Haven't written in a while. We've been busy over at the house--mostly in the basement because it is so HOT. Been in the 90's for several days with no end in sight. The basement was mostly Dad's stuff. Susan has been cleaning out the back room which is unfinished and dirty. I think Dad kept every cord from every appliance and/or lamp they ever had! (Never know when you might need one.) There were cords everywhere. Hanging from the ceiling, in bags and boxes, on shelves. Lots of old electrical stuff. Plugs, wires, switches. I bet some of this had not been touched for 20-30 years. Some of it was in moldy bags or boxes. Found more GM stuff from the 50's until '89 when Dad retired. More Purdue stuff. Knights of Columbus stuff. Religious stuff on being a Lay Minister. Credit card statements and utility statements back to I think 1999. Bank statements, investment info. House stuff--which we will keep. Looks like they got a new roof in 2004. That's great news! New water heater in 2001. Of course Dad kept every manual to anything electronic--usually with the credit card receipt stapled to it and the date written on the front. That's my dad. Very organized--in some ways. Then we'd find misc. stuff just in folders or drawers. I found a 1945 calendar he got in the army--this little tiny thing that looked like a little booklet. Found a neat protractor set in a blue leather/?? binding. Travel stuff from their trips--itineraries, etc. A folder for each trip. And lots of cans. Like vegetable cans and coffee cans--all with the labels off and filled with screws, nails, lamps, and anything else Dad saved. The cans are everywhere. In the basement, on the back porch and in the shed. More mechanical pencils, leads and erasers. Rulers of all types. Stencils used in engineering and drafting. Oh, and did I mention golf balls? Lots and lots of golf balls. Joe took some and Dave Dunnst--but we found more. All those years collecting balls from Otis. Dad also cut off detergent containers and used them as storage. I wrote more stuff down but it is at the house. Will have to get it and add more later.

We also boxed up Mom's Emmett Kelly figurines. We never could understand why she liked them so much. I never liked them. She'd say, "Those things will be worth something someday" and I'd say, "Are you kidding? They're the first things I'm getting rid of!" or something like that. We always gave her a hard time about them. Sadly, they are not worth much. Nobody is buying them on Ebay. So off to the auction they go. It was strange boxing them up, though. Thinking that the last time they'd been in the box, she had carefully taken them out and placed them in her curio cabinet in the living room. I was with her when she bought some of them. One didn't have a box and I remember her buying it for a reduced price because it didn't have a box or stand.

Then there are the bird plates. She had two collections, one by Lennox and the other Bradford Exchange. We decided to keep the Lennox ones and sell the Bradford Exchange ones. The Lennox set was in the living room and the BE set was in the dining room. We've taken them all down but actually put a couple of the Lennox ones up in the bathroom. Again, she was sure they were "collectibles" and would be worth something. Sadly, they are not. But she really enjoyed them and that is what mattered. She loved her bird plates and her Emmett Kellys. We boxed up the BE plates for the auction as well.

We kept a lot of dishes from the China cabinet in the dining room, but some things we will take to the auction. The sad part for me is that I don't remember the significance of some of these things. Did they mean something to Mom? She told me over the years, but I do not remember. I wish I could have asked her.

Some things are hard for me to let go of. I'll see something and it will just bring back memories or it will just be so familiar--something I grew up seeing all the time. John and I were talking about this one paring knife that is still in the kitchen drawer. The blade is so thin from being sharpened for so many years and the handle is all worn--but there it is, still in the drawer. Why were some old things kept and some not? They have bought plenty of knives over the years--but they hung on to that one.

We still have so much to do. I think we took 20-30 trash bags of stuff out of the basement. Sometimes I think we're almost there--then I realize we have such a long way to go. I'm still hoping that we can move by October.

Some days are good days and some are not so good. I'd been OK and now I'm having some bad days again. Crying and just feeling sad and lost. I miss them so much. I ate at Hobby's this week on Wed. night and got the special--broasted chicken. We would do that a lot when I was in growing up. Go to Hobby's for broasted chicken on Wed. nights. Then there was the PGA Tournament on the big screen TV. Dad would've been watching that. He ALWAYS watched golf. Even if he came out to visit he'd turn the tv on to watch golf. And then he'd get on the phone with Watson Pearson and talk about Tiger Woods.

I still think they would've lived long lives if this had not happened. I always pictured Dad in his 90's like Grandpa and Mom in her late 80's like Aunt Bee. Even Granny lived to be 83 and she was sick a lot. They didn't have any major medical problems (that we knew of). I just thought they would be around another 10 years at least. I wanted to take care of them. I didn't want them to be sick, but I wanted to take care of them when they needed it.

I miss them so very much.

Susie