Cleaning again

I've been falling into a pattern of not writing much on the weekends lately. It's either that I did so much that I was too busy living it and didn't want to interrupt the festivities to record it all, or I did damn near nothing and there was nothing about which to write.

This weekend was the second situation. I cleaned a lot, basically, finally beginning to take on the task of mining into the Purple Room. There was an incredible assortment of empty technology boxes: all three Apple laptops, a bunch of LCD monitors that live downstairs, various audio and video gear. Untold numbers of sweaters, many new and unworn, that I'd actually forgotten were in there. An entire box of wool socks. I remember that box because when Nancy got me a couple of dozen pairs of the kind I like a few years before she left, she did so on condition that I take some of my older pairs out of circulation. Looking in the box, though, some of those "older" pairs are thicker and more cushiony than the clean pair I put on today. So, I think it's time for them to re-enter the population and for some of the true veterans to be retired at last.

I've been wearing the same kind of socks for well over twenty years. Wigwam Mills ragg wool in a color they call "Grey Twist." Usually anywhere from six bucks to $9.50 a pair, so I conservatively have a collection of socks originally valued at somewhere around a thousand dollars.

I also found the box to the HD tuner I bought for Suzanne's now-gone HD set. If you have an "HD-ready" set in your life and live close enough to a big city that you can get over-the-air HD, I'll sell you the tuner (it's a Samsung SIR-T451 and lists for around $200) with an amplified TERK HD antenna for $175 the both of them. Damn near brand new, not even any cat hair on them. Just email me before Suzanne gets here this weekend and the thing goes up on eBay.

I constantly amaze myself with the stuff I already have. It's amazing and depressing, because I have to organize and clean it all. Speaking of which, I've concluded it's time to return the house to the "cat library" format I used after I had the floors redone three years ago. That's where most of the cats stay in the kitchen most of the time, and only a few trusted, friendly cats are allowed out into the larger house. After Fred proved himself to be the Mystery Pooper on Saturday evening, he will not be on the trusted list, alas. Fred's actually a very nice cat, but he hasn't yet learned he isn't supposed to poop in unauthorized locations and at age ten, he isn't likely to learn.

I already asked Suzanne if she wants to help me build some cat ladders and perches to put in the kitchen for the cats.

Thanks to the cleaning I did Friday night and Saturday, I took a faceful of chlorine (released when you clean cat whiff with bleach and as a result have pretty much no cilia left anywhere in my respiratory tract. I've been snorfling all weekend. Be glad you're not here to list and watch.