Photo Opportunity

Once I had the scanner out, I kept on going. So I've scanned about 200 photos I can toss. I'm keeping a few of the hard copies, less than 10% I'd say. Once I started rooting around the space where I keep photographs and photo-related stuff, I realized two of the photo storage boxes are empty. What with the photos I'm not keeping, I'm about to empty a third box. Those are going, freeing up space to take on the overflow photos/frames that has been taking up space in a bedroom closet. And I still have a lot of condensing to do, as I continue to scan. I'm sure I picked up those extra photo boxes thinking I'd put more photos and some kind of mementos in them, but that's sure not my goal now, and I don't expect to collect a whole lot of other hard copies of photos anytime soon. Anyway, it feels like a real accomplishment, as it is clearing real space.

Picture Perfect

Today's theme is camera-related. Ironically, I am not including any photos with this post.

1. Time to toss (recycle) the manual for the Canon Powershot A540, which I no longer have.

2. Way past time to get a stray roll of film developed. I had hoped it was from my visit to the Statue of Liberty (1993) or Prague (1994). Sadly, it was neither, but rather some shots around the condo that I think are from around 2002-2003. Mostly cat pics, but also some of a table which I had forgotten entirely. Another relic from Kurt's house, it is something I had around for awhile because it had potential, but I lacked the skill/money to get it fixed up. I have no recollection of when or how I disposed of it. But it is proof that such things needn't take permanent hold on my memory, and that their absence is not a mandate for regrets.
The cat photos were nothing special, so I just scanned them and threw away the actual photos. Once I had the scanner out, I had some momentum and scanned about twenty-five more photos - a small start to a huge pile of same, but a start nonetheless.

3. It was the right time, again, to delve into my drawer of labeled cables to get one for my digital camera. I had some problems with my primary laptop and wanted to upload some photos, well, for the last blog post. The old laptop doesn't have a port for the sd card, so I needed the cable to connect the camera. I'm glad that I kept the right thing in the right place that enabled me to actually use it when I needed it.

Kid Stuff

Childhood crap, what a minefield.  I will say things got easier a few years ago as it has been increasingly statistically impossible for me to have biological offspring of my own, thus freeing me from the pretense that I should be saving anything for my kids, either from them to play with, or reminisce over.

Exhibit "A" is my first real doll.  I mean,  I definitely had other dolls, stuffed toys and whatnot, but this was the one I would have been dressing up and giving a baby bottle and hauling around in a toy stroller or something.  I was late to the game wanting this, but but parents obligingly got her for me when I rather suddenly insisted I needed a doll.  A named her "Adora" because I adored her.  Someone, possible my godmother, sewed that little yellow dress.  The pink jacket was at some point commandeered and assigned to one of the cats, who did not care for it at all and would walk around backwards when forced to wear it.  Adora was joined shortly, at Christmastime, by "Wake-up Thumbelina."  My mother, trying to do the right thing, got me the African-American version, so my doll family looked a little odd, but so does my real one, so that was ok.  Thumbelina is long gone, abandoned I suppose when the mechanism that allowed her to turn over (that was her schtick) wore out.  See, this is why I decided i probably wouldn't be the world's best mother.  It's Adora's turn to go now.  She is blind and has some kind of plasticized version of leprosy.

Exhibit "B" is a rabbit puppet.  We were going through the booths at the county fair with my aunt and uncle and I really really wanted this and my parents didn't want to buy it for me (on principle or on account of cost, I don't remember), but my Aunt Florine bought it and gave it to me. I don't know why.  If I'd been whiny about it, I'm sure that would have put her off - we weren't close and I remember her as a bit harsh and strict, so I don't know what possessed her.  I think the thing was seven dollars.  My allowance at the time was probably about 35 cents a week.  So, I named the rabbit Annie, even though that was already my sister-in-law's name.  I conducted a little wedding ceremony between her and the same cat who was forced to wear my doll's jacket. 

Exhibit "C" is a hairbrush shaped like an alligator.  It was made by Avon and was once part of a set along with a green comb.  It got used to brush one too many cats and is pretty grungy now. 

Exhibit "D" is a copy of Gulliver's Travels.  Notable is that, although this is a children's version, it does not gloss over the method by which Gulliver put out the fire at the imperial palace.  I'm pretty sure I've seen a movie version that wimps out on that.

