January 30, 2008

Project B






Older Journals awaiting scanning. Visible cat damage on many. 2008.

You would never believe it, but I took it easy yesterday. I started the day with no goals at all. I tidied here, washed a dish there, read a little, and suddenly I couldn’t wait any more for G to get the Christmas ornament boxes down from the bedroom storage. Usually the tree comes down after his birthday…it’s after his birthday now, come to think of it.

If I put all his baseball memorabilia in the tall bookcase….which would only need a glass door over the one area that used to have a door, I could bring the black bound journals upstairs to scan. That would free a cardboard box, I could put the ornaments in the box, and both could come upstairs for storage. Ah, such complicated stuff.

So that’s what I did. Nothing like living in the now.

I’ve scanned the images and photos from 1974 through the early eighties. Then I ground to a halt. Many years ago, I leapt away from handwritten bound journals into printed pages placed in binders. Now I just keep the year’s ephemera in archival boxes with the content on disc. A rough count tells me I have 22 bound journals still to scan. I’d planned on quilting. Now I guess I’m scanning just to get these memories into the computer and off my floor.

I confess, these journals, unlike my boxed or bindered pages, are not year by year. I would write until I finished a volume then begin the next one. Volume 27 does begin in January 1993 but mid January. That was thoughtful of me. The daily writing ends October ’93 with, “Oh, I am being such a grumph today.” There are few photos of a matronly looking me and a beardless G. Cards and letters from friends, a couple of grandson pictures, a doodle here, photos of an opening there.

I see term papers stuck between the journals their covers wiped with bleach to kill the mold. The big house had a leaky roof that made for a mold filled home. “Thanks for the work, 100%,” say the notes inside the covers of my Biology 101 writings. A standard essay on the DROSOPHILIA MELANOGASTER netted the lab instructor not only my first essay on my new computer, but my sense of humor. Appendix one included illustrations, charts, and quotes, plus I find a little ditty.

Artefact Nerds Score Advantage

Scatiopigus males
it turns out
have got a better shot
at mating with caliopigus females.
Darwin was confused.
It’s not the fittest pig
but the ugliest.
Even the Drosophilia women
flock and mob
nerd male heterosexual fruit flies.

--W. Prop/ no other citation available, so how did I get an A with no citations for the examples I will never know.



Duck: His fading curve seems to be deepening. All this week he has thought he was still living in Whitewater WI. I asked him last night about his family photo albums, and he told us they were in the bookcases next to the door, in the bottom drawer, at the Main Street apartment. After that, he had no memory of what happened to them. Today is Duck’s 82 birthday. G got Duck, cards, 82 candles to go on a small piece of cake, Peanut M&M’s, and table decorations. He also got a sugarless pie for his tablemate, Allie. We will take photos.
Me: Very quiet…..she say laughing. Took Christmas down, moved G’s baseball stuff out of the box and into the big bookcase. Moved journals out of big bookcase to stairs. Made a dent in a book. Dinner soup and salad out last night….tonight dinner out with Pete. That will be fun. Instead of project A, I am unexpectedly beginning project B. Never a dull moment around here.
G: Is having good days everyday. Right now he’s creating new files for the two ton, two door Dodge cab and chassis. He’s using the light but having difficulty finding time to exercise. I understand that. We both tossed and turned last night. We were so cold we couldn’t sleep but so tired we couldn’t wake to put a quilt on the bed. Silly us. Weather:42F to 57F mid day. Grey out.

1 comment:

  1. It really must be difficult to know what to do with all those journals. I've also numerous journals (22 years worth). I want to take some of the entries and type them into my computer. And then I am going to burn them all. There is so much nonsense in those journals, I don't want anyone (translate: my children) reading them.

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