We have been back for about 11 days and are starting to work through the process of recovering from our disaster. It has many facets. First, we decided to do a major redecorating project. Complete kitchen remodeling, remodel the living room, recarpet the upstairs, completely remodel all the bathrooms. In order to do all that, we have to find a suitable contractor and designer. We have interviewed three so far, and we have two more coming this week. This is a very tedious process. The interview takes two hours or more because there is so much to discuss. We have also been out looking at new appliances, new cupboards and new fixtures. Ginny seems to enjoy that, but I find it boring. I can make up my mind in short order, Ginny has to agonize over every detail. What did you expect? She is a girl. That is the way she does things. Works for me. The result is always first rate.

One aspect of this giant project is clearing the deck for all this remodeling work. We have lived in this house for 36 years. Stuff has been coming in and very little has been going out. The net result is an accumulation. That is an old chemical engineering principle: Ins=Outs+Accumulation. Ginny has decided that we will ruthlessly dispose of all the clutter and accumulation. We have been doing just that. What is mind boggling is the amount of the stuff. I bet we have taken 500 books to donate to the library. We still have more to go. We have clothing and the like that go to local charities. There are tons of "child residue" which is stuff the kids accumulated most of which is of no value.

Today, however, we parted with something that was dear to our hearts. Over the years the boys completed 38 science fair projects. Ginny and I were very involved with them all. Fond memories for us. Here is a photo of Ginny with the displays from the projects. We sent them out the door. There is no way that we could ever continue to store them. We would never look at them again. We have photos of most of them with the kids when they completed them.

We have a lot more to do. It is gratifying when we head out with the van full of stuff to discard or to donate.