Another Fine Example

Hum, what have we here? A fine example of collectible Cape Cod kitsch. Doesn't every household need a pair of weathered, peeling, vintage lobster claw salt & pepper shakers? I thought these were a keeper for sure. They were given to us by a fabulous poet and friend, Mark Doty, who is an inveterate collector himself. So there was a bit of a sentimental attachment to them until I decided, hey, Mark got rid of them, so can I. Notice how the left hand one is leaking juices. I washed them before I decided to get rid of them. That's how tentative I was.

I'm packing with a vengeance now. Reinforcements are coming in the form of a friend and her dog. Poor dog. He doesn't know what he's in for. I'm wondering where we will all sleep tonight as most of the floor surfaces, sitting surfaces and 1 bed are completely covered.

I'm taking vacation time to do this. Precious vacation time. And I'm not getting paid to do this. Something is wrong with this picture. Painfully wrong. I'm so tired of packing I just want to leave everything else. That would require buying a new wardrobe, which, in principle, sounds like a fun idea, but I'm broke beyond broke. So I have to pack the clothes.

It's another beautiful summer day, gentle, cool breezes, lots of sun and everyone outside my door sounds ecstatic. In here, things get more and more bizarre. I've been saving newspapers for the past month or more. Suddenly, I bend down to pick up two sheets and someone has died all over again. I wasn't prepared to see that Walter Cronkite is dead, again. Two days ago Eunice Shriver died. Pretty soon there will be no one left.

The other weird thing is how I'm beginning to match things up. I just discovered that the distressed cherub blowing a metal horn that my friends Rob and Dan gave me fits perfectly inside the Bennington pottery casserole that my sister gave me. Different rooms are merging indiscriminately into the same boxes. This is going to make things a little more interesting at the end of this adventure, but I think I can live with it.

And that's the way it is, on Friday, August 14, 2009.