The Visible Woman...April 15, 2003

stuff moves on

Got up early enough. Finish my journal page, make an appointment for Dad to get his hearing aids adjusted and fitted or whatever they do on Thursday. Then I pay some bills for FFP for the business and I call a woman who is interested in the weaving stuff of Mom's. We are set for her to come to Dad's at 2pm. I call him and tell him I'll pick him up for lunch and we will go through some more things.

Dad is in the garage when we get there and he says let's just go to lunch straight away. We go to Pok-e-Jo's barbeque. I get turkey, broccoli salad and slaw with Texas Toast. (That's thick toast in these parts.) Dad has a small chopped beef and some slaw. We drink water.

Back home, I begin poking through another closet and, sure enough, find a few more weaving things. I also find a few things for Dad to give other people.

The woman I met at the Neverlandia tour, Kay, and her friend April come. They see the house, get the lay of the land of all the looms, the spinning wheel, etc. They really enjoy the books and the drafts with samples of weaving. Finally, they decide they will take everything, we set a price and miraculously we load up everything in the pickup and tie it down. Dad and I can't believe our luck.

I drive back up 2222 and over Mt. Bonnell road and go to the club and have 45+ minutes on the exercise bike. I come home and I'm folding laundry (FFP has followed me by a few minutes to the club) and SuRu calls and we go out for a shrot dog walk.

When I'm back from dog walking, there is fried catfish, courtesy Mr. P. and he has gotten out salad stuff, too. I eat, drink a bunch of water.

I believe we found a good home for the looms and the wheel. I feel good about it. We didn't get a huge amount of money but we got something and we certainly weren't going to spin and weave. Mostly, the stuff has a home.

Watched the end of Sling Blade tonight. Started a Larry McMurtry book called Roads. (Even thought the memoir The Geography of Saints isn't finished. I didn't have it with me. I'm almost finished, though.)

Sling Blade, by the way, is one of my favorite movies. The acting, the framing, the justice.

Going through Mom's stuff, selling it, very nostalgic. When I was twenty-two or twenty-three, I would decorate boxes to store stuff in, covering them with magazine clippings and then putting some kind of clear finish over it. I discarded most of these...I remember doing it. The clear finish was tacky and had attracted dirt and was still vaguely sticky. But in my mom's boxes I found one, the finish aged, a few pieces partly unglued. She didn't have anything in it...it was as if she'd saved it for itself. I kept it. I kept a very few other things for my projects, too. Some gold thread, a magnetic strip. There are so many art supplies. I recovered scissors and other tools (staplers, pliers) out of many boxes and baskets.

The stuff you surround yourself with. Will, one day, speak. What the stuff you discarded says, what the stuff you hauled to the thrift store intones, who knows?

How will people view my globe collection, the boxes of bendables, my boxes full of clips and stuff to rubber cement into cards, my stacks of paper notebooks? Like so much junk? Probably.

Mom's loom...where she left it

Dad helps tie it all down

"Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of possessions."

John Randolph

JUST TYPING
so many things
then in this box
a surprise
something I made
something she never finished
some reason
for a tear

			stuff moves on Got up early enough. Finish my journal page, make an appointment for Dad to get his hearing aids adjusted and fitted or whatever they do on Thursday. Then I pay some bills for FFP for the business and I call a woman who is interested in the weaving stuff of Mom's. We are set for her to come to Dad's at 2pm. I call him and tell him I'll pick him up for lunch and we will go through some more things. Dad is in the garage when we get there and he says let's just go to lunch straight away. We go to Pok-e-Jo's barbeque. I get turkey, broccoli salad and slaw with Texas Toast. (That's thick toast in these parts.) Dad has a small chopped beef and some slaw. We drink water. Back home, I begin poking through another closet and, sure enough, find a few more weaving things. I also find a few things for Dad to give other people. The woman I met at the Neverlandia tour, Kay, and her friend April come. They see the house, get the lay of the land of all the looms, the spinning wheel, etc. They really enjoy the books and the drafts with samples of weaving. Finally, they decide they will take everything, we set a price and miraculously we load up everything in the pickup and tie it down. Dad and I can't believe our luck. I drive back up 2222 and over Mt. Bonnell road and go to the club and have 45+ minutes on the exercise bike. I come home and I'm folding laundry (FFP has followed me by a few minutes to the club) and SuRu calls and we go out for a shrot dog walk. When I'm back from dog walking, there is fried catfish, courtesy Mr. P. and he has gotten out salad stuff, too. I eat, drink a bunch of water. I believe we found a good home for the looms and the wheel. I feel good about it. We didn't get a huge amount of money but we got something and we certainly weren't going to spin and weave. Mostly, the stuff has a home. Watched the end of Sling Blade tonight. Started a Larry McMurtry book called Roads. (Even thought the memoir The Geography of Saints isn't finished. I didn't have it with me. I'm almost finished, though.) Sling Blade, by the way, is one of my favorite movies. The acting, the framing, the justice. Going through Mom's stuff, selling it, very nostalgic. When I was twenty-two or twenty-three, I would decorate boxes to store stuff in, covering them with magazine clippings and then putting some kind of clear finish over it. I discarded most of these...I remember doing it. The clear finish was tacky and had attracted dirt and was still vaguely sticky. But in my mom's boxes I found one, the finish aged, a few pieces partly unglued. She didn't have anything in it...it was as if she'd saved it for itself. I kept it. I kept a very few other things for my projects, too. Some gold thread, a magnetic strip. There are so many art supplies. I recovered scissors and other tools (staplers, pliers) out of many boxes and baskets. The stuff you surround yourself with. Will, one day, speak. What the stuff you discarded says, what the stuff you hauled to the thrift store intones, who knows? How will people view my globe collection, the boxes of bendables, my boxes full of clips and stuff to rubber cement into cards, my stacks of paper notebooks? Like so much junk? Probably.

	Mom's loom...where she left it Dad helps tie it all down "Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of possessions." John Randolph
	JUST TYPING so many things then in this box a surprise something I made something she never finished some reason for a tear

Tuesday, April 15, 2003