Cleaning out my office today!

I finally took the plunge and am now starting to move things out, most of which are boxes of books that will eventually be shelved once I get the shelving installed in my office. But first I need to clear it out and to do that takes a bit of strategy on my part. I try to carry the boxes out and managed to do three until I felt a pain in my left lower back. Immediately I put the box down, and kept moving before everything froze up on me. I then took a long hot shower, applied some of the Tropicin cream and kept moving. I then carried small piles of books from a box in the office to the garage. It's the old "taking baby steps" trick that eventually gets the job done.

I found my mind can no longer work in a too clutter environment. There is organized clutter where I know where everything is. And there's the clutter that gets out of hand and is telling me, or practically shouting at me to do something.

And I pick this hot day in August to do it. The house is cool but the garage is up there with temps in the 90's. I give myself several days to get this stage completed. Then I'll wash the walls. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and look for the paint. I'm not sure what color...should it be striking like maybe a terracotta hue. Or more subdued and more in touch with what's on my living walls which is a stone gray color. I'm not sure. They have the small cans of paint you can bring home and try them out.

This room hasn't been touched in over 35 years so long over due. I still remember papering it with a striped blue, gray, and white paper. And I still remember the special blue rug, and blue checked bedspread. This was my older son's room. The last thing done to it actually was sandpapering the wood floor and putting a nice varnish on it. I remember that week my husband spent the time using a hand sander to do the job. Later that week he came with me to an RWA writers' conference in Natick, Ma. This was all during his school vacation, April 2002.

I had wanted someone to come in and do the sanding but you know how men can be when it comes to doing these types of projects. Why pay someone else when they can do it themselves.

It proved to be quite a project, with all that dust produced by the sander. The floor still looks pretty good and has held up over these last seven years.

Now I just have to get to moving out these boxes and make this the office that will help to inspire me to keep creating my stories.

It is late afternoon and still at this time somewhere inside me listens for his voice telling me he's home from school. Although during the summer months he would be coming up after giving a tennis lesson at the local golf club. And then we'd go out a grab a bite to eat. I'm sure this summer he would have all four grandkids on that tennis court teaching them everything he knew about the game.

Yes, life is pretty much taking baby steps and moving forward.