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Yesterday afternoon/evening, a much of the old gang from my previous work got together. Debbie hosted at her house. It was awesome. Everybody brought Baltimore or Maryland themed food and drink. Ha! It was delicious. I saw that there was some National Bohemian beer in the cooler, or “Natty Boh” as they say around here. I couldn’t remember ever having one of those, so I took my opportunity.

It tasted like beer. (I’m not much of a beer connoisseur)

There was so much good conversation and laughter. These people are like family to me. What a wonderful blessing they’ve been and will continue to be. God is good.

I wanted to take a group picture. It was raining outside, so we had to be inside, and it was kind of dark, so the picture is blurry, but here’s the best shot.

I love these people.

Some friends of Denis came over yesterday evening to look at what is left in the house to see if they could use anything. Besides a couple of pieces of furniture that are going to Nebraska, all the rest of the stuff in the house has to either be given away, or thrown away. It’s pretty daunting.

I was so glad that they took a bunch of stuff. I wonder if I could get other people to take stuff as well. Maybe I could advertise a yard sale where everything is free. I wouldn’t have to lug it to Goodwill or the dump – I’d just take it to the yard and people could take whatever they wanted. Hmmm…

Anyway, it was getting late and everyone was still enjoying each other’s company, so we ordered pizza and ate it out on the porch. Cool breeze… good friends… it was wonderful.

I have gotten to hang out with Denis’ friends a lot during my time in Baltimore. I will miss them.

I love having kids around.

Yesterday I got the container all packed and ready to go by 8am. The person on the phone said that the pickup could happen any time during the day after 10am. The pickup guy came at 4:30. Heh.

I have a ton of things to do, but was feeling physically tired, so decided to do something less physical: I sorted Important Papers. I’ve had a pile of them in my basement for a while. Some of them had long-since ceased being Important, so I got rid of those. Others will be important for my house sale. Others will need to go with me to Maui. The pile is much smaller now. And much less filled with old documents that pertain to my ownership of previous cars.

I added a bunch of things to my shred pile. I need to find a place that will do that.

I started yesterday by going to church. It put me behind in packing my shipping container, but I was glad I went because I got to talk to several people to say “good-bye”. Next Sunday is my last church service there, but I wasn’t sure if I’d see everybody, so I talked to whoever I saw. It was also nice because Heidi’s new baby daughter got baptized. Hooray!

The font is in the back of the church.

A couple of the people I talked to were students who are also brothers. It was weird that while I was having this very serious and sincere conversation with them, I was interrupted twice by adults who just started talking to me. I wondered if they interrupted everyone’s conversations like that, or if they just interrupted because I was “only” talking to kids.

Anyway, by the time I got home, it was already 1pm! Yikes! Before I could do any more packing, I had to take my book donations to The Book Thing here in Baltimore. It’s a super-cool place that gives books away free. They only take donations sporadically right now, and yesterday was one of the days, so I HAD to go.

It was a LOT of books. The air conditioner is heading for the dump.

It was almost 3pm by the time I got back home. Yikes! I continued packing boxes like a crazy person. Denis was a HUGE help. I was so thankful. There always seemed to be one more thing… one more thing. Ack! The final boxes had some pretty weird combinations in them.

The quilts made good padding. I used a lot of blankets and sheets like that.

It was after 6pm by the time I started packing the storage container. I didn’t do a time-lapse as you requested, Lauren, because I don’t know how to do that and I’m too tired to learn right now. Besides, that means leaving your phone or pad in one place while you do the thing, doesn’t it? I’d hate to just leave my phone on some tripod or stick or something while I was inside the house getting the next box.

The last picture was from 9pm. I had to stop – because it was late and because I was so stinking tired. I’m getting up early to put the final things in, and hopefully I’ll finish before the guy comes to pick it up. The woman on the phone said it would be about 10am, but didn’t really know, so I’m rushing as fast as I can. Yikes!

After breakfast at my favorite nearby diner, I worked on boxing stuff for my Maui move. I worked all day long, with only a short break to talk with my friend Beth from Florida, and to get some lunch/dinner.

I started upstairs. Gus was very interested in watching and helping me.

Silly Gus. No need to inspect that box. It’s not one of the packing boxes.

The morning passed quickly. By the afternoon, I was past the main floor (minus the kitchen) and in the basement. Packing in the basement was hard. I had several boxes of old pictures and old toys and keepsakes from my childhood. I went through each box, and tried to discard and repack. It was very time consuming.

So much stuff. So many memories.

Among my childhood possessions were three handheld electronic games. I played them for hours and hours when I was a kid. I was curious, so I got some batteries to see if they still worked. Two of the three did. By far my favorite was the Tron game. It still worked! Yay! I played it a little before I went to bed.

I did really well on the easiest level.

Today I still have to do the kitchen, and I have maybe two or three more boxes in the basement. I think I may have over estimated how many boxes I would have. If that’s true, I’ll have more space in the shipping container than I expected, and maybe I’ll be able to take some furniture along. Or maybe I could set up a small sitting and sleeping space in there, and save money on a plane ticket.

I’m using all the same size boxes so they will stack more easily.