![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whispercricketMy restful Memorial Day weekend has disappeared. Could someone go and catch it for me, please? I want it back. :P
About two weeks ago, I stopped dithering about my holiday weekend plans (should I stay in case we need to look at houses? Should I go so I can see my family?) and asked my mother to book me a plane ticket to Ann Arbor. Luckily, there were still frequent flyer tickets available, since all the regular tickets were up to $500 or more by that point. Yay for paying college tuition with an air travel rewards credit card.
So I arrived on Saturday morning, after about 3 hours of normal sleep and 1+ hours airplane sleep. My grandfather also was visiting, and the weather was okay but nothing special (much better than the weather back in MA) - I expected to spend the weekend sitting around watching TV, going out to eat, and otherwise not doing much at all. Alas, that was not to be (and it was all my fault [g]).
My parents had had a small flood in the basement a couple of weeks ago, due to some sort of water main connection problem. This caused them to do some rare cleaning down there. In the process, they noticed that some items had been...nibbled on, or otherwise partially consumed. They seem surprisingly unconcerned about this - if this were my house, I would have had an exterminator there the next day (or at least cleaned out the basement as best I could). But no, these are my parents, who decided to "fix" their leaking shower by not using it anymore, and stated, "Oh, by the way, there's a towel in one of the sinks of the big bathroom - that's because we think it leaks too. Just use the other sink." It's not like they can't afford to fix the house (which they own or are very close to owning by this point) - they just don't want to deal with it. When they first saw a vole (or mouse - I'm not sure why my dad is convinced it was a vole) running around on one of the basement windowsills, I told them it had to have gotten in from somewhere, but did they listen to me and do anything about it? Of course not. :)
So anyway, I was much more alarmed by the basement issues than they were. When I see a puppet that has been ravaged in such a way that it's felt jacket is hanging off, it's upsetting! This sent me into massive cleaning mode. Over the course of the weekend, I ended up:
1) Cleaning out my closet completely. I finally convinced my dad to seal off the attic scuttle, which freaked me out when I was younger (I'd only go to sleep if my closet door was shut. Little bits of things actually have fallen out (they must have - I don't know where else they would have come from), thus vindicating my worries that something(s) might be living up there. I really hope there aren't birds nesting in the attic. Did I mention that they need to get an exterminator? After thorough swiffering, replaced stuff in closet, including all the soft items of mine that I could find from the basement. It seems that I have a huge basket + small basket + a cardboard box of stuffed animals and dolls to which I have an emotional attachment (not counting the crate in MA) - it's crazy.
2) Cleaning out my desk - my mother complained that there were bags under the desk keeping her from being able to push the chair in all the way. I kind of went overboard and completely cleaned out the desk as well. I did have to put some papers back in it because I ran out of time to sort them properly (as well as some old Cricket magazines that I didn't want to throw away). Found a ton of old floppy disks and copied off any interesting looking files to Zip disk for easy transport, crashing my dad's old Gateway 5 times in the process (that computer is very sickly). Got rid of some old audio tapes - still haven't found my Madonna "True Blue" tape (first tape I ever purchased). It's probably off having a vacation with the wallet I bought at the Mexico pavilion in Disney World when I was 8 or 9.
3) Sorting tons of papers. I think I went through at least two boxes, two bags, and three desk drawers worth of papers. I am a paper-collecting maniac. What was I trying to do, create a nest or something? Must...not...packrat...
4) Rescuing items from the basement. Besides the stuffed animals, I also starting moving some puzzles and games upstairs. I didn't get very far with that, unfortunately (and I was running out of closet space). I did locate all the old VHS tapes and moved them upstairs in hopes that they won't degrade by the time I get around to copying off the stuff I want to my computer.
In the end, there were 5+ bags of recycle papers and lots of giveaway items (old toys, etc.). My mother, who seems to know everyone in the neighborhood, gave away some of the good items, and I hope they'll take the rest to Purple Heart or Ronald McDonald House or a homeless shelter.
