I think not, but I’m still going through the items that never made it to the jewelry cases, most of which still had pieces of information to identify them. I am indeed a fortunate person. I can’t claim to not have moments of profound sadness. Greta seems to sense these moments and does her best to lead me in a different direction. I’ve been reading, “A Dog’s Purpose: A novel” by W. Bruce Cameron…a great read. The book set me a few degrees off my normal center…for which I am very grateful. A “tear jerker” of sorts for me, but a gentle flow of salt to my lips. I loved this book. The combination of loss, reinforced by the gain of such a wonderful friend/pet as Greta, leaves me feeling almost whole.
I am amazed by the success of my eBay endeavor. Yes, it consumes my time, but in a productive way. I’ve recently been figuring, algebraically speaking, the hours in a week (168) with the sum of sleeping hours (8x&7=56), and the estimated time spent identifying, writing the “ad-blurb”, and photographing each item and creating the eBay listing (26 per week, 3 hours each = 78). The simple math says 168 – (56 + 78 ) = 134. 168 – 134 = 34 hours left in my week for personal care (laundry, cooking, bathing, etc.), lawn mowing, distractions, walking the dog, having a lunch with a friend. I can see how tight my time line is. I’ve decided to limit the number of days that Patty Higham will be cleaning the house to just one 8 hour day. She was trying to hurry through getting the house in a saleable condition, but 3 days/week was providing me with more distraction than I could handle. eBay is flowing cash, but it is so time consuming.
Now I’m starting to think about the realities of preparing for taking the whole month of June and possibly July off from eBay. We had our campsite and boat-slip at ShelterCove on Odell Lake which is prepaid for the whole month of June. My kids will join me for part of that month and we will scatter some of Mary’s ashes in some special locations and share our feelings about her impact on our lives. I’ve invited friends to come up as well, to share the joys of that special spot in Oregon! There are a little less than three weeks left in April. Beginning in May, I will cut eBay back by 50% to give myself time to prepare the camper, boat and make fishing lures for the trip.
6 Responses
You are certainly a busy man.
I know those moments of sheer sadness, even now. let the tears flow for Mary…It is healing!
I should get that book…there was such an uproar over the filming of it…I think it only made it to limited release in the theaters.
Why don’t you take a little road trip and visit us at the campout in June at Lake of the Woods? would love to see you, but I can understand if being with us may still be too difficult.
Love you!
Alana, Thanks for reading and posting! I am booked for the month of June, I’ll be at Odell Lake making my last June fishing trip there. Scattering, memories, sharing our love for Mary. I have been working much to hard, but there is so much stuff to go through and eBay has been pretty easy for me, it just takes a lot of time. I’m even thinking of taking July off from eBay as well. Love you too!
You certainly are keeping yourself busy. And it’s productive as well. But I do see the need for taking a break. Glad that You are taking care of yourself
Hi Cherylee. I agree I need a break. I’m taking the whole month of June off, I’ll be doing my final fishing trip to Odell Lake before I sell the boat. We fished Odell every June for several years, having the same campsite and boat slip on the dock at Sheltercove. My kids will spend some time with me and we will scatter some ashes in the many places we would visit each year and I hope we will share our happy memories of what Mary meant to our family. I’m even considering taking all of July off from eBay as well. I need to get out camping and shooting some photographs. The boat is going because I’m going to focus on a dream I have been weaving since 1999. I like to make greeting cards with my photos. I also learned to mat and frame my pictures. I plan on possibly doing a Saturday market gig in Eugene for a year at least. I’ve got to get the house cleared out, it will take quite a while, but I’ve got support of my “band family” for which Mary was on the board of director’s. I’ve traveled so many places with them. Thanks for reading and posting!
2/20/23 Slow ‘n’ Steady https://rossdickinson.com/blog/homepage/
2/20/23 Slow ‘n’ Steady
https://rossdickinson.com/blog/homepage/