Friday

 

I’ve emptied this entire closet and sorted through every box. What you see are the things we decided to keep, mostly photos and sentimental keepsakes.

Just five boxes that no one will care about when we’re gone, artwork, A/C filters, paper towels, and an extra set of cushions for our new sunroom furniture—sent to us by mistake.

In another 15 years, if we live that long, we’ll sort through them again. At some point, you have to say who cares about yearbooks and old photos? I think about people who lose everything in natural disasters. They find a way to move on without any of their belongings. I think we attach undue significance to things that don’t matter.

It was time consuming to sort through everything, and a bit emotionally draining. Many photos were fun to see again. Old diaries and letters were funny and sad. I kept getting sidetracked. John and I kept pausing to look at things and reflect on our childhoods, which were remarkably similar.

Some things were easy to part with: Microsoft Office on CD from 2008, old music CDs, pictures saved to CDs, movie CDs.

I hung a few more pictures and stored others for another day.

The garage, on the other hand, is now filled with stuff. We’re using it as our staging area for the yard sale and selling on Next Door or getting a friend to sell on EBay.

We took a break to walk Toby and fetch dinner. We went to Stirling Park while the sun was setting, hence the red tint on our faces. I could not get a good shot of the three of us. Toby kept making goofy faces.

The temperature got up to 62 degrees, but it still felt cold. I think next year I’m going to count any day under 70 degrees as a winter day. I’m guessing that there are about 30 day's worth each winter. I like what my gym friend said about our weather: “Water freezes at 70 degrees in Florida.”

Miles walked: 6