Early Spring Cleaning

Friday January 13, 2017

In spite of it being Friday the 13^th, and there being a full moon, not a particularly unlucky day for me. There was a chance of freezing rain in the evening throughout the next morning, and we managed to dodge that bullet (at least in Hilliard).

Just to be on the safe side, my husband, Andrew decided we should stay close to home to see the movie, “Hidden Figures,” so we went to the Movie Tavern. Although he was less than pleased with his meal of a chicken parmesan sandwich and fries, I liked my turkey sandwich and salad (I later discovered a bit of cranberry sauce stuck to my shoe).

The plot revolves around the black women, specifically Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, who did the calculations that helped contribute to the successful launch of John Glenn into space. Like with most African American history, this fact is at best a footnote in history, but hopefully with the release of the movie, the women will, at long last, get the recognition they deserve.

Though these were the Cold War years, it was also the advent of a strange new device called an I-B-M that could do the calculations of these women in a tiny fraction of the time. However, when the computer doesn’t give satisfactory calculations for John Glenn’s landing, it is Glenn, himself, who insists that ‘that lady’ do the math instead of the computer. It’s not often man triumphs over technology, but in this case the victory is sweet for Ms. Johnson.

I can whole heartedly recommend this movie. It’s both educational and entertaining. Our theatre broke into applause at the end, which I haven’t heard since “The King’s Speech.” I can only hope “Hidden Figures” does as well at the Oscars as “The King’s Speech” did.

Saturday/Sunday January 14^th & 15^{th 2017}

Nothing too exciting to report as I spent most of the weekend organizing and decluttering. I was proud of myself for getting rid of 6 boxes of Christmas items and 1 box of miscellaneous stuff, all of which I took to our local Goodwill drop-off point.

I also donated a box of vases/ribbon/artificial flowers and a Christmas centerpiece to one of my neighbors who was looking for various items for her daughter’s school fundraiser. I believe she is going to make something out of all the miscellaneous items she receives.

What’s left is a few boxes of items that will either get donated to Kidney Services, taken to Half Price Books, or sold on Craig’s List or E-bay. My collection of empty boxes (which I usually give to people who are looking for moving boxes) will get used to collect day old bread/pastries when I take my turn at picking up Kroger’s overrun in Feb, Mar, and April. Having done the collectiion once last summer, I now have a fairly good idea of the procedure, in which I found having containers to put all the bread and pastries in would have made it much easier on the Food Bank employees so they didn’t have to scramble for containers (to prevent having to put the food on the concrete floor). I also discovered having someone help you load and unload, makes it go that much faster too. Thanks in advance to my husband, Andrew, for agreeing to help.

In spite of clearing out quite a lot of stuff, the job isn’t over yet. I still have quite a lot of stuff to sort through, and this is the time of year I tend to get the most done. On next weekend’s agenda is jewelry and cameras (hoping to get rid of the old point ‘n shoots). Hence, some of those empty boxes might get filled up with more outgoing stuff, but it’s never a problem acquiring empty boxes (which I get from work). I am also sorting through a box of old ball point pens of every size, shape, and color.

I hope maybe I’ve inspired a few of you out there to have a go at doing some early spring cleaning. For those of you who don’t have much stuff, good for you. Feel free to come over and help me get rid of some of mine!

Have a good week everyone!