Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Dungeons & Dust Bunnies

Not much cleaning was done yesterday. However, I wasn't idle either.

I packed 9 boxes of Neil's stuff from his room to bring down to Texas with us. And I filled 3 boxes of stuff to bring downstairs to sell at a later date.

Today I made up for yesterday's somewhat laid back cleaning efforts by attacking the basement, what we used to call the "dungeon" when Ariana was still little.

I lost count of the number of moldy and falling apart books I put into garbage bags. As I cleaned, the bag pile was growing bigger and bigger.

It wasn't just books that went into the bags. I found all sorts of odds and ends on the shelves down in the dungeon. I totally forgot about my ancient silk screening paints from my college days. Now that's going back a long time.

As much as there were things to throw out, believe it or not, I also found things worth saving, and thus selling. They were mostly Neil's fantasy and sci-fi novels, along with several model kits. The boxes of the model kits were slightly damaged, but the stuff inside was still good.

All that stuff I brought upstairs.

I was going to bring up the 2 metal shelving units, but they were too big and cumbersome to navigate through the tight stairway. The shelving units will have to go through the bulkhead and then be brought into the house from the outside.

But that will have to wait for another day, perhaps Saturday when I have the guys bring all the trash bags out into the dog yard.

Speaking of the bulkhead, I found it difficult to sweep the steps. There was so much soil on the steps of the bulkhead that plants were growing out of it. And when I took the shovel to the soil, I discovered a couple of big fat earth worms that would have been perfect for fishing.

So I shovelled all that soil into a garbage bag and swept up the rest.

Armed with a broom, the next step was to attack all the cobwebs in the basement. After I finished with that, I better organized the hanging and dragging cables and wires. And I placed various plumbing miscellanea on one of the wooded platforms in the dungeon.

Once I get all those bags out, and get the storage shelves, old silk screen, and a couple of chairs out of the basement, I will work on cleaning up the floor. The cement floor will obviously have to be swept. But to the dirt floor, I will have to take a rake.

Not only that, I will have to take some plant clippers and remove all the vines and roots that had been growing in the basement.

By the time I was done with the dungeon, I was filthy head to top. Thank God I had the foresight to cover my head with a scarf, because when I went to take a shower, I saw that the scarf was covered with cobwebs.

After all that, a hot shower never felt better.

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