If you don't mind spending the money, for ten dollars the folks at What's It Worth To You dot com will give you a written appraisal with as much detail as they can tell from the best, detailed photos you send them. They've done a couple of pieces for me which were really good. I learned how far back one of my antique chairs go, farther than I thought, mid-1800s, and what would be fair selling and insurance replacement values.

Lin, to the left of my keyboard is exactly where Trystan demands a spot. If I don't watch out, he starts hanging his head on my hand, then works his way over to lying on the keyboard IF I don't support him. Then he winds up draped across my arm at which point I usually have to heave-ho because he is TOO heavy!:-)

Because the weed guy is coming on Thursday, I was able to get Rog to help clean up his BIG mess in the backyard. Morgan-the 4yr old came over to help. He did okay picking up beer cans for a little while, then he played straw boss, saying to us, "You guys are doing a REALLY good job. Good, Mama. Good, Papa. Keep going. That looks good!" I told him not to patronise me, but, of course, being 4 he wasn't; he really did mean it. It's pretty funny, to a point, when they turn the tables on you. He helped a bit later and filled the birdbath.

Rog was not a neat smoker/drinker of beer. No matter how many times we'd clean up, he'd still drop his butts on the ground and toss the beer cans near the right bin in the backyard...ruminating. It's my theory, being a broadcast engineer, he's got so much precision and order to be mindful of at work and working out in his head, he subconsciously balances it out by being a bit of a chaotic slob at home, BUT not that much, anymore. He's doing well on the chantix and hardly ever stands around out back, anymore, with a cig and beer.

So, we cleaned up a ton of debris from the yard, moved a few things around, generally tidied it up a bit. Rog pulled off all of the dead weeds which were up against the grape vines on the other side of the fence and did a good job in general.

THEN, I was charged up, SO I opened up my little Shasta caravan. This thing has been used for storage all winter, with things getting tossed in it, literally, from the door. Rog does not stack, neatly, or at all, so by now, one could barely, literally, get inside the door. Morgan went in ahead of me and crawled over mountains of stuff, saying, "This is cool, Mama!" I groused around, able to only shuffle my feet in a circle and started slinging. After I'd put a couple of bins on the counter, I was able to start shifting the rest of it. A lot of it was empty boxes. I like to save them for re-use in shipping, but they'd just been flung in there. So, I started heaving them out the door with orders to Rog to break them down for recycling. Morgan promptly went out the door, climbed in the biggest one, sat down and started making noises, calling to me, to ask if I liked his spaceship! I am still in there slinging and flinging and muttering imprecations of doom and gloom to the idjit who made a mess of my stuff!:-)

Anyway, got all of the empty boxes out, can see the floor. Sent two bins into the house to be gone through for treasures and packed it in. It was a good start and there's not that much left to do, mostly organising the space and stuff; what to keep, what to heave, what to see, etc.

When I backed out of there, I found the boxes still lying on the ground; not broken down, not stacked. SO, warming up my lungs, again, I hollered at Rog, for about the 5th time, we weren't done to get back out there!:-) Morgan and I broke them down, Rog packed them away to his truck and THEN we all went inside. Done with the back yard for now. Whew!

The BIG deal of it all was I did it all without the supplemental O2, for the first time since last winter when I got pneumonia!! (I also went to dinner without it last night. WHOO_HOO!)

Oh, and {{{{Linn}}}}}, I love sending my books on to new homes of approved people...it's hard to just let them go among the unwashed public! That's why I may still list some here at the Mudcat! And, feel better, will ya? But take the time to do so, too!**bg**

{{{{maeve}}}}}}I know letting go is difficult, but you are doing well. So are the rest of us. Ladies, give yourselves a good pat on the back!