Estoy Nueces

I remember a story I read as a kid about 2 brothers that lived together and were hoarders (before hoarders was a word we knew or used). Their New York apartment was stacked high with newspapers and magazines with just narrow trails to get through. Somehow, the piles caved in and killed the brothers or trapped them and they starved. Something like that. The story stuck with me. I think it stuck with me because I could envision myself living just like that if I wasn't careful. I had a flashback to that just now as Phil the Cat climbed up on a bookshelf and knocked down a pile of books on it, blocking the door. Sure, it was only 4 or 5 books this time, but what if one of these days there are enough books and enough junk and there are stacks of boxes of genealogy and radio tapes and detritus of my life and we all get trapped into this office, never to be heard from again? Mark might be out on the road on a gig and come home to find us starved to death in my office, trapped under a pile.

I did start a big clean-up process last week and threw away a lot of things, but there are still many things to go. I may buy some more boxes today. I'm trying to put things together in boxes that belong together. Maybe everyone does that, but as I cleaned through I would find 3 separate containers: a box, a bin, a sack, that had radio things or Christmas things or genealogy things. I'm just trying to combine things sensibly for now. And throw some things away that are obviously unneeded.

I did find $40 in the cleanup. It was in a Baptist Hymnal that was hidden in the closet. What surprises me is that I remember putting money in the Baptist Hymnal, but later I found a hymnal on the piano that was the one I hid my money in, not this one that was in the closet. I'm glad I found it. And it very well could have been money from WAY back and someone else's because there were also 2 clippings from an Abilene newspaper that I don't remember ever having seen there before. I have no idea how we came into possession of this hymnal.

I am avoiding thinking about 4 years ago when Nathan Jr. died on this Oct. 25 morning. That was the saddest day of my life. I'm glad it isn't cold and raining today like it was then, that would make it all too vivid.