It's been a year, hasn't it?
It's been pretty much a year in a series of years, to be frank.
And it certainly isn't offering any signs of change for a bit.
Mind you, it's all perspective, isn't it?
I have just finished an audiobook "Three Sheets to the Wind" by Adam Courtenay
I think that William Clark would never have considered school holidays, care logistics for young and old, mobile phone curfews, hysterectomies, cataracts, dementia or curries much at all.
And we have never had to consider how many people to leave behind as we headed across unknown territory- heck, we can order lunch on the way!
Indeed, making toss or keep decisions with Dad on the weekend don't seem to be of such import in the rest of society and timeline of world events, but it is a bit of a butterfly's flap.
We found a box of diaries. Dad has been a diary writer since he was 13. From 1951 to 2019 there is a record of days as it happened to Dad - and they have them most of them stored two drawers in their house - but not all, as some boxes remain from their last two shifts - and these are people who have only shifted twice in their 58 year marriage.
One of the boxes that we went through also had diaries. Many diaries. Some were missing diaries. We will have to check through them again but we are getting closer to the full set.
Some were diaries - with absolutely nothing in them.
There was a spate of some years where multiple people thought "I know the perfect present for old Bruiser" and felt so pleased with their purchase that old Bruiser didn't have the heart to advise of the duplication - nor the ability to regift through a combination of not wanting to hurt the feelings of others and guilt over the economic distress caused by frittering away all of someone's hard work.
Thus the subsequent festive season, multiple people thought "I bought the perfect present for old Bruiser last year " and felt so pleased with their purchase...
And so they remained and have been packed and moved TWICE (although possibly never unpacked in the interim).
I talked Dad into doing the UNTHINKABLE and put some of them into the "get rid of" pile.
I even suggested - and got resigned agreement - that they be discarded completely.
And don't think for a moment that I didn't contemplate throwing in an environmental aspect, however that can lead towards more hoarding than reduction of clutter as you never know when something might come in handy.
He mused once we had finished drafting the box contents for the morning "you know, I think that I might go and fish those empty diaries out and get the same year and copy them neater. And maybe I can improve on the days a bit."
And that is why I have several empty diaries in one of the "give it to Jeanie to hoard at her house" pile.
The first one will be good for next year after 29 Feb.
4 comments:
Staying put for years like that doesn't seem to be the norm anymore. Society seems more mobile these days. Maybe it has to do with the fact people don't have the long-term job loyalties they use to have?
Cute little visitor in your photo! (but I'd want him outside)
Haha Kelly - he is cute and believes that Mum and Dad's house is part of his turf. They were on a cattle property so they lived on the job.
I actually love you and your father going through things together. You will never forget these days. Your father has his books. You have your blog. You're a lot like your father, it seems.
Thanks Debby. It is making me go through my own things a bit.
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