Dad's Drawers

I hadn't planned on it, but I wound up doing a fair bit of tidying up on/around the desk in the library/home office.  It is a bad place for clutter, since the long-haired cat (who has nine layers of fur and sheds as if it were an Olympic event) likes to sit there.  The surface has been pretty hopeless since the day I moved in, but as of last night I thought, this could look decent if I can clear some of the things off the right side.  Those happen to be things I definitely want to keep, but they don't have to be "out."  I know, I'll put them in one of the desk drawers!  Now, I knew at least one of those drawers was usable, since my spare laptop lives there.  Mistakenly, I thought the others were, too, but really, not so much.  They contain very random small crap, some of which is pictured below.  From left to right, a bit of everything - things to toss (1999 Pocket Pal calendar), relocate to my office (post-its) , donate (tape measure with Suburban Propane logo), or keep (sliding square, which is very cool and which I will actually use).

The reason I was working in that room in the first place is I'm trying to make progress on my curtains.  For now (and the last several months) the fabric in there has been just draped over the rods, but not actually made up.  I started some of the work yesterday (after finally hemming some of the ones in the living room) and that gave me the momentum to do a little bit more.  Today I'm going to try to sew the side hems.

SOMEDAY (there's that word), after I've finished the curtains and decluttering, I'll be refinishing that desk.  My father used it as a worktable for his model train hobby, so it's in pretty rough shape.  But it is from my brother's house (see multiple previous posts) and has potential and would really be perfect in that room once I have it fixed up.

DIY to go

This is a small (about 4"H) box.  I made it about 15 years ago out of scrap fabric and whatever it was I had bought in a round cardboard container.  It came out pretty well, considering my utter lack of talent with anything even remotely crafty. 
It has been in use for the whole time since I made it.  I think originally I kept cotton swabs in it; more recently, it held my vast collection of nail files and emery boards.

But . . . I'm looking to justify keeping other things, which can only be done by putting *them* to use.  I've moved my nail care implements to a blue and while ceramic tumbler - so this can go.

That reminds me of how I've gradually worked this out in my bathroom.  A similar tumbler holds thermometers - both digital, and the old mercury ones I like to keep (but obviously would never use).  A tall tumbler holds toothbrushes, a chocolate cup now houses the cotton swaps, and my grandmother's hair receiver holds a makeup brush.

I do something similar with the kitchen junk drawer.  Since I insist on keeping my parents' old chipped coffee mugs, I can at least use them to hold wire nuts and wall anchors.

In Hot Water

I have two, count 'em, TWO hot water bottles.  I think I bought one for myself, and then was given the other by either my mother or by my best friend.  I think the second one came with a fleece cover, long since gone (I hope).  I do kind of think my friend gave it to me.  I have a vague memory that I introduced her to the relief to be found in a hot water bottle, but she liked this other kind because it has a thicker construction, and for the fleece cover.  The thing is, that's exactly why I don't like it - to me, it doesn't transfer heat well enough or long enough.
It's not like I use one regularly, anyway - I won't use it during the summer, when it it hot, and during the winter, I don't want to stand around freezing trying to fill it with hot water, which I then need to dry off the bottle.  I'll try to use pain relievers first - the water bottle is awkward when I need it most, when I'm trying to sleep.
Going forward, how often will I need the thing?  I should be hitting menopause before the one I do use wears out.

Power to the People

A few weeks ago I wrote about what was being relegated to the Technotrash box (for recycling).  One of the things not going in was the backup power supply cord for the backup laptop.  Calling that a keeper seemed a bit excessive even at the time that I wrote that, but there it is.

Meanwhile, at work I have a project that requires use of a particular program, installed on a particular laptop.  At my office, I can set up the laptop on my desk, and have threaded the cord through the openings at the back of the desk to keep them out of the way.  But that is a bit of a pain to fish around and crawl under the desk to do, and I need the laptop to be mobile, as I want to be able to work on the project at home, and use it for demos.  I needed another power cord.  I thought, huh, this is a Dell, just like my backup laptop at home.  I wonder if the power supply is compatible?  Well, it is, so I can use the cord I already have at home while working there.  (If you are wondering why I don't ask my IT department for an extra cord, that because I try to save my requests for favors for important things, like last-minute access to the projector).

The point here is not that I should keep everything just in case, but that for the things I do chose to keep, they are a lot more likely to be useful when I can actually find them.  In this situation, because I had already gotten rid of so many cords and cables, I'd been able to put all the rest in one drawer, so when I went looking I only had to look in one place.  And this item was labeled, making it even easier to find.  If I can't find what I am looking for, I might just as well not have it.  Anyway, I am counting this as a win.