I ended up pulling an allnighter Sunday night trying to get everything done - I really needed another couple of days, but at least I made a dent. I am very proud that by the time I had to leave for the airport, I had put away everything that I had taken out, so I did not leave my parent's house a complete mess. Often, I forget to consider the putting away time during my cleaning sprees, so while I'm throwing out tons of stuff, the place actually ends up looking messier.
Besides cleaning, I also went out to eat a couple of times with my family. One of the restaurants was an Irish pub type in downtown Plymouth (yes, MI has a Plymouth also), which made an excellent spring greens / dried cherries / goat cheese salad - not really authentic, but very tasty. I noticed again how nice the small towns in MI are, compared to the pseudo-towns that exist around Boston. I think my standards are being lowered by having to househunt in the less desireable areas, so when I see a community that actually has a pretty, clean, interesting downtown, I'm more apt to be impressed than I was before. We also drove through one of the townships, where they're building ostentatious housing developments with horrible landuse - at least it's less likely I'll see one of those around here. I really wish the MI townships would get their acts together and formulate better zoning plans before it's too late.
I wish I'd had a little more time to talk with my grandfather, but I'm really happy I got to see him at all. He's having some more trouble with his eyes (macular degeneration) and is considering moving into a retirement community / assisted living facility. There are some really nice ones where he lives in AZ (similar to college dorm living but much better), and he'll have more people around and won't need to drive to get places, so I think that might be good for him, as long as it's his choice.
So that was my weekend. Got back to MA around noon on Monday and spent the day unpacking and cleaning again (I put everything away and the place is neat, except for my desk, which is covered by the papers I brought from MI), with a three hour nap in the middle when I keeled over for "five minutes". Weekend cleaning was good. Unpacking was good. Neatened apartment is good. Completely exhausting my perseverence reserves is not so good, as I do not feel like I have the energy to do anything that requires effort, including talking to the buyer's agent. Tonight, I hope only to do the following: go to gym (must), return home, scavenge for dinner, probably collapse in front of the TV for an hour or so, and then collapse completely. Collapsing good. Sleep good. Brain emptied from effort of LJ entry. Caffeine will keep me awake at work, yeeeesss...
About two weeks ago, I stopped dithering about my holiday weekend plans (should I stay in case we need to look at houses? Should I go so I can see my family?) and asked my mother to book me a plane ticket to Ann Arbor. Luckily, there were still frequent flyer tickets available, since all the regular tickets were up to $500 or more by that point. Yay for paying college tuition with an air travel rewards credit card.
So I arrived on Saturday morning, after about 3 hours of normal sleep and 1+ hours airplane sleep. My grandfather also was visiting, and the weather was okay but nothing special (much better than the weather back in MA) - I expected to spend the weekend sitting around watching TV, going out to eat, and otherwise not doing much at all. Alas, that was not to be (and it was all my fault [g]).
My parents had had a small flood in the basement a couple of weeks ago, due to some sort of water main connection problem. This caused them to do some rare cleaning down there. In the process, they noticed that some items had been...nibbled on, or otherwise partially consumed. They seem surprisingly unconcerned about this - if this were my house, I would have had an exterminator there the next day (or at least cleaned out the basement as best I could). But no, these are my parents, who decided to "fix" their leaking shower by not using it anymore, and stated, "Oh, by the way, there's a towel in one of the sinks of the big bathroom - that's because we think it leaks too. Just use the other sink." It's not like they can't afford to fix the house (which they own or are very close to owning by this point) - they just don't want to deal with it. When they first saw a vole (or mouse - I'm not sure why my dad is convinced it was a vole) running around on one of the basement windowsills, I told them it had to have gotten in from somewhere, but did they listen to me and do anything about it? Of course not. :)
So anyway, I was much more alarmed by the basement issues than they were. When I see a puppet that has been ravaged in such a way that it's felt jacket is hanging off, it's upsetting! This sent me into massive cleaning mode. Over the course of the weekend, I ended up:
1) Cleaning out my closet completely. I finally convinced my dad to seal off the attic scuttle, which freaked me out when I was younger (I'd only go to sleep if my closet door was shut. Little bits of things actually have fallen out (they must have - I don't know where else they would have come from), thus vindicating my worries that something(s) might be living up there. I really hope there aren't birds nesting in the attic. Did I mention that they need to get an exterminator? After thorough swiffering, replaced stuff in closet, including all the soft items of mine that I could find from the basement. It seems that I have a huge basket + small basket + a cardboard box of stuffed animals and dolls to which I have an emotional attachment (not counting the crate in MA) - it's crazy.
