January 7, 2014

Closet Cleaning and Christmas Packing

January 7, 2014

The Christmas tree is still in the living room.  I am glad it is artificial and not real or I wouldn't be able to sleep for fear of fire!  I do plan to take it down.  I have no idea when.  Yesterday I had stayed home a couple of extra hours in the morning before going to the office with the plan of packing up some of the Christmas items, but I decided first I needed to do some cleaning and rearranging in the storage closet so there would be room for the things to be stored safely.

This  evening I did pack up several boxes and stored some in the master bedroom where they go.  I am making some progress.  Then I returned to closet cleaning.  It is looking much better, but there are lots of boxes to still go in there.  Just doing that kind of rearranging and storing, shows me how weak my arm is.  It is continuing to get better.  I can carry more, open doors more easily, etc. but getting up off the floor when I am working on things down low takes two strong arms.

At the office I took the Christmas tree down and packed all the decorations away.  Ron got the boxes down for me and put them back up.  I also tossed a couple of boxes of old decorations (nothing great) that had been damaged in storage.  They were over 20 years old and just falling apart.  I did a little cleaning after I got the tree down. 

My back has continued to hurt off and on and I am sure it is all the up and down of the undecorating process.  Because of that, I have spent some extra time relaxing and reading while using the heating pad. 

I left the office a little early and went to the mall to exchange one item.  It is the only thing I had to return for me this year.  I returned one item for Ron's mom Friday night.  This was not the fault of the buyer, it was my fault due to me giving her the wrong size.  The clerk who waited on me remembered selling the item to my daughter-in-law, Barbara and had such nice things to say about Barb.  Again, it was nice to be able to carry on a "natural" conversation in a store.  I heard most of what the clerk said, but she had a habit of wandering throughout the area chattering away, so it was a real challenge since she would have her back to me and would be walking away from me.

From there I went to Staples for office supplies and then picked up my supper on the way home.  Ron had gone to have supper with his mom as he does most Tuesday evenings.  Again, each place, I could communicate with the clerks.  That may seem a minor thing to you, but not to me. 

Our son Bob took a bad cold that was just starting when they left here to head home.  He has gotten worse each day, staying home today with chills.  I am so thankful everyone stayed well while they were here, but I am sorry he is so sick now that he is home.

A few people have asked about my eye problem from the day before Christmas.  I still see some flashes of light off to the right side and sometimes have little black dots that move in the upper outer edge of the area of vision, but they are minor and since I know all is well, I am not concerned by them.  Thanks for asking.  I think the flashes are diminishing.