Wednesday 25 January 2006

Pic of the day: Chaos Node, huh? Not much sign of that here.

Clearing out

My friend returned around noon. Despite being up fairly early, I had not finished packing all the discarded stuff in bags. (Yes, it is garbage, but it wasn't until I decided it would be. It's NOT like my apartment was floating with banana peels and gnawed bones. I had even taken care of the two empty tin boxes before. Yeah.) We loaded the car and drove off to the recycling center. But it didn't open till 2PM, so we bought some food and had a lunch break. I resumed tearing apart carton crates, of which I had saved up a couple small rooms full. I also threw away other stuff, like electric stuff that almost worked and could surely be repaired. You know, the usual.

When the time came, he drove off with the garbage sacks while I continued my wanton destruction. My friend returned and started wrecking the furniture. This is actually a good thing, since there is some furniture where I'm supposed to move next and anyway it was around my age. I got it from poor friends and flea markets nearly 25 years ago! I guess I have moved slightly upward in society since then, but it never affected my furniture. A new chair and a 40 year old chair fill exactly the same function: Sitting. Not like computers, which can do more for each year.

Be that as it may, the day passed in exactly this way, until 6PM, when the recycling station closed. By then we had sent off several carloads (and we're talking a craftsman's car here, not the type you use to drive your lunch box to work). And yes, I did use up all those black bags I mentioned before, and began on a new roll as well. And we didn't use any of those for the furniture. So I guess there was more stuff to throw away than I had imagined. I also ended up throwing away some comics and cheap romance novels that I could have handed in to the swap store. I had to be out of there before tomorrow, after all.

The things we didn't throw away, we stuffed into the few and small rooms that are not getting new linoleum floor tomorrow. They were pretty much full just from that. Yes, I have disturbingly much stuff. Apart from the computers, most of it now is clothes. I must have as much as a small family. How did that happen? I guess it comes from cultivating the hobby of shopping together with certain girls, and also practicing some on my own. I must have enough clothes for 20 years, probably 30. Especially since much of it is of good quality and likely to last for quite a while. Of course, not everything fits me now, especially the trousers. Most of them are too wide now, much too wide, after I lost nearly 15% of my body mass, most of which was probably fat. Anyway, you have heard much about me and my fat and will probably hear more, so let that rest for today.

Rest, however, was not an easy thing for me. Even after my friend left, I dragged the rest of the things into the small storage rooms. Then I vacuumed and washed the floors a bit. I slept on an old, cheap guest mattress on the floor in my bedroom. Tomorrow I have to put that too in the back room while the new floor is put on. Whether I can sleep there again next night I don't know. I am not used to laying new floors, so I don't know how long it takes or what chemicals are used. Tomorrow I shall know more.