Spring Cleaning Part 1

My spring cleaning actually started back in February, when I sifted through my closets and emptied out the last of my "professional" clothes, plus a number of other items from my better-off days when I thought I would sooner or later get a social life.  A carload or so to Goodwill later, and I finally have some closet space and extra hangers. And mental space to move forward. Include in the pile was an old, old coat. 45 years old to be exact. A Saks 5th Avenue coat that was a Christmas gift from my mother. A gift, that is, until I tried it on and gushed my thanks, at which point her face turned dark and angry, and she ordered me to take it off and give it back to her. Yes, my mother gave me a needed coat -- my only other coat was a corduroy jacket that I'd outgrown years before and was near totally useless against 20 below winters (40 below including wind chill) in upstate New York where I was attending college to get her degree. And then when she saw how happy it made me, she demanded that I give it back. She and my father fought loudly over that coat from morning until literally sometime in the middle of the night. They spent the rest of the Christmas holiday week in stony silence, at the end of which my father and I returned to school, me wearing my thin corduroy jacket. Merry Christmas.

Some 7 years later, I headed to my aunts' and uncles' house, where the family was gathering to celebrate Christmas. My mother greeted me at the door and immediately started screaming angrily. Now on my own and living in frigid Massachusetts I had dared to buy myself a winter coat, once again ruining her Christmas because after years of feeling guilty, she had decided to return the Christmas present of 7 years ago. Yes, there was "my" coat, stretched out of shape and buttonless. Gee, thanks mom. Merry Christmas again. Well, ding-dong, the witch has been dead for a few years now and good by and good riddance Saks 5th Avenue coat because I have no place to wear such a coat any more, anyway.

Next came papers, set 1. That would be the papers that don't require burning or shredding, and that sat in stacks mostly in my storage room with the bunnies. All of my school papers, including my prized sets of ultra-refined notes that carried me through final Med Lab Tech exams and my boards.  Next to go will be the textbooks that were outdated and un-resellable, which I'll donate to the school.

The must destroy, shred or burn, papers reside inside the built in drawers in the storage room. They'll go when I burn the ever-growing brush pile mountain in the middle of my pasture, by the swale. Most likely in the fall when I will finally, one way or another, rid myself of the remains of the maple tree -- 3-4 cord of nicely dried firewood that I can't seem to give away! Around that time I will also drag to the end of the driveway a tv, vcr and "entertainment center" furniture for giveaway, making room for my antique singer sewing machine.