IT'S MY PARTY...

...and I'll cry if I want to.

So many good wishes from friends - can't even begin to name them individually. The office Buds gave me and Paul a get-together going-away "soire" last Thursday. I wanted to cry, but I didn't... The City gave Paul a reception at City Hall last Thursday afternoon. I wanted to cry, but... (Note here: the departments gave him a wonderful generator - someone said it would light up the whole town of Iuka! Indeed! We shouldn't be hot or cold in case of power outages! Thank You!!) Yesterday in church I cried a little, looking around at the sanctuary, the stained glass windows, the choir, the people:  "forsake not the assembling of yourselves together." It was all about all the wonderful memories, connections, friendships - church really is a church home. In Sunday School I did cry.  We have shared so much over the years and are a close bunch of "girls," have been through so much together, prayed for each other, loved each other, laughed and cried together.

After church Paul and I ate at Kelley's, fortunate enough to see several couples we could visit with a bit; then we came home and collapsed for naps after eating from the fabulous buffet.

Saturday night we - Paul - had taken everything out of the attic and mostly I went through what was salvageable and reboxed the contents. So many of Amy's dolls and stuffed animals, high school papers, notebooks, Argentina trip memorabilia, letters, cards. Some of the boxes had almost caved in, the tape was dry and curling, dusty. I went to Walmart and got some more plastic boxes for the dolls - ET, Big Bird, the one that blew Bubble Yum gum (rubber, and the "bubble gum" had dried in the poor baby's mouth), doll clothes, boyfriend boxes; old patterns (including the Vogue pattern for my wedding dress - $3.00! Quite a lot in 1968 when Simplicity and McCall's were maybe 65c!). (Sometime last year Mama Nick told me and Amy she had cleaned out some things including letters I had written to her over the years. Amy and I looked at each other and - just looked at each other... But yesterday some of those letters were returned to me! There were notebooks of printed letters (I almost always wrote them on the computer) to her and to my Mama - packrat that I am, I had saved them in that way. Call it an obsession, but family history, genealogy, stories, have always meant so much to me. I can throw away an 1970's hair dryer (helmet style) but not letters to and from family.

We can hardly walk for boxes, but the attic was the last frontier. All I lack is the freezer, which I've cleaned out, and the refrigerator. I plan to share the contents with a friend if she can use anything, and take the rest to Iuka - the blueberries from Killough's, the pecans from Joe's handy tree just over the fence.

Never thought I would miss a stove, but I actually miss it just being there. The buyer came Friday and got it. I'll be glad to get somewhat organized at the new house - it will take a long time for things to find their new homes. This weekend we have to make room in closets, two need to be painted, and I wish my great painter sister were there to do it, but she won't be back until spring. I have used a couple of chairs long enough to know they don't "fit" us - one is a small recliner and the seat is not deep enough for our long legs! I'm sure there will be another trip to the Salvation Army store.

The Chamber of Commerce in hosting a reception for Paul (he was on the Chamber Board) Tuesday evening from 4-6 at the Tech Center, just before the last Council meeting over which Paul will preside.  We'll say our goodbyes, make some individual stops around town, and time draws to a close on this era of our lives. I've mostly expressed my feelings about leaving friends here, but I know Paul feels the same way. While I worked in Forrest City all but a year of my working life, he has been here and knows 99% of everyone in Wynne, not to mention the county and the state! He has loved both his careers - teaching and being mayor, no doubt about it.

Now I have deliveries to make - to the Workshop and to Miss Ermaline for the Mission Sale this fall.  Look for information about that - I know there will be some nice wool jackets for sale!

I told someone in SS yesterday we would have satellite internet and she said, "Good luck with that," having it herself. Hopefully all will go smoothly. I may be gone for a little while, but plan to let you know about Iuka, Iooka, Iukse - it's been spelled so many ways and it really is easy - our Indian Chief!  "The city of Iuka was named after Chief Iuka, pronounced eye-you-ka, which is actually a contraction for the longer name of Ish-ta-ki-yu-ka-tubbe. The Chief was an endorser for the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek, dated October 20, 1832."

I'm glad it was shortened to Iuka - I'm not even sure how to pronounce the longer name!



...AND THE DISH RAN AWAY WITH THE SPOON

We (Paul) sold our old stove yesterday and I polished it within an inch of it's life. Who wouldn't want this pretty old stove? It's going to a new home and I wanted it to look pretty and it does. I made hamburgers on it last night for me and Paul, told him that was our last cooked meal on that stove, really in this house, I suppose...

Then I started packing everything else in the kitchen - pans, dishes, all the little things you think you might need in a two week interim before moving. You don't. You need only a few things. A plate, cup, fork, spoon.  One pan, one spatula. To live very simply, that is all you need. I'm reminded daily that we have a huge abundance of things we don't need, and most of it, truth be told, have no attachment to, or even want when it comes down to it.

After our hamburgers, we split a Sonic Oreo Blast. He found a plastic spoon in his truck; I got one of the measuring spoons off the ring it was on and that's what we ate with. The measuring spoons had escaped being packed as yet, only reason they were handy.

Tuesday I went to Women on Mission and it was so good to be with "sisters." I know there will be other "sisters" in Iuka, but these ladies I have known - most of them - ever since we've lived here, gone through teen years with our daughters with some, bought the BPW birthday calendar from one, taught GA's with one, just gotten to know them even better since I retired and have time to spend doing things like this.

Today is lunch with the TB's (Travelin' Buddies), Jean, Carol and Charlene. Tonight a small going away get together at some friend's home. Tomorrow - reception at City Hall. Next Tuesday afternoon a reception at the Tech Center.

