The Lonesome Pine

Monday has been another day of domestic drudge achievements. 

In the morning I cleaned the top half of the house.  

The plan - based on the Met Office’s forecast - was to get back out into the garden after lunch. Well, the forecast did not include rain. I switched to plan B, which was to hoover up another pile of books and another bundle of clothes to take to the charity shop. 

Bundling up ties and suits which I will never need again has an air of finality about it which I could do without. I was pretty ruthless. I now have one suit which will do for funerals and any more joyous occasions which pop up, plus a small selection of suitably outrageous ties. 

The books contained the usual selection of waste paper used as bookmarks, often revealing they were bought for holidays or some other kind of travel - and as their final purpose before being recycled, a few got Blipped.

The Thalys ticket is a puzzle. The fare is for people under 26, but the ticket is in my name. Maybe Junior was with me. 

The Air France/Delta stuff is from a holiday in 2010 to New York City, Baltimore, Washington DC, Fredericksburg in Virginia and the Blue Ridge Mountains somewhere near Roanoke. We must have covered a lot of miles in 12 days.*

The trip was a reward to myself at the end of a very difficult 18 months starting with my dad going into hospital, followed by rehab/assessment for whether he could go home, then into a care home when it was clear he couldn’t. He died about halfway into those 18 months. 

Meantime, My Old Ma  was going downhill fast with dementia, but living alone and refusing all help.  As so often happens, she fell down the stairs eventually and left the house in an ambulance. Hospital was followed by rehab/assessment for whether she could go home, then into a care home etc… 

From a purely selfish point of view, at least once she was in the care home I could take a holiday knowing she was being cared for.  


* Now I have started to think about it, what an adventure that trip was.