DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - '25-26

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - '25-26
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Dec 25 - 10:01 AM

Under the "it could be much worse" heading, this morning, the last in a run of sunny warm days before a forecast big freeze, I have a plumber coming over. After I ran the washer then the dishwasher last night I noticed the toilets were making noise. Turns out the sewer line is running very slow, no doubt backed up by tree roots. I never run the washer and dishwasher simultaneously; consecutively is what spared the house from water from spreading further. My home warranty doesn't pay for tree roots, just plugs in the house line only. I'll call them and then when the plumber is here and once we've sorted out which kind of snake gets run the Home Warranty folks will or won't participate.

I had other stuff to do today, but nothing better than keeping the pipes clear ahead of the holidays. Since a plumber is coming over anyway I'll run out and get a good faucet and have him replace the one in the back yard while he's at it. Its on its last legs (and is full of a silicone gel to prevent the most recent dripping.)

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - '25-26
From: Mary G
Date: 12 Dec 25 - 01:51 PM

I had not heard about Chehalis flooding. We are five miles away. Centralia does flood and I asked before I moved in how was my apartment going to be affected. It has a few feet of height off the ground. Centralia floods on I=5 at times. In the meantime, we are bone dry here..a bit of mist or light drizzle. No hard rains at all. I can't evacuate easily because I just scrapped my failing car. Oh well.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - '25-26
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Dec 25 - 10:56 PM

Mary, without a car you may need to be creative if you have to leave (rental? Uber?), but without a car you avoid things like license tag costs and insurance. Sounds like a win to me.

Today the plumber cleared the blockage in the front cleanout and I thought changing out the hose bib would be a piece of cake. Turns out that the hose bib took several tries because whoever (decades ago) crimped an aluminum clamp onto the copper pipe for an antenna wire ground overdid it and the copper pipe was bent a bit oval in shape. That shape kept defeating the new sweated-on fitting. The options were to keep trying or to go into the bathroom and cut a hole in the wall through a cabinet to run a new copper line outside (instead of removing brick). He kept trying and on about the fifth try got it, and really undercharged me for the whole trip. His assistant ran the snake for the sewer line and back and forth to turn water on and off while the faucet was worked on. The bill wasn't nearly as big as it could be, and the tip was pretty close to that amount, worth it to me that he kept working and saved me having to bring in a carpenter to fix the wall. Handing over the tip he said "That much?" - and I told him it was up to him how he shared it, but it was worth his trouble.

That faucet has bugged me for years, I've found many ways to try to prevent it from dripping. As of this evening it's a new faucet and working the way it should.

Now back to everything else I was planning to do today.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - '25-26
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Dec 25 - 11:25 AM

It’s snowing again — still? — but I’m grateful for Ottawa’s comparative calm: no line squalls or white-outs.

Subject: RE: DECLUTTER: *Sorting *Health *Progress - '25-26
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Dec 25 - 12:01 AM

Today I finished reading Adam Minter's Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale, a fascinating look at how people discard items (clothes, appliances, electronics, furniture, books, and everything else somewhat durable) and how other people sort it and redistribute it via thrift stores or exports. Often times involving repair along the way.

I learned something new. The word "shoddy" (as I have understood it) implies something of low workmanship or poorly done, but in fact it is the technical name of recycled or rag wool, and how it is shredded and spun into new fibers for wool products, blankets in particular. Minter discussed the mills that still produce shoddy blankets. Wikipedia has more on recycled wool.

There was also a lot of discussion of the businesses that have grown to sort the households of elderly family members going to nursing homes or work on estates after they have died. In Japan, for example, the used items get more reverence and are desirable in other nations because they were made in Japan and are durable. People who sort household items in turn sell them to exporters. Clothes and furniture head to the Philippines, Malaysia, and China, electronics go to Africa. In a separate chapter he shows how American electronic waste is desirable in Africa because the items sold here last longer once they're reconditioned or repaired and put into service there.

This evening I put a mailing label on a box that holds my father's old Casio electronic calculator. I myself used it for while, usually for income taxes, but in recent times it is redundant because the calculator on my phone is as reliable. People collect these things and someone in Florida has just paid for this bit of electronic memorabilia. As Minter points out, in the end, it's just stuff, and better to find a home where someone will enjoy it now than have it go in the trash later if the kids don't want it.

Cold weather is headed this way and I've been feeling a bit blue, so this evening I made a point of pampering my tomorrow self by changing the bedding (in the time it took to brew a cup of tea), cleaning the kitchen, and doing a load of laundry. I set up the next jigsaw puzzle to work, and at that point realized that while some objects go (the calculator) it's not like I'm giving away my Dad, and the table I use for puzzles was his dining table.