Sunday, June 01, 2008

Thunder, Thunder and more Thunder

Sunday and the sky's are gray again. I guess there was a reason we didn’t go to the cabin this weekend because it has been crappy weather most of the weekend. Yesterday I went to the MIL’s to see how the work on the front porch was going. The Hubby has been trying to spruce it up by pulling up the glued down indoor-outdoor green carpet she had put down. It was so ugly. He had put down a concrete overlay then stained it and it looked really good but because he wasn’t able to get all the glue up the overlay buckled in places. So he has gone over and cleaned it up again, and where it came up he filed down the sides and it looks like you meant to leave it in chunks, and re-stained where it had buckled after getting rid of the broken concrete. It has been a real ordeal and mess. Today he is supposed to go over and wash off the first layer of stain and re-apply another but the weather is not cooperating and she has an open house at one. Hopefully this weather will blow over sometime today. I went over yesterday and The Hubby was covered in concrete dust and inside the BIL and his partner and the MIL were busy doing more packing so I rolled up my sleeves and joined in. That was about 2:30. I didn’t leave until 6:30 and had to go to the store for steaks for dinner. This whole move thing has been so difficult for the MIL. She is the one that has instigated it but she is so dragging her feet. The movers come on Tuesday at 8:30 and she had better get ready. She still had a built-in cabinet that was filled with glassware, cookbooks and “stuff” that she had not even touched. I put myself to that task yesterday and finished it all. When I asked her for some sheets or bedding that she would be taking with her for use in packing the glassware she went to the hall linen closet and opened it. This is a huge closet that she had not even touched. So she began that and when we used some of the sheets she yelled at the BIL’s partner E not to scrunch it up. This is a lady that irons her sheets and pillow cases. She walked away and E and I just rolled our eyes. I love her to death but it is crunch time and she has not got the luxury of be that picky. I know she is freaked that once all these boxes get there she will have to unload them but I told her I would be there, in fact we all will be, except for the SIL and the other brother that have not EVEN showed up to help one iota. We have done it all. (I won’t start on them here.) We still have the shed that she has stuffed full of junk and all the yard knick-knacks that she is freaked out about taking or giving to one of us. She has a great yard but full of, well just full. I got custody of a paper sack of recipes that she has collected, some since 1956. These were torn out of magazines and newspapers and tossed in were recipe cards, some with MY name one them. I also got a huge box bulging and tied with a ribbon with the oldest ones. I sat here last night an sorted through all of them and ended up with about 45 recipe cards and a basket of handwritten on various kinds of paper and very old from newspapers clippings. I just couldn’t throw some of them away. By the time I was through with them all my nose was so stuffed up from dust and disintegration of the newspapers I could barely breathe.
There were times when she was almost in tears yesterday with all that was going on. When we started going through the cookbooks she was beside herself with not being able to choose what to keep and sell. We’re to the point of just packing all of the rest of it and see if it fits (it won’t) in her new place then bring back what she doesn’t want for the estate sale. That means we will be moving stuff twice. She has a HUGE sectional couch that she is INSISTING she take, that it will fit but the BIL is a designer and has done measurements and “it won’t fit”. This week will be a trial for sure. Thank goodness I will have Wednesday, my birthday. I will have a facial and massage and the house full of girlfriends to celebrate.

No comments: