How hard is it?

To get rid of a 6ft bookcase?

Seemingly impossible, as I have advertised it three times on freecycle, but each time they call me at the last moment and say they can't take it... Dang I feel cursed by it.

I have managed to 'offload' sorry give away

a steamer
a slowcooker
a bag of blankets
a bag of knitting wool
a bag of assorted videos - james bond and adventure ones
and another bookcase, only 5 1/2 ft high

While I love freecycling goods, I do feel somewhat disheartened at other people's responses to the bookcase.

Where else can I try? anyone have any bright ideas

Saturday Satire - Old Age

A couple in their nineties were both having problems remembering things.

During a checkup, the doctor tells them that they're physically okay, but they might want to start writing things down to help them remember.

Later that night, while watching TV, the old man gets up from his chair.

'Want anything while I'm in the kitchen?' he asks.

'Will you get me a bowl of ice cream?'

'Sure.'

'Don't you think you should write it down so you can remember it?' she asks.

'No, I can remember it.'

'Well, I'd like some strawberries on top, too. Maybe you should write it down so's not to forget it?'

He says, 'I can remember that. You want a bowl of ice cream with strawberries.'

'I'd also like whipped cream. I'm certain you'll forget that, write it down?' she asks.

Irritated, he says, 'I don't need to write it down, I can remember it! Ice cream with strawberries and whipped cream - I got it, for goodness sake!'

Then he toddles into the kitchen.

After about 20 minutes, the old man returns from the kitchen and hands his wife a plate of bacon and eggs.

She stares at the plate for a moment.

'Where's my toast ?'

Sadness

I have just read on Old Age is a Bitch that Elaine has passed away, aged only 67 yesterday in hospital.

I will miss her funny stories, her recipes and hearing about Enid who is TBSITW not to mention Oldest son and the grandchildren.

Elaine is one of those people who is interesting on so many levels, and I think will be missed dreadfully by her family and her friends and that includes me.

God Bless you Elaine, may all your health issues be washed away now you have gone home to the Lord.

Age and Wisdom

I got sent this in an email and it struck me how true this is, enjoy.

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.

His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready. As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

I love it,' he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait.' 'That doesn't have anything to do with it,' he replied.

Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged .... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.

'It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life.

Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!

Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank. I am still depositing.

'Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Love with all your Heart and Mind.
2. Free your heart from hatred.
3. Free your mind from worries.
4. Live simply.
5. Give more.
6. Expect less

Have a nice day, and enjoy filling your Memory Bank

Freecycling

I am putting a lot of the unwanted clutter on freecycle... someone else's junk is another man's treasure and saves me the hassle of getting rid of things if someone else can take them off my hands.

So videos, audiocassettes (yes I still had some of these), blank tapes, furniture, printer, school desk, sideboard etc.. have all been listed and I am not done yet.

The bookcases have been pruned drastically, my aim is to go down from 3.5 large bookcases + the study to 1 large bookcase and a smaller one.

I have plans to take cuttings of some of the plants and transplant others to containers to take with me, I have to keep it limited so the Bay tree, myrtle and fuschia will be transplanted along with the lilac and hopefully the californian dwarf lilac. while cuttings will be taken of the clematis.. anyone know how to do that - any advice gratefully received.

I have to fill in the hole in the garden though, I am tempted to replant the container back in, and refill it with water to not have to do the work.

I have masses of painting and decorating to do, and being scared of heights gives me the heeby jeebies about doing some of it but I am hoping that some friends will give me a hand.

I don't feel bad about selling the house, I had always maintained that I didn't want roots here as it was where my parents chose to live; it was never mine. I found my roots were in Cornwall, and that is where I need to be, yes I will be sad to leave as it will not be possible to come back if everything goes pear-shaped but then again it will be my third attempt at leaving (prior I left to go to London and then Bedford) so perhaps third time lucky.

The list is endless, but I feel it has a purpose and I want not to be here but down in Cornwall sooner rather than later so it has to be done.

Changes

Finally I can update you on de-cluttering, where I mentioned I had made some decisions about my future.

I have made a decision to uproot myself and go down to Cornwall to live, this is for many reasons, not the least of which is my health. Bedfordshire is a crap place to live with asthma as so much rapeseed is grown around the area which has affected it badly this year.

The second reason is that work is not so interesting any more, the changes at the University have not all been good and I have lost interest in staying here just to get a larger pension - there is more to life than just money.

The third reason, and one I have kept quiet about for a number of reasons is that SOH and I are in touch and he is going to help me out over the move down to Cornwall. Being an HGV driver, he has offered to do the moving side of things and at the end of this month I am going down to visit to discuss with him the logistics of how to do it all. Then in June, I am down for a week and will hopefully spend some of that time looking for somewhere to live.

Of course this is all subject to getting a job down there, easier said than done but I am working on it by updating my cv and checking on jobs that are currently looking for employees. In an ideal world I would be looking for jobs in the Education or Local Government sector to transfer the pension to if I can't do it any other way and I am busy exploring all avenues.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Saturday Satire - The Lawyer

A very wealthy lawyer and had a summer house in the country, which he retreated to for several weeks each summer. Each summer, the lawyer would invite a different friend of his to spend a week or two up at this place, which happened to be in a woodland section of Maine.

One summer, he invited a Czechoslovakian friend to stay with him. The friend, eager to get a freebee from a lawyer, agreed.

They had a splendid time in the country - rising early and living in the great outdoors.

Early one morning, the lawyer and his Czechoslovakian friend went out to pick berries for their morning breakfast. As they went around the berry patch, gathering blueberries and raspberries in huge quantities, along came two huge Bears - a male and a female.

