Look how far we've come!

It's funny how a simple thing can bring back a flood of memories.  A long time friend's birthday is today and it was on facebook.  Wow!  How many years ago did I meet her???  Oh, gosh!  We were young teens.

There were a dozen or more of us. . . going to beach parties, pajama parties, dreaming of meeting our Knight in Shining Armor. . .  We were "good little girls" and life was always going to be wonderful.  Along the way there were good times and bad. . . graduation from high school and for some, college. . . weddings, breakups, children, grandchildren.

It brings tears to my eyes.  Tears of great joy and tears of deep hurt.  But isn't that what life is all about, really?  Would we all be the same person we are today without our share of heartache?  Heartache that eventually made us the strong person we are today?

There's an old saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going and when you walk through a storm, keep walking, one step at a time, till the sun comes out again."

Clearing out the shed

My son and two of my grandkids (well, they aren't "kids" anymore, but whatever) were over one day this week to help out around the house.  We tackled the storage shed out back.  

I've lived here 27 years and admittedly, some of the things in the shed have been sitting there for that long or almost.

"Mom, you need to get rid of a lot of this stuff, either sell what you can and toss the rest."  

Okay, I don't need to be on a pair of rollerblades anymore and they looked kind of "worn" to put it lightly.  And my downhill skis and cross country skis.  Yep, I probably couldn't get down a slope without ending up on a stretcher.  I think one of the boys took them, not sure. My ski boots had seen better days.  They got tossed.

My high school and college yearbooks and multiple photo albums were in plastic totes and they stay!

I thought I had gotten rid of all my camping/backpacking stuff but these three managed to find things up in the top level of the storage shed that I had forgotten about.  They took what was still usable that they wanted.  There was an old electric drill and tool box that belonged to my father, who died over 20 years ago.  John took that.

There were some funny moments in all this upheaval.  I had a nice pair of Sorrel boots that are for heavy duty walking in snow.  Although I got a lot of use out of them in the Adirondacks back in the day, they still looked brand new.  One of the boys texted someone who might want them and wears the same size shoe as me to ask if she wanted them.  He got an immediate text back:  "HELL, YEAH!"

There was a big box of old tents and river bags.  I don't think we found everything - we were getting hungry so stopped to go up the street for lunch!

We ended up with three piles of things in front of the shed.  One was to toss, one was things they wanted, and a few things that went back in the shed.

"MOM, what are you doing with all these gas cans?"

There was a time when New York State outlawed the old fashioned but easy to use red plastic gas cans.  Several new versions came on the market and it took me awhile to find one that was idiot proof that would work for me.  It wasn't like I went out and bought a handful at one time!

I can just imagine when I die and all the kids converge on the house to go through my belongings.  Wish I could be a fly on the wall that day!!!