I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

I got it from my Dad. He was a ginormous packrat. He died in 2003 and Mom is still finding stuff she had no idea he had.

Hi Everyone!

Tim's a packrat too .. me, not so much.  I don't have a strong attachment to stuff.  Although I am very attached to my riding mower.

It's hot and muggy today.  We had to turn the A/C on this morning. 

We finally got the rest of the tick out of my ankle last night.  It hurt!

Rosemary .. have you heard any more about your SIL?

Otter .. thanks for the tick link .. my sis sent me the same one.  I was so worried about Lyme disease, she checked the CDC for me.

Hope you all enjoy the long weekend.

Hugs,

Bren

I am a pack-ROUS. "Princess Bride" fans will know what that means.



I am organized about it, however. And I do conduct periodic culls of my stuff. I am waiting until I retire to conduct a final cull of my clothes. Work papers come later. Then the books.



The problem is that I love my stuff.



ROUS indeed.



L

when you're planning on moving - the packratishiness is probably worse.  When you're staying put it's probably a toss-up.  But for sure there's never been anyone embarassed on TV by NOT being a hoarder...  

I love my stuff, too.  The books were the hardest for me - so they went first.  Work papers I keep only at work, now - and they'll all hit the shredder when I retire.  Work clothes will be last to go, and I'll keep anything that can be "useful" in my post-career life (silk shirts will stay ).  My next hardest are my hobby supplies - and I am a hobby kinda gal.  I've disposed of all my glass (but kept my grinder and other glass tools), my dye and dyeing supplies go next.  I'm keeping my sewing machine and much (but not all) of my fabric, and have already weeded out patterns I'll either never use again or never use at all....   Beads don't take up that much space, so I'm keeping all of my beading supplies.

jeezzzz - I'm getting tired just talking about it.   

Gumby ... I am attached to my hobby supplies.  I've only gone through and sorted out my yarn once.  I did give a bunch of it away, but I hang onto all my beads and card-making materials.

Tick update:  We found three more on me today after I mowed the upper field and front yard.  I am so sick of these #$%^ ticks.  One of them was deeply imbedded in my belly again.  Thankfully, Tim was able to get the sucker out in one piece.  We bought some spray for the bedroom/office carpet and will do that tomorrow.  Also putting more Frontline on the dogs. 

I am at a loss for what else I can do to get rid of them, or prevent them from coming in the house or getting on me.

Aside from discontinuing my daily walks with the dogs and mowing my fields ... does anyone have any ideas on what to do about these damn ticks? 

Hope everyone is enjoying their Friday,

hugs,

Bren

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I was hoping someone would get ROUS! I LOVE "The Princess Bride" -- it is one of my all-time favorite movies, right up there with "Casablanca" and "Roman Holiday."



L

Bren, do you use any type of bug spray on your legs?  I can't go outside after early June without spraying "Off!" or Cutter's on my ankles and lower legs.  I do it because of chiggers, which are horrible here; but DEET repellent would also work against ticks.  I know,... it's bad stuff, with lots of possible harmful effects, etc. etc.  But, seriously -- if I can't use DEET to keep the chiggers and ticks away, I can't walk down our woods roads or around the ponds or anywhere.

Ideally, you would wear light clothing and spray the DEET on the fabric; but I grit my teeth and spray a circle of it directly on the skin around each ankle and each knee.  The little monsters crawl up the grass blades and brush and wait there, legs outstretched, so they can grab ahold of anything that walks by.  The behavior is called "questing" (pic is courtesy of JP Pest Service's website -- http://www.jpmosquitocontrol.com/control.html):

As for all this talk about hoarding -- my parents were famous hoarders.  I think the only reason they didn't end up on TV was because they weren't psychotic about it.  They didn't save gross things like empty pizza boxes, and there were never any dead cats hidden amongst the piles. 

Seriously, ... they were pretty good about organizing their "stuff" until my dad's Alzheimer's caught up with him and my mom just got too tired to care about putting things away. Until then, everything had a place.

Organized or not, all that saved stuff is now haunting my sister and me.  We are still trying to sort our way through it, more than a year after our mom's death and nearly half a year after Dad's.  The trouble is that my sister and I have those same packrat tendencies, with varying degrees of expression of the "organizational" gene. I think that's all I'll say about it here, since we never know who reads these boards.  <sigh>

I hope everybody has a great weekend.  Stay cool!

otter

BinVA~

I am so sorry about the ticks.

My daughter does not want to go down in the woods now since she had Lyme.

I can't say I blame her.

I really don't want to put Deet on her as she is only 7.  I am also on a quest to find a good alternative.

We use a bug spray Cutter Advanced?  It has Picaridin in it which they say is safe for kids.

I do have to reapply it often on them. 

This weekend the whole family will advance on the basement.  Hopefully the packrat will not prevail...

I am already feeling sorry for myself.

Hey Scoot - glad you are on the mend.

6C here tonight - winter is on it's way. Snowing down south and cold winds - love it. Steve has to get up @ 4:30 am tomorrow, so I'll be up cooking him brekky I guess - sigh.

Talked to Annie today - they are settling in nicely - baby sounds just perfect - wish she'd been that good.

Hope you all have a nice weekend.

Sue

Remember the Teddy Bears' Picnic?  "When you go down to the woods today, you'd better take lots of Deet".

Yes, the tick population has increased and is spreading -- northward!

Scoot -- So happy to know you are once again mobile, and will be even "mobile-er" soon.  Get back on that horse -- well, second thought, maybe not THAT horse!  Speaking of horses, I'm mighty pleased that "I'll Have Another" has won the Derby and the Preakness, and fingers crossed, will do it again at the Belmont.  Canadian-owned, with a jockey who earned his stripes in Vancouver, the horse is a great great grandson of our own Northern Dancer (whose studdingly successful post-race "career" has helped produce 95% of the great horses running today).  And just like Northern Dancer, whose potential was well-hidden when he was sold for a pittance as a yearling, I'll Have Another has been a great surprise to his owner, having won all 5 of his last races.

Hey, I love horses!

Oh yes, my DH is a major packrat.  It's a "Well...you never know when it might be useful" conversation in our house on a pretty much daily basis! 

Scoot

You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

In my day movies used to be called books.

ETA: Ack, television used to be called books. Can't even get my quotes right!

Blue - you were missed!!  So glad to see you back. 

Hi (((((Blue))))), it's good to see you've posted. 

Blue - one good thing happened while you were gone (this is to save you reading back). I am a grandmother again - born 4 weeks early - Nicholas Stephen 7lbs.