Was very tired but couldn't get to sleep until 0400. Awakened at 1030 by phone call from guy I haven't talked to in about a year. Couldn't get back to sleep. Went and got BK for breakfast at around noon, then showered and stuff. Got to the Old House (which is also the New House) around 1530.
This time you're getting the background. Here comes the science: K's dad is kind of insane when it comes to packratting certain kinds of things. He'll just latch on to a class of object and start collecting them, in a completely obsessive manner. Most recently it's been guitars, aided and abetted by his discovery of eBay. We honestly don't know how many of the things he's bought in the past 4 years. My low-end conservative estimate is 300, and I'd be willing to put the high end over 500. The really bizarre thing is that he won't even throw out the boxes they shipped in. Not the actual CASES, mind you, the CARDBOARD BOXES that the CASES come in.
These are the boxes referred to yesterday. And most of them are still full of the bubble-wrap/peanuts/paper added as padding, which has gotten downright damp over the past 2 years due to being stored in a house in Georgia with the AC turned off. They were literally in every room in the house, side-to-side, front-to-back, floor-to-ceiling. It was completely insane, but most definitely real
By 2100 tonight we had either destroyed or carted off the majority of them, though most of those destroyed are still in a heap in the dining room in the form of lengthy flat strips. And the den is still pretty much full, but that can wait.
So, another side to the packrat freakishness: the man won't throw away ANYTHING he already owns, no matter how worn out or old or useless it is, and this extends to things owned by people he knows. He won't let YOU throw away anything, if he finds out you're planning to get rid of it. People all over town use him as a sink for crufty old broken shit. Did I mention that there are at least 13 dead TVs and 6 motorcycle halves in our basement?
Due to this, we had to go all Black Ops today. Get to the house before he'd have a chance to be there , demolish two shitty DIY desks we had, and haul off the remains. This was accomplished in fairly short order, thanks to their crap particleboard construction, which had soaked up so much moisture that we basically just knocked them apart with a regular clawhammer. Some segments of the larger, L-shaped desk were too big to go in the car, so I leaned them against a tree and kicked them all in two. That was pretty rad.
Also thrown out today: PowerMac 6100, PowerMac 5400/180, 17" Sun monitor, Mac SE, 2 ADB keyboards, one AppleDesign Mouse, an entire carload of old clothes.
Plan for tomorrow: various things need doing around Athens. Also, dinner with Amy.
Plan for Wednesday: Deal with any remaining boxes. Clear EVERYTHING out of kitchen, dining room, my bedroom (except HP250 workbench, which needs to be PUT IN my bedroom). Start cleaning the dust, mold, and mildew off all flat surfaces. Vacuum. Clean bathrooms. Turn on AC and let it run for a week straight.
No plan past Wednesday.
