Indentured Servitude, Right Angles, and a Full Range of Electronics.
So, it's still summer.
I've finally found a calling for my summer. And no, it's not the work force... those cash-toting, rat-racers are just nuts. No, instead, after seeing what happens when a family member passes away without ANY affairs being in order, my Mom and I decided to spend the summer getting the house taken care of. You know how every now and again, you'll turn to your parents (or vice-versa) and say "Ooh, hey, wouldn't it be neat to...
A. clear out this room and do something neat with it?
B. Re-arrange over here?
C. Go through everything we've ever owned so we can once again move unhindered through our own home?"
Yeah... I used to do that a lot. Say things like "I really should clean out my closet..." or hear my mom say "Yeah, I really should get (blank) taken care of..."
And of course, we're Americans, so the things don't actually GET DONE. We just say them to make ourselves feel better.
Well, we're actually doing it. All of it.
Now the idea was that this was my mom's idea, and she felt at least partially responsible for the mess itself I suppose, so this would be her project. However, then it occured to me that I had three things that needed taking care of.
1. A lack of a job.
2. A lack of money.
3. A girlfriend who's head was going to explode if we didn't see each other in some kind of near future.
So Mom and I made a deal. I'd help her out with the house (above-and-beyond regular chores, and so forth) if she would buy me plane tickets to Wisconsin this summer. This worked for both of us.
TASK 1: REC ROOM (A.K.A.: WRECK ROOM)
This was just daunting at first glance. I wish I had taken before-and-after pictures because... yikes. There were two paths in this fairly sizable room... one from the downstairs entrance to the pantry, which was packed with food and luggage, and (if the person could jump and step just right) one from the upstairs entrance to the back room wth the freezer. The rest was filled with STUFF. A couch, a ping-pong table, piles upon piles of knick-knacks from when I was about 9, boxes and boxes of books and more knick-knacks, board games, mutant arachni-crickets, and more boxes of things that don't even belong to us. Now, words can't really do it justice... suffice it to say it was BAD in there.
Oh yeah... there was also Christmas stuff.
So we went at it. We moved the couch so we had room to work, sorted and cleared the board game room, put ALL the boxes of books in the garage, put the table in its storage position, and threw away a good 847 lbs. of stuff(approx.). We swept, we cleaned, we fixed chairs and benches whose parts were scattered around the floor. We put all the Christmas stuff in the area under the stairs, and successfully put up closet curtain/doors to cover it up.
Then, we declared victory. Of the battle, not the war.
TASK 2: STORAGE ROOM/FORMER OFFICE
That's right, folks. The Rec Room WASN'T the storage room.
This is our current focus. We're turning it into the grandkid's room. Which means we'll probably need to put in a carpet, or something.
Which means we'll need access to the floor, at some point.
We've already put a dent in it, by clearing out all our old VHS tapes and boxing them. I actually found a box with a butt-load of speakers and a 5 disc DVD changer... it's sorta broken, but it doesn't look too bad. I'm going to tinker with it for a while, but I won't know if I've fixed it unless I can get my hands on some power cords that fit it. *sigh*
So, yeah... Task three will probably be re-arranging the Rec Room (It's mostly cleared, but only of stuff we thought WOULDN'T stay). See, now that most of the family has moved out, my parents are making our house cool. They want to put a bar in downstairs in the family room, which means moving the tv/entertainment center into the rec room, which means re-routing the cable, and some other stuff that would extend this already-oversized post.
So, that's how I'm spending my summer. Come August 2nd, I'll finally get to see Leah, which will mean a break from my indentured servitude. I'll be ready then... I have to admit, though, that once we're on a roll, I don't really WANT to stop. Mostly because I'm afraid I won't be able to start again.
I move on, now, gentle reader, to something a little lighter...
My brother has gotten his license back finally, so now I'm sharing the truck with him... it's no big or anything. It's just that, in all reality, he gets the tie breaker for it because, let's face it, he has a job and I don't. This isn't his rule, it's mine. My mom's pretty generous lending out her car as well, so it's not like I can't get anywhere either. Just have to work around people's schedules. ALTHOUGH, it's nice when Daniel has the truck so my mom lends me her car, since the truck doesn't have A/C but the car does. And with these afternoons averaging out at about 90ยบ, having the windows down doesn't always cut it. I like my angles a little more acute, if you catch my meaning.
