Dateline March 31, 2021

I went out to pull weeds this morning, but I came inside because it was too cold, so I decided to come inside and spend more time in the sunroom, reading. I’m working my way through the essays of E.B. White, an old paperback that I will dispose of when I finish with it. The essays are interesting, but I’ve been making slow progress on them, mainly due to other events.

After reading an essay, I grabbed the book of poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay and read a few pages. I’m making slow progress on it too. I then picked up an old edition of a diabetes magazine, intending to zip through it and then dispose of it. Before reading in it I looked up and saw a downy woodpecker come to our empty bird feeders on the deck. I saw that three or four days ago but didn’t fill them right away. So I laid the magazine aside, took five minutes (maybe less) to fill them, then came back to the sunroom to read.

Now, from my reading chair in the sunroom when positioned in its winter orientation, I look right out a window at the bird feeders. As soon as I sat, I saw a tufted titmouse at the railing, where I scattered some old thistle seed. That didn’t please him, apparently, for he went right up to the feeder with the sunflower chips. But he didn’t take any, instead going to the feeder with the black oil sunflower seeds. There he ate. He took one and flew away. In less than a minute he was back, took another, and left again. This repeated for more than five minutes with no other birds coming.

Obviously, I don’t know that it was the same bird. Five or six tufted titmouses could have come to the feeder. It took almost ten minutes before a chickadee showed up, then a second. I tried to get back to my magazine, but first had to look around the room. In the spirit of decluttering/disaccumulation, the room is less crowded than it used to be. Last September, when we started de/dis, my wife said she wanted to sell three large plants in the room. I balked at this at first, as the plants in the sunroom are my friends, giving me oxygen as I sit and read there. Then I thought, there are about fifteen other plans in the room, I guess we could do without those three. They sold right away when I listed them on FB Marketplace.

Last month I decided to list the four antique chairs that came from my grandmother’s house. They were in rough shape, the sort of thing you keep with the idea of refurbishing it at some point. I thought, will I or the wife ever get around to refurbishing these? Two are cane-bottom chairs with the cane needing work, something you would have to pay for. So I listed them and they sold right away.

The sad thing is, with these things gone, you can’t tell that the room is in any sense empty. Two older easy chairs, a table, a patio furniture set, two old microwave tables, a tall plant stand, a couple of small tables, an old three-tier table, a magazine rack, some folding chairs, and plants sitting on every flat surface made the room seem nicely furnished, almost crowded even. It doesn’t look like a room that is being cleaned out by someone who is thinking of downsizing. I guess that tells you how much work we still have.

I got back to the magazine and went through about 25 pages. Half of those were ads for medicines or medical devices or food companies. But I read four good articles, one that included information I didn’t know before.

My quiet reading time ended all too soon as my lunch time arrived. I got up and went into the house. I didn’t say goodbye to the plants as I left. I shot a glance at the bird feeder and saw a chickadee and a titmouse fly away. The downy woodpecker must not have received the memo about the feeders being restocked. I’m sure I’ll see him again before too many days pass. E.B. White will still speak to me for another five or seven sitting to finish the 71 pages left, and Edna will see me again before long. For now, it’s on to other responsibilities and passions in other venues.

When I was in Saudi Arabia, I grew especially close to the Philipino men who worked for me. For some reason they liked me and I liked them. I learned a little Tagalog—not a lot, just enough for greetings and partings, maybe a bit more. But that seemed enough. When the time came for our family to leave Saudi, the company held a going-away party for us. The company sponsored a gift that the employees chipped in on—everyone except the Philipinos. They got together and bought me a nice wall clock.

Our shipment was already packed. We were flying to Vienna to start four weeks in Europe on our way home. We were to leave December 2, 1983. While four weeks was our plan, we were prepared to cut it short if, after three years of mild Arabian winters, we found the Austrian winter a bit too much. With a lot of luggage already, we stuff that clock in, carried it to Europe, thence to Rhode Island, thence to Kansas City, thence on the bus to Meade Kansas (where we picked up our cars), thence drove it on to Asheboro North Carolina, our next stop on the path of life.

I’ll shorten the rest of this. That clock hung in our home in North Carolina, went into storage when we lived in Kuwait, then hung in our apartment in NC on our return then in two houses in NW Arkansas. It survived being dropped, being knocked off the wall when I errantly threw one of the dog’s toys. It always kept good time. Every two years or so it would die, and I’d have to change the batteries. Then it would start chiming again, every hour and half hour from 6 am to 10:30 pm.

In our present house it’s been my companion in The Dungeon. It helped me to keep on schedule with my work. If I said I would work an hour on something, I’d wait for a chime and know when I should end. The chimes were just loud enough that you could hear it upstairs in the living room (if the TV was off or not too loud).

Then, we came back from our brief trip to Mexico last Christmastime and it wasn’t going. I got new batteries for it and…nothing. Didn’t start. I tried other new batteries to make sure I hadn’t picked up used batteries by mistake and…nothing. The clock had died. For 37 years it’s been a good and loyal friend, but it died. It’s been sitting on the table since January. A newer clock that doesn’t keep time very well is in its place. But I’ve had a hard time getting rid of my old friend. I was told I could replace the works inside the shell, but, that somehow doesn’t seem right. No, by the end of the day today this clock will be in the recycling pile in our garage.

Other things are going too as the wife and I contemplate down-sizing sometime in the coming years. Our children want us to do that sooner rather than later, but the amount of stuff we have suggests this will not be a quick or easy process. In July Lynda identified a rocking horse that our grandkids have outgrown. We could keep it around until great-grandkids come along, but that could be a long time and a new residence from now. So I listed it on Facebook Marketplace and it sold a month later.

Encouraged by that, I scoured the storeroom shelves and found a small aquarium we haven’t used since we moved to this house. That fetched $20 on the Marketplace. Three large plants brought $15, and I lost a few friends that had kept me company in the sunroom the last few years.

I decided to tackle the garage. In it I found lots of stuff that I had taken from Dad’s house after his death, when my brother and I divided up the tools and hardware. Boxes and boxes of the stuff have cluttered two different garages now for 23 years. Why didn’t I get rid of it long before now? I guess I thought I might use it some day. I listed for sale a wall “panel” for an old drill set that is now just a nice shop decoration. That sold in just a couple of days. Then there was a box of old clamps (probably used in woodworking). They sold in a day.

Then there’s that old wooden ladder that’s been just hanging on the wall since I got an aluminum one. That’s now waiting, hoping for a buyer. I next looked at a bottom shelf that had some boxes. I pulled them off and found them all to be empties. They are now flattened and waiting for the next trip to recycling, probably on Wednesday.

So, these old friends are slowly starting to make their way out of the house. Some, like the clock and the plants, were good friends. Others, like the tools and boxes, were just taking up space. I told my son that, when he comes to visit us soon, he’ll look at the house and say, “I thought you were getting rid of stuff!” I told him it’s a first step, like cutting one millimeter off a two pound block of cheddar cheese. It’s barely noticeable, but it’s less than was there before.

Hopefully we’ll continue this process and have motivation and strength enough to do a few more millimeters. Maybe in a year it will be noticeable. Meanwhile, it’s hard to say goodbye to some of these friends.