the termites get rid of them for you!

caramaena said...

db - should be on the way to you. It rained pretty much non-stop for a day and a half. It looks cloudy and gloomy out there now but it has actually stopped raining.

zazzy - I used moving as my excuse to toss stuff but obviously I've missed several boxes! There are other boxes around I'm sure - I really need to get in and check.

oh great one - heh, right there with you. Goodness knows why I kept my pay slips from that long ago.

phos - lol!

Stomper Girl said...

Can I book you in to come and do my stuff next! I think you'd understand me, I keep old payslips too...

..somewhere..

under all the piles of crap in the backroom...


Sigh.