Still Cleaning out the Apartment

Sunday, yesterday, was cloudy for most of the day with the sun coming out in the early evening hours. We went to church early, it was packed, and then to the apartment to continue cleaning it out.

Sarah packed the china and crystal and I took care of the pictures. I ended up buying too many boxes to use for packing. I bought one box for each of the large pictures and three boxes for the china. The china I was OK, the pictures was a different story.

I had measured the pictures and three of them are 42x37 or somewhere in that vicinity, so the guy at the U-Haul store sold me a box for each, which I later discovered is correct if I would have bought the Styrofoam corners, I didn’t I bought some bubble wrap type corners. In addition I made up the boxes so I could take the picture off the wall put the corners on it and place it in a box. The first picture fit in the box nicely, the second picture fit in the same box as the first nicely and the third picture fit in the same box as one and two with room left over. So now I have two more boxes put together with no big pictures to put in them.

I had several smaller pictures to pack, so I cut one of the extra boxes in half and fashioned a box out of the half and the smaller pictures fin perfectly in it. I have a box or two left over but I still have some stereo components to pack up so I may still have a use for the left over boxes.

Cynthia, Sarah’s twin sister, came over and we were able to pawn a few things off on her. She is keeping a lot of things that belonged to their mother for their brother(s) to go through and take if they want too. I couldn’t talk into a couple of lamps or desk chairs but I may keep trying on that. Cynthia did take two big plastic boxes of pictures and what-nots to her place.

We loaded some more boxes into the car and headed home. Of course I don’t know where we will put this stuff but we’ll find someplace and within a year we will most likely pitch it.

Sarah lost one of her ear rings on Saturday so we spent time trying to find it in the car and camper then she wanted to go to the truck stop we had gotten gas at before we left town. I volunteered to drive her not out of the goodness of my heart but because I wanted to go find a Dairy Queen. The truck stop people said they did not have it nor had anyone turned anything in. We headed out to find a Dairy Queen; I knew there had to be one in Altoona, only because I wanted one so badly. The GPS on my IPhone said the closest one was in Des Moines, we drove on regardless. Now 35 years ago there was an ice cream shop in Altoona and I figured it might still be there. No such luck, but to our surprise we did find a Dairy Queen, evidently some GPS software needs updating. One last problem with this whole scenario, the Dairy Queen was CLOSED.

We needed a few things from the grocery store so we went to Hy-Vee. I really like Ritz crackers and I discovered a new favorite last night, the ones that are pretzel flavored. I also bought some ice cream since I couldn’t have my Dairy Queen.

We got home I got settled into my chair with my laptop on my lap and I was getting ready to watch 60 minutes, when Sarah says “Do you want to go for a walk”. At first I said no but then I reconsidered my present and future options. So we went for a walk. Once around the park I figure is close to a half mile, I am going to have to drive it to see what it actually is. We finished the first lap and our neighbors Judy and Dick were just starting their trek around the park, so we joined them. Dick had both knees replace seven years ago, I believe he said, he is going to have the plastic in one of the replaced in the near future so I am sure we will get to join them on future walks around the park. After the walk we sat and visited for a bit. It is great to talk with those who have been full timing for a while and learn little trick and tips they have acquired over the years.

It started to get cold and dark so we all headed for our homes and settled in for the evening. I finished reading the paper and watched “Undercover Boss”, it is only the second time I have watched it, but the show was about Roto-Rooter, which was founded here in Des Moines and they had a segment from Des Moines.

We turned as soon as the weather was over, I am now very interested in the weather so we can plan on what to do etc. for bad weather. We have some thunderstorms coming but we’ll what they end up doing.