Tuesday, August 9, 2011

I think I met my 5 a day goal tonight!

So Tues. is trash day and DH & I decided to tackle a portion of the attic last night. Here's a small list of what we got rid of:

  • Extra dining table & 2 chairs (I convinced him we need to save 2 chairs for when we have guests)
  • Silverware, extra mugs, shot glasses, some wine glasses, coffee pot, a stack of frying pans, chip clips from my Pampered Chef selling days, a ton of kitchen utensils, a Barnett Bank mesh beach bag (still looked brand new!), a bike rack for the back of a car and tons of miscellaneous stuff
  • Two 6' cloth palm trees that used to decorate our living room
  • 4 speakers and a subwofer
  • A 10' piece of PVC pipe (who knows why we had that?)
  • Old fishing tackle and a huge tackle bag
  • An old microwave
I'm sure there's more but DH was throwing things down the stairs fast and furious. At one point in life we thought we would buy or build a small log cabin in Georgia, but I'm not sure that will ever happen. Instead, I think when we retire, we can just rent something for a few months if we are still in love with that area & want to spend a summer up there.

A lot of stuff I'm donating and a lot went in the trash. I'm curious to see how much is still out in the trash pile this morning. I'm sure the neighborhood pickers went through it. Sorry I didn't post a picture, but I didn't have a chance to download any photos last night.

On a side note, DH was able to put one coat of paint on the strip in the bedroom that never got painted. The story there is we painted the bedroom thinking we would add crown molding, which never happened. So there was a 1" strip of unpainted area that needed to be finished. The first coat is on and now he has to finish the second. Thank God he's suddenly motivated to finish that project, but he still has a few more to go!

So, at least when our company is here later this week I won't feel guilty about not having the time to throw away 5 things. I think I met the goal for the rest of the week!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Phew! Dodged a bullet.....but another's is on its way!

Well, luckily in South FL we dodged Emily as she quickly went from potential hurricane to nothing then a depression and then bye bye! Now just to quickly drink up that second gallon of unopened milk before it expires......

.....but our next bullet is on its way - time to move! Yes, we have decided it's time after living in our 1100 square foot townhouse for 11 years. Yes, the mortgage will be paid off on December 27th, but we are just too cramped in here. If we didn't ride bikes, hunt and fish, we could stay here forever and ever, but we are active outdoors people with lots of 'stuff'. We hunt for ducks (lots of decoys for those trips), wild boar (need a bigger gun), deer and whatever else. We love to fish (different rods for different fishing - offshore vs. inshore), and we both ride road bikes and mountain bikes. We cram all these things into our tiny townhouse and rent a storage unit for overflow and my DH's business inventory.

Now it's time to return to my 5 a day purge. I have 4 bags of 'stuff' ready to go to the Humane Society Thrift Store today. There will be lots more as this adventure takes place. Stay tuned as I journal how the moving process proceeds.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Uh Oh - Emily is on her way!



I live in South Florida & this is the image on the National Hurricane Site this morning. See the big round circle in FL? That's Lake Okeechobee, and I live directly due East of it on the coast. Sometime on Saturday, Tropical Storm Emily will pass by us, bringing much needed rain and some wind. Hopefully it won't strengthen to a hurricane, and we will have a near miss.

I'm not worried thought. Why? Because we are prepared.
  • We have a generator and today DH will fill up some gas cans
  • We eat simply - lots of fruit & veggies - and they don't necessarily need refrigeration.
  • We can easily put our hands on our hurricane shutters and install them in a matter of a few hours.
  • We have a small house which is concrete construction with reinforced steel and a concrete roof.
  • We survived Hurricanes Wilma, Jeanne and the other female that I can't remember
A tropical storm is like staying home during a big snowstorm. We are well stocked and have plenty to do, with or without power. The only difference is the weather is HOT and HUMID and no A/C is not fun. But, when the storm passes and if we are without power, we have a window A/C just in case.............

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