A Day Down Below

 

Suitcase? Cool!

I'm sitting on the bed that I slept in for probably 25 years.

I'm in the room that was mine for roughly a decade.

After Mom passed, I gravitated upstairs, thinking that we'd begin to pack up and get ready to move.

That, of course, was back in Sep 2020. Over a year and a half later we're still here.

So I spent most of the day down here packing and sifting and throwing things out.

The hundreds of CDs that I cultivated for years got whittled way down. They, along with books and a lot more (maybe even an audio mixer or two) will be among the items to be sold in the AMAZING MEGA REMARKABLE TAG SALE OF 2022!

That's a working title. It will be adjusted.

I also went through my collection of maps and pamphlets that I've collected from my travels. I have maps from places I've been and never been. Sean always makes fun of me because he knows that I've never met a welcome center that I didn't like.

Walking The Big E with me was always fun because I'd wear a backpack that I'd overload with maps and other items.

My collection, which began back in the 70s, grew first into a file cabinet. Yes, I asked for a file cabinet for Christmas. 

The collection would move into three plastic jumbo bins.

Today, that collection was hacked down to one bin. Yay, me. The other two bins will likely be filled up by broadcasting notes from 25 years or so.

At the same time, I was working on moving a small dresser that occupied the laundry room throughout my entire life.

I also did some yard work and other stuff. So, yeah, I had a day.

While I would have preferred a game to broadcast, we decided to pass on me going to Greens Farms Academy today for the Brunswick baseball game against the Dragons.

So I was home and I guess that was sort of a good thing. The cleaning is something that I'll have to do eventually. It's something I've wanted to do for, oh, a year and a half (or more);.

With each day I get a better feeling for the approach of attacking what has been compiled in the house over the years. Specifically, it's time for me to really dig into cleaning my stuff. My next place likely won't have the kind of room to store all of my things. Plus I just think it will be a good thing to begin to thin done.

Frankly, the word I use is "cathartic."

It felt good to throw all of those old pamphlets out.

It felt good to roll through the CDs*.

*Just to be clear, the CDs have all been digitized. I have the music. I'm only going to keep CDs that are meaningful. 

I started looking at my books as well. While I feel a certain level of guilt in cleaning all of this, I also feel it's mostly just "stuff."

For instance, given we have Baseball Reference as a website, why do I need a copy of the Baseball Encyclopedia? Granted instead of saying "I'd swear on a stack of Bibles," my answer was always "I'd swear on the Baseball Encyclopedia." Still, my copy is woefully outdated anyway. So, yeah, it's time.

It's a process I'm mostly enjoying because it allows me to put music on or keep listening to the podcasts that I'm trying to catch up on. It's also enjoyable when I get heartless. By that, I mean, I do a better job of purging and making definitive decisions. 

But I'll also add that my back hurts from bending, cleaning, and carrying. I was down there, overall, for about 12 hours. I'm back upstairs now listening to the Yankees game and winding down to get some sleep.

Back on the air tomorrow. Maybe with "Doubleheader" and definitely with "The Clubhouse." I'll be away from Brunswick for about two weeks.

Oh yeah, and I took a stab at starting to pack today.

Then The Cat decided he wanted to participate.

That's enough for tonight.