How much I love Wynne and its people. Yes, bittersweet to move. But ready to move on to this adventure of our retirement years.  So glad Paul decided to retire. We may get on each other's nerves, but at least we'll have plenty of room to go off by ourselves for a while - he on his riding mower and potentially two acres to mow, hack and clear out underbrush; me to Bren's house, or "My Room," or a walk over to Aunt Ginny's!

Now to go and round up stray spoons...

ANOTHER BIG STEP...

The packing has gone well this week. I mentally check off the rooms...there are odds and ends scattered around the house. Keep? Not keep? A little silk magnolia blossom I gave Mama years ago... Had it in the give-away box, took it out. Made a picture of it. Put it back on the bookshelf. I'm too sentimental. Is there such a thing as too? Probably. Anyway, I have too much stuff. I'm sure once at Two Acres (temporary name since I'm not really saying "home" yet), I'll see where and how everything fits. There will probably be much more thant goes to Goodwill - there's a nice one in Corinth.

Paul is going to enclose half the double carport to keep his garage contents temporarily, until he can get a garage/workshop built. That's his big project, while mine is a new refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and sofa for the living room. The refrigerator and stove are not just essential right now, but I remember when we got a fridge with an icemaker! What a happy day! Mama Nick's fridge doesn't have one, not even a place for one, but ice trays... So three nice appliances and a new sofa... that would tide me over for a while. 

I'm glad sister Sher will be there for a week - she's good at spatial projects, color... Our main concern will be "my" room (office/studio) - stripping wallpaper and possibly painting, if we get that far. It has to be cleaned out first and I hope the "boys" will be able to help this weekend, getting furniture and other items they may want. It's the nature of this whole endeavor - moving Mama Nick's things, going through them.

We have carefully considered everything we've packed and more importantly discarded. The old plastic containers went out right away. Aprons, purses, table linens - packed. China and flatware - washed. She has given her blessings and has told us more than once how glad she is that we'll be there, that we wanted to buy the house. In her situation, I would want someone to take care of all that for me, know it was being handled well and with respect, and that's what we've tried to do. She is not well, but she is aware, and as long as possible, I want her to know we're doing the best we can and taking care of her lifetime of belongings. Near the end of any lifetime (actually very likely) it doesn't matter. For the days I've packed and packed, there have been times I've actually felt ill and like I wanted to throw it all out - it is just things, after all. But the memories attached to them, people, places, times. Those are priceless. We should just thank God we have had those people, places and time.

Today's work will include getting my little truck packed with things I'm taking this weekend. Paul will have room in his truck also.  Then there are two cats and Oscar.  The cats will get travel anxiety drops - Dr. Smith said give five drops each about 30 minutes before we leave. Plus their nice big potty, which will be packed easily enough and it's big enough to hold something else, not a cat - there are two carriers for them. I got some pan liners and can just lift out the litter tomorrow before we go, wash out and load up. (You know, if it had wheels we could pull it - I've said it does look like a small camper trailer.)

Amy's job is going great; her apartment situation and roommate are working out well. She's staying busy and has had after-hours work at the other funeral home she works for. (This was not a problem with her full-time employer; they discussed it.) There was an air conditioning problem yesterday, she said, but maintenance responded right away, so hopefully they didn't have to sleep in the heat.

I'm going to the courthouse today to apply for absentee ballot. I suppose this mayoral election will be the last one I will vote in.  I will just be getting back to Wynne and don't want to risk missing an opportunity to vote. I haven't moved my residency yet!! Just my stuff!

NEW LITTER BOX

It's nice to have enough leisure time that you can just run to a city 50 mles away for... a new cat litter box. I wanted to give them time to adjust to it before I also traumatized them with a trip in cat carriers for three hours on Friday. They will have to have some kind of medication... Or I will... They don't like to ride like Oscar does. I asked Paul if he wanted to go with me and since he wasn't busy, he drove.  Quick trip to Petco, found the one we wanted, big enough for Huge Tommy, and home within a couple of hours.

It has a door. Now I'm beginning to think that anyone who would manufacture a cat litter box with a door has never lived with a cat. Maybe a kitten who doesn't know the difference would use it, but not two grown cats. I sprinkled catnip, I coaxed, I sat and tried to reassure Lucy and later Tommy that it was okay, they really could get out once they were inside.  To no avail. I finally Googled "How to Train a Cat to Use a Door on a Litter Box" and the best advice was, "Take the door off." So I did. Now I'm just hoping they'll use this new box. At least it's covered and has plenty of room. It looks like a small camper trailer. And at least Lucy will check it out... (Bitty uses her tiny door on the garage - she was easily trained to go in and out with food as reward. We have found that the other cats in the neighborhood also know how to use it. They just learned that's where her food is.)

Earlier I picked up three more rolls of UHaul tape - great stuff!, boxes at Hays Grocery, returned a couple of items to Caldwell Lumber and got an outlet plate for one that was way behind the bed that Amy took, packed two boxes of old LPs (why am I even keeping half of them!?), cleaned under my bed (found two boxes of Amy's pictures from when she moved before), stacked canvases and prints in a box to add to the stack going to Iuka this weekend...  Every day is a new project. The house is a total wreck. The house in Iuka will be a total wreck for a while, too. But it just takes time. I'm glad sister Sher will be there next week to help.

Such is the life of someone getting ready to move, who has to rest often to relieve the aches and pains, who has to move boxes on the wheeled garden cart.  I've thought a lot about whoever invented/discovered the wheel.  Don't you know he was (or she!) was one happy caveman/woman? Would love to have seen their expression! Wheels are great!

This evening I wandered out into the back yard and looked at the few roses and day lilies that have bloomed. They seem not to be as profuse as last year, but are pretty nonetheless.  I haven't seen any yellow lilies yet.. But these are such an unusual color...

Oscar patiently waits for me to make my round in the yard.