Big Sis A-Jay is gettin' ready to have that baby of hers... I must admit, I've gotten pretty used to her being pregnant, but all good things must come to an end, eh A-Jay? Heh... for that she will hit me, which is why I'll take this moment to remind her that I brought her back a nice bottle of Lemoncello from Rome that she can enjopy the moment she has her baby. And I'm sure the whole newborn daughter thing will soften her up a bit, too. After all, she doesn't want the baby learning to hit her Uncle Joe!
...Right?
Mike, too, is getting ready for a new child, though not quite in the same way as Andrea. Not quite at all. No, Alyssa is the pregnant one, but I think she's more used to having kids than Andrea. I hope that doesn't make her feel left out, like Andrea's stealing the thunder of Alyssa's pregnancy... even though she kind of IS... It's all the same to me, all I know is I've got ONE MORE niece AND nephew to play with!! Plus, I'm kind of excited to see how Brendan deals with having a little brother... I get the weird feeling that the two of them will get along really well. I foresee a Mike - Andrea - Joe relationship happening between Brendan - Sonya - Baby Boy X. But, that's just me.
I must put an end to this. It's all too real. I need crazier things to talk about.
TRANSFORMERS! ROBOTS IN DISGUISE!!!
That movie was freakin' amazing. Everyone should be watching it right now. Even me. In fact...
Hichborns, roll out!
-Hich
I've finally found a calling for my summer. And no, it's not the work force... those cash-toting, rat-racers are just nuts. No, instead, after seeing what happens when a family member passes away without ANY affairs being in order, my Mom and I decided to spend the summer getting the house taken care of. You know how every now and again, you'll turn to your parents (or vice-versa) and say "Ooh, hey, wouldn't it be neat to...
A. clear out this room and do something neat with it?
B. Re-arrange over here?
C. Go through everything we've ever owned so we can once again move unhindered through our own home?"
Yeah... I used to do that a lot. Say things like "I really should clean out my closet..." or hear my mom say "Yeah, I really should get (blank) taken care of..."
And of course, we're Americans, so the things don't actually GET DONE. We just say them to make ourselves feel better.
Well, we're actually doing it. All of it.
Now the idea was that this was my mom's idea, and she felt at least partially responsible for the mess itself I suppose, so this would be her project. However, then it occured to me that I had three things that needed taking care of.
1. A lack of a job.
2. A lack of money.
3. A girlfriend who's head was going to explode if we didn't see each other in some kind of near future.
So Mom and I made a deal. I'd help her out with the house (above-and-beyond regular chores, and so forth) if she would buy me plane tickets to Wisconsin this summer. This worked for both of us.
TASK 1: REC ROOM (A.K.A.: WRECK ROOM)
This was just daunting at first glance. I wish I had taken before-and-after pictures because... yikes. There were two paths in this fairly sizable room... one from the downstairs entrance to the pantry, which was packed with food and luggage, and (if the person could jump and step just right) one from the upstairs entrance to the back room wth the freezer. The rest was filled with STUFF. A couch, a ping-pong table, piles upon piles of knick-knacks from when I was about 9, boxes and boxes of books and more knick-knacks, board games, mutant arachni-crickets, and more boxes of things that don't even belong to us. Now, words can't really do it justice... suffice it to say it was BAD in there.
Oh yeah... there was also Christmas stuff.
So we went at it. We moved the couch so we had room to work, sorted and cleared the board game room, put ALL the boxes of books in the garage, put the table in its storage position, and threw away a good 847 lbs. of stuff(approx.). We swept, we cleaned, we fixed chairs and benches whose parts were scattered around the floor. We put all the Christmas stuff in the area under the stairs, and successfully put up closet curtain/doors to cover it up.
Then, we declared victory. Of the battle, not the war.
TASK 2: STORAGE ROOM/FORMER OFFICE
That's right, folks. The Rec Room WASN'T the storage room.
This is our current focus. We're turning it into the grandkid's room. Which means we'll probably need to put in a carpet, or something.
Which means we'll need access to the floor, at some point.
