Friday, November 22

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

Waking up to lovely kitty snuggles. Truly, these cats are adorable.

I got up in good time to get to the barn for River's chiropractic adjustment.

Since I was going to drive right by the mechanic's shop on the way to the barn, I gave the large bag of rags (made from old shirts) to our mechanic, as well as the large pair of coveralls that my husband had given me to "give to someone else" since they wouldn't fit him (because somehow I am more capable of finding a largish man who wants coveralls than my husband).

So a few things out the door. That's the struggle, is actually getting things OUT THE DOOR. I can mark something for clearance, and it can sit for weeks in a corner in a bag, going nowhere. It takes work to get it that last step out. Mostly because I hate just tossing things in the garbage, I want to see it used.

It was way earlier than I would usually go to the barn, which felt a bit strange.

The adjustment went fine. On one hand, the chiropractor made a lot of "he's and old guy, sigh" noises, but I don't know why they bother.

River IS a little older, but you know what? He's in great shape. Nothing really for arthritis, he gets lots of exercise and has great feet. There's nothing to moan about. If all she can come up with is that he's stiff in a few places, well there's no need to go into "poor old horse" mode.

Of course, she suggests that he get a LOT MORE CHIRO done.

The last time he was adjusted (less than a year ago) was a different person, a man, who left the emotional storytelling out of it and told me "he's doing pretty good overall". Funny how different people see the same animal. Projection, I guess.

ANYHOW.

I didn't work with River after, as you're supposed to just let the adjustment settle.

My husband was going to the climbing gym today after work, and then some of those people were getting together at one of their homes for munchies, not quite supper, but potluck stuff.

I went home and changed Wonder's blanket and added a liner since we're supposed to get colder weather tomorrow.

Then I got her to walk with me at Liberty in the pasture. Though it was fully night, there is a lot of reflected light on clean snow, so it wasn't hard to navigate the pasture. She stayed with me well, and it was very pleasant to walk with her on the sparkly snow through our path in the trees.

Then I came inside and tackled Mount Laundry, and also washed another liner for one of River's blankets.

My Sweetie got home and we caught each other up on our day.

I asked him to come with me into the unfinished bedroom for a conversation about "action plan" for putting tools away in the garage that are not immediately needed for current work.

I met with a bit of resistance to that, as his feeling was "well, won't we still need those tools for when we work on X, Y, and Z?". I said "are those things happening within the next six months", and he was like "mmmmaybe". So I was like, "well, we CAN walk the extra fifty steps to the garage to get it when we need it next summer".

I suspect what he will try to do is to just take it all downstairs, since he doesn't see the basement as a LIVING SPACE, he sees it as a work shop. I wonder what it will take for him to see the basement as a HOME, not a tool shed/shit storage area.

At the very least, I used every shred of my being to pin his incredibly short attention span (when it comes to putting things away and making decisions about where things go) to explain to me what this one tiny box of what looked like bathroom hardware was. Are we going to use it? Where is it from?

These fixtures (a toilet paper holder, a towel ring, a small towel rod and a hook) were nice looking, but not likely to be used in the future by us. They were apparently in the closet in this house when we bought it, likely something the previous owners had bought and didn't use.

So, it was decided that these nice items could be donated. There. One small box less than the size of a shoebox voted on.

Comments

[cf2princessawnw]

Good that you got some things out of the house! I can relate to that today because I had a small bookcase full of things to sell and had never done that. L. Apparently is the kind that says just throw it all in the dumpster even if it's brand new. I was always taught never to waste, but his point was that it's taking up space in your life and that's a waste too. In the end SK took the things. I don't know if she'll be able to sell the one Facebook Marketplace but at the very least because of L's weird way of approaching it, I can feel accomplished that at least it's out of the house. Last time when DV said she'd pay me $15 for something I couldn't use, she never did pay and hasn't come back. That was important to me cuz I feel like I can never get rid of anything and sell things. So. All of that rambling to say I'm glad you actually did it and were able to succeed in getting things out of the house!!!! High five because I got to do that here today and it's a small but big win I'm grateful for.

[gottawonder]

I very rarely throw anything away outright. It must be ruined in some way for me to do that, and even then I look to see if it can be restored usually.

I just donate a lot of stuff. If it's worth less than $20 to sell, I generally don't worry about trying to sell it, because the process of selling stuff on marketplace can be so annoying.

I try not to feel too badly about the sense of wasted money if I did use the item at some point, or if it just made me feel good to own it for a while (I will be honest, sometimes that is all I get from some things, is that "Yay" moment of buying something wonderful, and hopefully I found it to be beautiful).

I buy a lot of clothes from the thrift store, and if I have it for a few years and don't wear it much, I try not to feel too badly about "returning it to whence it came".

It is inevitable that we will waste money. No one's perfect. I think I'm a bit spendy sometimes, and then shrug, because lots of people spend money on things that are transient, like have a bottle of wine every night with supper (which is great, they likely enjoy it very much, but it adds up), or spend $200 getting their hair done every month, and so on.

I try to spend money on things I will use and enjoy, at least. If I don't use it or enjoy it or need it, it's probably better to give someone else the chance.

I'm glad you were able to move some things along, and I hope they get used by someone else. It gives me a sense of control over my environment when I can clear out things that don't serve anymore, and I'm sure it's nice to have the space open.

[cf2princessawnw]

It's definitely nice to have moved something along since so much needs to get stuck and I'm unable to move plans forward overall. I do really hope it will make money though. That's the biggest difference with me and everyone else I know or see in society. I have yet to meet anyone as frugal as I am. But that's because I need more income. If I could solve that piece, everything else I think could fall together pretty well and that's a lot to be great before right there.

It is a good way of looking at it that did you enjoy the object before you got rid of it, and hopefully I can get to that point too. Right now I'm just too much in a different mode. That's not necessarily A Better or Worse mode than anybody else's, I think the older I get the more I realized everybody's finances is really their own business. If you have the money, you get to do whatever you want with it. :)

[gottawonder]

It's certainly nice if you can make money from selling things. It makes it a little easier to part with things if you can think of them as funding something else.

I've tried selling a few things for five or ten dollars, but it isn't often worth it for someone to come to our place to pick it up, nor for me to drive it into town to drop it off. We're a bit isolated, so an item has to be kind of worth the drive.

It might work better for you in a city, as you might find more people interested if actually GETTING it were a short drive.

[cf2princessawnw]

I do live in a city but the logistics are still too difficult for me to make it worth it. Thankfully my friend lives closer to a much larger City and is also familiar with this and more mobile.

[gottawonder]

If you have a friend that can help sell things, that's fantastic.

[cf2princessawnw]

Haven't heard anything but hopefully.