The problem to date is in the closing and sale of this house and most of its contents of thirty five years. I do not plan ever again living in a “bricks and sticks” permanent home at least by choice. If I get very old and feeble, then maybe a nursing home but I am a long way from that so have a few years left. No, my problem is getting the house ready for sale. As you can imagine, after thirty five years in one spot plus an accumulation of “stuff” from my previous homes that were moved into this one all of those years ago, it is a bit of a nightmare.

I have started by selecting any and everything that I want to keep and have put some of that into the RV. The rest I have stacked in one corner to move the next time I visit the RV park and the Eagle, the name of the RV. That still leaves me with an ungodly amount of items of every shape, size and description ranging from, clothes, kitchenware, furniture, books, records, tapes and many other sundry items. I never knew I had so much “stuff” until I am confronted with getting rid of it. If you doubt my word dear reader, take a moment to look around you and into your closets and drawers and then you will realize just how big a hoarder we all are. I have stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day for many a year. I remember reading that if you have a pile of papers that you haven’t looked at in a year, then it is time to discard that pile. I have several of those piles…I think it really is a question of “out of sight and out of mind” and I would bet that many of you are in exactly the same spot that I am in that regard.

When my third wife left me for greener pastures twenty nine years ago, she took with her what she considered to be her rightful share which I did not contest. Well, maybe except for taking Bianca, one of the two Maltese puppies that we had at the time. In retrospect, she didn’t take nearly enough and now I am stuck with it. That’s probably not fair as I am the one that did all of the hoarding in that time since. In anycase, I have it all and have to decide how to get rid of it.

That brings me to the next part of the puzzle. I have already decided on what to do with the Koi that are in the three remaining ponds as I will donate them to the Austin Pond Society to be distributed between the members in need. The ponds will be refilled and left running to help entice a future buyer. Then I will bring in the Landscaper that has taken care of the trees in the past to clean up the yard and backfill a different pond that I am already in the process of closing down, to tidy up the outside. It used to be that for many years and up until very recently, I had all kinds of energy for such projects and would have undertaken most of the yard work and done it myself. Nowadays, not so much and am content to pay someone else to take care of it. I guess growing older does that to a man plus the physical strength is not the same, I have rocks that I placed around the small pond, the one I am filling in, that I can’t even lift anymore, I swear, they have grown twice the weight since I placed them all of those year ago. Not just weight either as they also appear to be twice as big. OK, I am also a lot lazier than I was and physical labor does not appeal to me anymore. Walking the dogs or hiking is my preference for exercise. It will be up to whoever I can contract with to sell, donate or trash what is left in the sheds and in the house. The less physically that I have to do towards that end, the better I will like it.

I have a local person who has a company that specialize in auctioning off household contents who is coming to take a look later this afternoon. Hopefully, we can agree on terms and he will take over. The sooner the furniture and contents are gone, the sooner I can move the Koi and then we will be on our way.

More to follow.

Don’t forget that older posts including my poetry can still be found at https://pondblog2011.com

Written 01/31/2021