Ach! Been a little bit too occupied this past week to keep up with this thread.

On Monday I decluttered Tom's car. After a couple weeks of wishy-washiness from a carless friend who wanted it, she finally decided to buy her other friend's piece o' rewelded crap instead of nice, clean,
SAFE car with all the documentation, manual, etcet etcet. By that time, though, I had several (four, actually) other neighbors and acquaintances waving money. So we sold it to my up-the-hill neighbor for her daughter. She appreciates what a good buy the car is -- Tom would still be driving it if he could see well enough to drive.

Anywho, when I went to check the car I was attacked by a mess o' wasps that have set up housekeeping around the car door sometime in the past couple weeks. While waving them away from my face, one landed a stinger in my left hand just below the thumb. Went up to my neighbor's and she immediately made a baking soda paste to put on it, then we did the transaction. On my way to the credit union and other errands, I watched the slightly swollen redness spread across the back of my hand. Got home and gobbled a couple benedryl, aspirin and smeared Bactine then benedryl gel on the hand. Also took my rings off...just in case. Good thing because by Tuesday morning the hand was painfully swollen and unbelievably itchy. Called my doctor then went to the walk-in at the health center. Well, that tied up the whole morning and early afternoon -- but got (and picked up and took first dose in the parking lot) Rx for generic Claritin and an antibiotic that I'm unlikely to be allergic to. (That's all I'd need!) But Wednesday found my hand just as swollen and the itching was driving me crazy, so I called my doctor again. Found out that I could take benedryl along with the other antihisamine and THAT finally made the itching subside.

Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of decluttering done for a couple days! (And yesterday I played hooky and went with the "Ladies' Summer Outing" to the York, Maine Decorator Show House and lunch at the York Harbor Inn. A lovely day but I was absolutely exhausted when I got home, though.

But I noticed this morning that my exertions while beating the yard into submission and extricating and de-accessioning things in the house since I "retired" seems to be making me a bit more fit. In a fit of cleaning clutter on Tom's side of the bed (in anticipation of him actually being able to come upstairs sometime soon), I actually knelt not only without thinking about it, but without actually needing a kneeler. No excruciating pain in my knees AND I got back up reasonably easily by pulling myself up on the nightstand. Exercise is good, including all the to-ing and fro-ing to keep up with Tom's needs.

BTW, the project I was working on was cutting out a goodsized chunk of carpet which I'll now haul out back to smother weeds.

Decluttering this carpet is a major project and can't be done all at once. It's old Seam-Loc Golftrend -- 54" goods with a very heavy sponge (not foam) rubber backing and it's inch high wool pile that is so dense it can stand up to golf spikes. I've gotten about 35 years' worth of wear out of it, but I'm sure it has 35 years' worth of dirt stored in it -- it's too dense to efficiently vacuum. So I've been cutting out and disposing of it in sections. Later I can remove what is under furniture. Today's chunk was major and I feel very accomplished having done it.

The other accomplishment this week (actually done before the wasp sting) was decluttering Tom's email. It takes him forever, even with the screen blown up huge, but he's fiercely independent about some things. I just say, hey, let's work together -- your brain and my eyes, and we can get stuff done...and he finally accepted. Got some other PMFF business taken care of as well. (One of the email addresses that Tom takes care of is the festival's.)

Onward!
Linn