It was raining today so Mr. Troutbend couldn't work on his roofing project. It was a welcome relief to be at 67 degrees instead of yesterday's 90 or so.

Since we couldn't work outside it was the perfect opportunity to clean out the storage area in the corner of the garage. It is set up as a pantry with shelves going up to a very high ceiling. We needed to do this so the electricians can get through there for the generator wiring.



There was some interesting stuff in there, a lot of it stored there by my stepmother. She and my dad were only married about 5 months before they were killed in a small plane crash, but they dated from 1998 and she managed to move some stuff up here from Arizona. A lot of it was trays and things for the big picnics they had here, entertaining pilot groups - the Colorado Flying Farmers and Colorado Pilots Association. We threw a lot of that away.



(My dad is on the far left.)

At one point Mr. TBend said: "on a scale of one to ten, how comfortable are you with letting me throw stuff away without you seeing it?" That is what the psychologists ask their hoarder clients on "Hoarding: Buried Alive" usually right before the voice-over guy talks about how the hoarder is impeding progress because he/she insists on looking at everything in the house and deciding if it should be kept, donated, or trashed.

Well, of course I have to see it all. It's not like it was used pizza boxes or empty shampoo bottles, and I did throw a lot - make that some - of it out. One of the things was the lid to this thermos that we found about 30 minutes before he came across the thermos itself. "You probably threw that lid away, didn't you?" No, I hadn't because it represents many road trips in the Ford cars my dad preferred in the 1950s; a lot of hot coffee got poured into that cup from that thermos and passed between my mom and dad in the front seat.



Maybe eventually I'll get rid of it, but not today. I made up for it by tossing out some weird juice extractor pan thing that I have no idea how to use, and I have never seen anything like it. That said, it is currently at the top of the trash bin in case I change my mind about it overnight. We laugh about this because another bad sign is for the hoarder to go rescue items from the trash. Well, what can I tell you? It happens.