Well, the lawyer, seeing the two bears, immediately dashed for cover. His friend, though, wasn't so lucky, and the male bear reached him and swallowed him whole.

The lawyer ran back to his Mercedes, tore into town as fast has he could, and got the local sheriff. The sheriff grabbed his shotgun and dashed back to the berry patch with the lawyer.

Sure enough, the two bears were still there.

"He's in that one", cried the lawyer, while pointing to the male. Visions of lawsuits from his friend's family danced in his head. He just had to save his friend.

The sheriff looked at the bears, and without batting an eye, leveled his gun, took careful aim, and shot the female.

"What did you do that for!" exclaimed the lawyer, "I said he was in the other bear!"

"Exactly," replied the sheriff, "and would you believe a lawyer who told you that the Czech was in the male?"

As I sit here

The rain is lashing down against the windows, so much for officially being Summer?

They are forecasting a hot summer, well after last year anything would be better than that.. another wet Summer combined with the current economy, the general doom and gloom of the news would give most people the heebie jeebies.

So on a more positive note, I am hoping that the bank holiday at the end of the month is warm and dry for the Rutland Rally, held by our BMW Midland Section where I will again be camping (though friends have promised to take along an extra blanket in their caravan for me lol) this time, unlike the last camp, I will take my fleece liner for the sleeping bag and hope I stay a little warmer overnight.

Then, in June we have a holiday booked in Cornwall, aiming to go by bike to see Geevor mine, visit Carn Brae and catch up with family and friends. It will be a long journey down, but the accomodation is a B&B so at least will have somewhere to rest when we arrive.

Am really looking forward to staying in Portreath, it is somewhere I have always felt at home in and if I could afford it I would buy a house there; sadly unless the numbers turn up on the lottery that will never happen this side of eternity. This picture is of Gull rock and it is possible (apparently) to swim out and around it.. may not do it on this trip but planning on having a dip in the sea at least.

The sun was shining when we took this picture of Gull rock, though the wind was cold as it was at the end of March/beginning of April last year. Since then we had made a number of visits to Portreath, and each time it was like walking into familiar surroundings; can you fall in love with a place and not know why?

Neno's Award

This lovely Award has been given to Sage by Dickiebo


Cheers for that Dickiebo

Here are the rules for this meaningful award:

The aims of this award:

* As a dedication for those who love blogging activity and love to encourage friendships through blogging.

* To seek the reasons why we all love blogging!

* Put the award in one post as soon as you receive it

* Don’t forget to mention the person who gives you the award.

* Answer the award’s question by writing the reason why you love blogging.

* Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like.

* Don’t forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post.

Why I love blogging;

I have always wanted to write, since as long as I can remember. Initially it was short stories, then I joined an on-line writing group but I craved more and neither seemed to satisfy me so I started to keep a journal but then I found that I couldn't draw and putting pictures in a book by cutting and sticking reminded me too much like hard work.

So my journal is my blog, some memories, some humour, some serious but always things to appeal to my sense of writing. I enjoy the friendships that I have made along the way of blogging and to those, I pass on this award and hope they will entertain us all by accepting and putting their reasons down for blogging.

Tagged

Janet of 32-Aker Wood
Ruth of RevRuth's Rantings
Lakeland Jo of - Life in Windermere
Asclepius of Hippocrates Got Lost
Angel of A Daydreamers Soliloquy

Happenings

Had a migraine following the bank holiday Monday, no warning except the sort of pain that accompanies your worst nightmares and a reluctance to face any sort of light whatsoever. Unluckily I have the sort of migraines that don't follow being sensitive to triggers, so in some ways this is good as I can eat most things without fear, but the bad thing is you don't really know why they happen.

A couple of happy pills, and a few hours sleep, saw the worst of it over and done with. I am lucky in that I rarely get the sort of visual disturbances that some migraine suffers have to deal with though I did end up feeling very spaced out and as a consequence when I did go downstairs it was to sit on the couch and relax. I find that my concentration is shot for about 24-36 hours after an attack.

It's also never a good time to try and interact me in a conversation as my brain and tongue seem weirdly uncoordinated and even if I can remember the right word, my mouth and tongue seem unable to process the information and I stutter over the simplest of words.

So back at work, my PC was rebuilt last week, and yet nothing seems to work correctly ending up with me uninstalling Office versions 2003 and 2007 to correct a problem and then reinstalling just 2007... hopefully now things will run a bit more smoothly.

On a more interesting note, Gus is turning out to be more of a beaver than a rat, she spent the previous evening taking all the bark off of the apple tree branch I had put in her cage and is now busy gnawing it into a sharp point - I'm just glad there isn't a water supply in the cage.

An old one

Today is star wars day.. why? you may wonder... prepare to groan...

May the 4th be with you


And a typical bank holiday monday, dank and dreary, though we are luckier than most, as being in the back of beyond the rain that northern England and Scotland are having today makes the weather here look sub-tropical by comparison. Did I really hear the mention of snow in yesterday's forecast?

No matter, it is a holiday, and I am working hard.. trying to declutter nearly 40 years of rubbish sorry important pieces of life history such as walking stick badges, photographs, napkin rings etc is a challenging one and one I don't always relish but it needs to be done and failing that even if the sun were shining I would be out in the garden weeding away trying to make inroads into Winters lingering grip.

How are you guys spending your bank holiday, don't know if the US/Aussie readers have a similar holiday but if not commiserations.

Saturday Satire : The Bottle of Wine

For all of us who are married, were married, wish you were married, or wish you weren't married, this is something to smile about the next time you see a bottle of wine:

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.

As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally. 'What in bag?' asked the old woman.

Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, 'It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband.'

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two. Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said: 'Good trade.....'

Many thanks to Salsa for this one, I just had to put it on today