Tired of coughing, I cleaned out the bookcases.
It sounds so simple, but it was an all day job. Our housekeeper cleans the tops of the books,
and she cleans the fronts of the books.
She does not clean behind the books.
That’s what I did Monday. Pick
them up, dust, dust the shelves, put them back only if I think I will reread
them someday. I got rid of six boxes of
mysteries which leaves room for more histories.
I seem to be getting more histories these days.
Tuesday I cleaned up after the cleanning up.
Tomorrow morning, I am driving grumpy up to a new Chevy
dealer on Kearny Mesa. I confess that I
am very uncomfortable with this. My
mouth says all the wrong things when dealing with what I perceive as a high
stress situation.
“Hi, we want to try you out,” I might say. “Because the last
dealer told us to turn up the radio to cover up a weird sound.” The sound was the throw out bearing beginning
its demise.
At least I am sleeping all night long now and now coughing
any more.
Good! The fact that the coughing has cleared up has brightened my day.
ReplyDeleteI must try to follow your example of dusting all around.
History's good. We learn from history.
Your bookcases are so neat. I need to cull my shelves again, but can't bear to part with the histories. Mystery books went to a retirement home years ago. Many art books also sent there. And the garden books too. So sad. The art and garden books mostly have beautiful photos. Newer books are printed in China and the artwork is inferior.
ReplyDeleteKeep the dust at bay!
Are you trading Grumpy for something newer? Will get Richard to drive me to your place 10/31 so you can meet him.
I keep poetry, books I loved in my youth, books I may re-read someday and throw out EVERYTHING else! I rarely dust them, though.
ReplyDeleteGot rid of a lot of books a few years ago and find myself hunting some of them down and buying them again. So it goes. I told my daughter I was going to find some fabric with books printed on them and hang it over the shelves to keep the books dustless. Not really but it amused me.
ReplyDeleteBookcases are a thing of my past. After moving twenty two times we finally had to choose sanity over another heavy load of the hundreds of books my family had collected. Over the years I gave books to anyone who wanted them. When I retired, I invited my staff to come to my office and take anything they wanted from the shelves that lined the room. It was really heartwarming to see treasured books go to treasured friends! ( i do have two or three boxes of things I just couldn't let go, but I'm betting those will go soon, as well. ) Now it's just me, my kindle and a rotating stack from the public library. Traveling light!
ReplyDeleteThat was pretty doggone ambitious of you.
ReplyDeleteI used to have so many books they were stacked on the floor, because there was no room in the bookcase. Then, I ended up donating most of them. No more clutter.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you're able to rest. You are really amazing to keep all those books dusted. I hope nobody looks behind my books. That would be embarrassing because I do hate to dust. I do love your bookcases. It's so neat and beautiful.
ReplyDelete