I’ve been working on the incremental clearing of the living room & elsewhere

It’s going pretty well. My back is being fragile, which is really slowing me down. But aside from that, all the crisis seem to have passed, for the moment. The cat is definitely MUCH better, and my appts., etc. should be under control.

I have boxed up 3 medium boxes of stuff in the kitchen, things that were just hanging around with no real home. They’re destined for the attic, but in order to do that I have to clean the attic a bit first. My back is just not up to moving boxes of books, furniture, etc. around — so that’s stalled, for right now.

I’ve cataloged nearly 400 books, etc. this month. Delivered the 2nd box of a 2 box order yesterday  — another 1.13 cu ft of my life taken back and 62 books gone! 😀

DH met someone who had a recommendation for wholesaling the whole thing in one swell foop. I’m waiting to hear from the heirs of my largest consignor to see what they want me to do with his remaining stuff before I call this person. If I have to split out consignment merchandise, I can, but I need to know that up front.

Definite progress in other words! There’s a clean path into the back of the living room and slowly but surely things are being  removed, sorted, and either trashed, sold, or restored.

IT’S HAPPENING!!!

No matter what the numbers seem to say, this job is getting DONE.

P.S. I updated the tally tonight.

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Quick Note

Got through two boxes yesterday. Unpacking the stuff in the living room is going to necessitate cleaning both offices, as the stuff I’m currently trying to wade through is books (of course!) and things that were pulled from our offices last October when we moved furniture around.

So, why I didn’t think of that before I started hauling boxes out of here, I don’t know. Today is dump day and I have various other errands to do. It’s likely to be really hot again as well.

We’ll see what I manage to get done! I need to spend at least an hour or more cleaning my office if I’m just not going to actually unpack boxes, but make things even messier than they are now!

J

Okay, back to work . . .

all of the crisis and shows have been resolved or are past. Time to pick up what I was doing previously: that is, getting rid of STUFF, writing, and designing our emerging home-to-be from the storage unit it has been.

Along these lines, I have a table set up under a shade tent in the yard. The idea is to spread things out for a look-see and evaluation: keep or toss? There’s a lot of stuff in this house and not much room to spread it out and see what’s here. That’s my job today. Tomorrow the cat is going to the vet (again) and it’s dump day, another reason why this is happening today. I won’t store the stuff going away any longer than necessary!

I haven’t been working at getting rid of things much this month. I haven’t even been cataloging books very much. Our cat got really sick, then I was hosting a party, and then I had a convention to go to — all major distractions. My latest distraction is another book contract, but I’m not working on that YET and I’m so far behind with purging, this is where my emphasis is going to be (at least right now)!

I apologize for the long delay between posts, but as you can tell, things have been pretty busy here recently!

J

Three things you might not think of to stay cool

We lived an hour from Death Valley for five years, then moved to the Tampa, FL area for six. In the process of living in 120 degree heat with no humidity and 90 degree heat with 90% humidity, I learned a thing or two about staying cool.

1-Be careful of what scents you use. Some scents, even your everyday ones, can make you feel hotter. After you put that lotion on, how do you feel?

I only use unscented lotion because of this and because of the unexpected trick I learned in the desert. Wash using a high-scent natural oil soap: lemon, eucalyptus, peppermint, spearmint, clove, etc. There’s something about using those scents to wash with that just makes me feel cooler. Artificial scents don’t have the same effect, in fact they frequently make me feel hotter. No doubt someone who does aromatherapy could tell me why, but I don’t care. I just know this works!

2-Don’t dry your hair. If you have a lot of it, like I do, comb it out damp and pile it on top of your head in a bun. It will help your head stay cool, which will help YOU stay cool.

3-Use cornstarch. One of the most luxurious things in a heat wave is climbing into crisp sheets lightly dusted with cornstarch. Feels wonderful on the skin. However, the cornstarch can also get into your mattress, and that can be a problem!  Use cornstarch as a powder on you, under your nightclothes, before you climb into bed. This isn’t as luxurious as the other method, but doesn’t have the problems either!

J

Still way behind,

but the cat is on the mend — if not well.

I started cataloging again. The few, pathetic books I’d done before & the new box lot of romances add up to 121 books. So, although it’s taken me a few more days (4) than I wanted it to, I’ve gotten back into the swing of things.

I went by the storage today and pulled out 4 trays of books. Two of those have been cataloged, and most of those books are in the 2nd romance lot. I sold a few books the day of the party too — I left a box at the local book dealer and picked up the remainder he didn’t want and money. When I did that, I took 3 items from the storage with me: 2 books & a calendar, which *I also sold. I have to figure out what he bought, he only told me 1 book for sure, so I have to compare the list I had for the box with what remains.It doesn’t really matter to me what he wanted, just that they’re gone!

I talked to the widow of one of my consigners today too. He was an author. She wants returned the books he wrote, but nothing else. I’m starting piles of books to be returned to consigners. If we ever empty the small boxes we  bought for the office stuff, I’ll probably use them to return consignments, they’d be perfect.

I changed my website yesterday to read that I am no longer in business, so I guess that makes it official? Although a customer of mine rents the storage unit about 3 down from mine. He said today he was looking for a few books; I gave him my email.

Other news: the robin who built her nest on the ledge over the back door had 2 chicks. One flew the nest yesterday! The smaller one is still nest bound.

So life continues . . . baby birds grow up . . . the cat’s getting better . . . the books are getting removed from storage, cataloged and banished from my life. For someone who had a major life malfunction a few days ago, that’s not too bad!

Jenny

I don’t know when I’ll get caught up

with the mid-year thing here.

In the past week I hosted a surprise party for my husband and our cat (kid) has gotten really sick. I haven’t had a “regular” day in almost a week.

I’m getting really tired of emotional meltdowns every day; I remember what it was like to live this way and I do not like it!

Your patience is appreciated, this crisis is not simply irritating/monetary (like the fridge or car repairs) but has a huge emotional component as well, as both my spouse & I are deeply attached to our cat.

Jenny

End of month tally & mid-year plans

Okay. My time the past 2-3 days has been taken up with a sick cat (my kid) and plans for a surprise party for my roommate. The cat has been to the vet twice, our local vet Fri morning and the emergency room Saturday night, late. This afternoon we brought her home again. She either had a stroke, has a  B vitamin deficiency or …?

So, we got home from the emergency take the cat to the vet at 2 am or so on Sunday. The surprise party, which was set up well over a month ago, was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. The cat was stable Sunday morning and I went off to the party sure I’d get home and find she’d died while we were having fun, or had gotten worse. But no, she’d been improving slowly, steadily, so we brought her home this afternoon. With luck, that trend will continue!

Anyway, with all the distractions, I did NOT get my end-of-the-month/mid-year accounting done. I’ll do that sometime today,  the tally will be current, as of 6/30. Tomorrow or the next day I’ll go through and condense one month’s data, so the tally isn’t so long and I’ll move one month to archive and start posting July’s data.

July started pretty well: I gave the emergency vet clinic 1 book, a friend took 15 at the party, and I  sold the box lot of 62 books plus one more. It’s the 2nd of the month, and I’ve sold, sent out for consideration, or donated 79 books! Not too bad!

I’ll get together another box lot for the booth, and try to make sure I always have one there for sale. If they sell in a week, that would be wonderful!

I wish we could have just left the cat where she was, I just want her to get better! [I’ll take all prayers/good vibes that way btw, with thanks.]

Stress? Naw, what stress?

J