2) Cleaning out my desk - my mother complained that there were bags under the desk keeping her from being able to push the chair in all the way. I kind of went overboard and completely cleaned out the desk as well. I did have to put some papers back in it because I ran out of time to sort them properly (as well as some old Cricket magazines that I didn't want to throw away). Found a ton of old floppy disks and copied off any interesting looking files to Zip disk for easy transport, crashing my dad's old Gateway 5 times in the process (that computer is very sickly). Got rid of some old audio tapes - still haven't found my Madonna "True Blue" tape (first tape I ever purchased). It's probably off having a vacation with the wallet I bought at the Mexico pavilion in Disney World when I was 8 or 9.
3) Sorting tons of papers. I think I went through at least two boxes, two bags, and three desk drawers worth of papers. I am a paper-collecting maniac. What was I trying to do, create a nest or something? Must...not...packrat...
4) Rescuing items from the basement. Besides the stuffed animals, I also starting moving some puzzles and games upstairs. I didn't get very far with that, unfortunately (and I was running out of closet space). I did locate all the old VHS tapes and moved them upstairs in hopes that they won't degrade by the time I get around to copying off the stuff I want to my computer.
In the end, there were 5+ bags of recycle papers and lots of giveaway items (old toys, etc.). My mother, who seems to know everyone in the neighborhood, gave away some of the good items, and I hope they'll take the rest to Purple Heart or Ronald McDonald House or a homeless shelter.
I ended up pulling an allnighter Sunday night trying to get everything done - I really needed another couple of days, but at least I made a dent. I am very proud that by the time I had to leave for the airport, I had put away everything that I had taken out, so I did not leave my parent's house a complete mess. Often, I forget to consider the putting away time during my cleaning sprees, so while I'm throwing out tons of stuff, the place actually ends up looking messier.
Besides cleaning, I also went out to eat a couple of times with my family. One of the restaurants was an Irish pub type in downtown Plymouth (yes, MI has a Plymouth also), which made an excellent spring greens / dried cherries / goat cheese salad - not really authentic, but very tasty. I noticed again how nice the small towns in MI are, compared to the pseudo-towns that exist around Boston. I think my standards are being lowered by having to househunt in the less desireable areas, so when I see a community that actually has a pretty, clean, interesting downtown, I'm more apt to be impressed than I was before. We also drove through one of the townships, where they're building ostentatious housing developments with horrible landuse - at least it's less likely I'll see one of those around here. I really wish the MI townships would get their acts together and formulate better zoning plans before it's too late.
I wish I'd had a little more time to talk with my grandfather, but I'm really happy I got to see him at all. He's having some more trouble with his eyes (macular degeneration) and is considering moving into a retirement community / assisted living facility. There are some really nice ones where he lives in AZ (similar to college dorm living but much better), and he'll have more people around and won't need to drive to get places, so I think that might be good for him, as long as it's his choice.
So that was my weekend. Got back to MA around noon on Monday and spent the day unpacking and cleaning again (I put everything away and the place is neat, except for my desk, which is covered by the papers I brought from MI), with a three hour nap in the middle when I keeled over for "five minutes". Weekend cleaning was good. Unpacking was good. Neatened apartment is good. Completely exhausting my perseverence reserves is not so good, as I do not feel like I have the energy to do anything that requires effort, including talking to the buyer's agent. Tonight, I hope only to do the following: go to gym (must), return home, scavenge for dinner, probably collapse in front of the TV for an hour or so, and then collapse completely. Collapsing good. Sleep good. Brain emptied from effort of LJ entry. Caffeine will keep me awake at work, yeeeesss...
