Stuff

My kids are in Maine watching their big brother launch his new ship. I am so proud to have Tate as my step son and have him being Executive Officer of his own brand new Navy ship.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I am making changes. I found out our landlord will be renewing our lease for another year. YES! Now for the past year I have been living out of boxes and have unopened boxes laying around everywhere because I have worried another shoe would drop and we would be moving again. It's time to make this condo into a home instead of a box warehouse. I have bags for the homeless, bags for the Goodwill, boxes of used books to sell and bags of trash. I am amazed at the STUFF I threw in boxes when we were leaving our house. I suppose when you are broke and losing your home you feel the need to hold on to whatever you can. I have opened some boxes and wonder what the hell I was thinking bringing that junk with us. Crazy shit. I have really had a good time going through boxes of things. I am saving pictures of my family and dear friends. I am getting rid of weird corporate gifts I have received over the years, tacky wedding gifts from a marriage long dead,stacks of bills I don't need to pay anymore. Why did I pack those? A grim reminder of financial failure?
I have a box of bibles from three generations in my mother's family. My great grandmother Frances Chandler Walker's bible is such a treasure. She had 12 children, all of their births documented in ber bible, along with all of her children's marriages, the deaths of two of her children. She only lost 2 out of twelve in her life time, the others lived to be in their late 90s except for Ruby who lived to be 101. Granny Walker wrote little notes in her bible, she put little inspirational pieces from the Sevierville newspaper in her bible with scripture passages written in the margins. She was an amazing Christian lady. My grandmother Dell Keener Walker Massey's bible is the same except she outlived all 4 of her children and every death is documented in her strong hand. She lived to be 99 and 6 months old. She always believed in God and lived a good Christian life. My parents bible is in the box too, documenting all of our births, my sisters marriage, my parents never lived to see Bob ordained to the priesthood or to see me marry. I have my family bible in the box as well, it contains the births and sacraments of my children. My marriage which ended 6 years ago. In my family bible I have notes from families of patients I have cared for until their deaths. Those notes make me realize that being a nurse is a valuable profession and a ministry as well. I wonder now how those families are getting along. The bibles stay!
I know when you are ditching stuff you aren't supposed to look at it but I have to touch every piece and either have a moment in memory lane or a head scratching laugh at myself for saving some goofy things. I have been laughing quite a bit. The coolest part is to look around the edges of a few walls today and realize that we have much more space! Crap is a huge thief of space. This project is going to take me a few weeks to complete, I wonder what other treasures I am going to come up with. If you are a friend of mine and it is getting close to your birthday you should be afraid, very afraid of what might be in the gift wrapped box from me. Remember Aunt Bethany from Nat'l Lampoon Christmas vacation????
I'll close with this final thought for you to ponder, Where do socks go? Why do I have 500 mismatched socks and more importantly why did I pack them in a box marked KITCHEN FRAGILE? The first person to come up with the answer to this wins an unopened box marked, BATHROOM.

Neighbors

As everybody knows Nashville was hit by a record breaking $1.9 billion flood May 3-4. There was a place on the river bank called Tent City. It was a community of homeless people who had formed their own city, they had a Mayor and a government of their own. Amos House a Catholic Monastic group and Otter Creek Church of Christ ministered to them, helped them survive and even the city of Nashville recognized their community. THey lived 3 blocks east of where we live. When the flood waters came they were walking down our street with looks of horror and sadness on their faces. A man named Lee Beaman who is a car dealer here amongst other things and is very wealthy, donated 2 acres of his land to relocate these people temporarily in an area of town which is not the greatest part of town with shootings and violent crime a way of life. Many of our neighbors moved out to Lee's property and tried to rebuild their community. You can see the tent city from the interstate but not from the road. The business owners pitched a major bitch and are having them evicted from Lee's property. I am pissed off, very pissed off. The people in Tent City are the ones who should be scared out there. Anyway, behind our apartment building are railroad tracks and a bunch of brush and a very tiny wooded strip of land owned by the railroad. It's back where I walk Josie. I have noticed some activity back there, the first thing was some of the bushes there had been cut down, next day there was a strip of old carpet in the path covering the cleared area.Then some 2x4s and rope to hold to to go down the hill into the bushes. Yesterday there was a white sign with one word "OPEN" written on it. Now, I know that most of you would freak if you thought bums were taking up residence in your back yard but somehow I feel blessed to have them taking shelter there. I have never seen my mystery neighbors but I did leave a bag full of T-shirts at their "door step" when I was walking Josie this afternoon. I hope they fit. God Bless these people, they are doing the best they can with things they have repurposed. Pray for them please.