We've already put a dent in it, by clearing out all our old VHS tapes and boxing them. I actually found a box with a butt-load of speakers and a 5 disc DVD changer... it's sorta broken, but it doesn't look too bad. I'm going to tinker with it for a while, but I won't know if I've fixed it unless I can get my hands on some power cords that fit it. *sigh*
So, yeah... Task three will probably be re-arranging the Rec Room (It's mostly cleared, but only of stuff we thought WOULDN'T stay). See, now that most of the family has moved out, my parents are making our house cool. They want to put a bar in downstairs in the family room, which means moving the tv/entertainment center into the rec room, which means re-routing the cable, and some other stuff that would extend this already-oversized post.
So, that's how I'm spending my summer. Come August 2nd, I'll finally get to see Leah, which will mean a break from my indentured servitude. I'll be ready then... I have to admit, though, that once we're on a roll, I don't really WANT to stop. Mostly because I'm afraid I won't be able to start again.
I move on, now, gentle reader, to something a little lighter...
My brother has gotten his license back finally, so now I'm sharing the truck with him... it's no big or anything. It's just that, in all reality, he gets the tie breaker for it because, let's face it, he has a job and I don't. This isn't his rule, it's mine. My mom's pretty generous lending out her car as well, so it's not like I can't get anywhere either. Just have to work around people's schedules. ALTHOUGH, it's nice when Daniel has the truck so my mom lends me her car, since the truck doesn't have A/C but the car does. And with these afternoons averaging out at about 90ยบ, having the windows down doesn't always cut it. I like my angles a little more acute, if you catch my meaning.
Big Sis A-Jay is gettin' ready to have that baby of hers... I must admit, I've gotten pretty used to her being pregnant, but all good things must come to an end, eh A-Jay? Heh... for that she will hit me, which is why I'll take this moment to remind her that I brought her back a nice bottle of Lemoncello from Rome that she can enjopy the moment she has her baby. And I'm sure the whole newborn daughter thing will soften her up a bit, too. After all, she doesn't want the baby learning to hit her Uncle Joe!
...Right?
Mike, too, is getting ready for a new child, though not quite in the same way as Andrea. Not quite at all. No, Alyssa is the pregnant one, but I think she's more used to having kids than Andrea. I hope that doesn't make her feel left out, like Andrea's stealing the thunder of Alyssa's pregnancy... even though she kind of IS... It's all the same to me, all I know is I've got ONE MORE niece AND nephew to play with!! Plus, I'm kind of excited to see how Brendan deals with having a little brother... I get the weird feeling that the two of them will get along really well. I foresee a Mike - Andrea - Joe relationship happening between Brendan - Sonya - Baby Boy X. But, that's just me.
I must put an end to this. It's all too real. I need crazier things to talk about.
TRANSFORMERS! ROBOTS IN DISGUISE!!!
That movie was freakin' amazing. Everyone should be watching it right now. Even me. In fact...
Hichborns, roll out!
-Hich
posted by Scarcely Human at 4:57 PM
6 Comments:
Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you. My mom's been making my brother and I clean our room too, except there are still the boxes of stuff i'm storing in there for school. Most of the stuff in the room was my brother's school books and notebooks from last year. They're gone now, and the room suddenly is less cluttered. Its a nice feeling to know that a 5ft high stack of notebooks won't fall on you in the middle of the night.
Wow, you're cleaning. My mom messed my room up earlier by chucking (literally) a whole bunch of crap (not literally) in it. Most of it wasn't even mine. My dad woke me up this morning looking for his computer. (He found it in my room of course)
"After all, she doesn't want the baby learning to hit her Uncle Joe!" Hmmm...I was thinking about teaching her that neat way you can hit Uncle Joe in a certain part of his stomach and make him unable to breathe briefly. You don't think that would be a cool, ninja baby move? Of course, you did remind me of the ALCOHOL (which you bought for me) I sooo deserve after all this is over, so I guess we'll hold off on the knocking-the-wind out of Uncle Joe.
Mom is a cleaning machine!! It was so awesome while she was staying with me this week. There are parts of the floor that I don't think I'd seen since Daniel and I were married. Just remember, you have to come help me take care of the baby for a little while, before you head to Wisconsin!!! Besides, it feels like it's been a while since I've seen you, even though I just saw you the 4th.
your blog-rating link isn't working. I want it for my blog
Thanks for the heads-up, Matt... Fixed the link.
Seriously, dude, you need to update! Summer is over!
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