a busy day

 Since everything opened back up today, I decided to get some things taken care of.

First off - the recommended appliance-repair person called me back, quite early (like 8 am, but I was up). He said he could come out shortly after noon. So I said yes, and cancelled the June 13 (and more expensive!) appointment I had with a supposedly-Sears-approved person (might even have been the same guy and I got a discount going direct; this is a small town and that's what happened using the "Handy" app through Lowe's - the plumber they sent would have been cheaper had I hired him on my own). 

He was actually *early* - called me shortly after 11 and asked if I'd be available. Yes, I was, so he came over. He needs to order a hose because it's an older washer and the set up is different (you take the front and not the back panel off to access it, and the hookup place is in the front). He's ordering a hose and he just left the front panel off since I can't use the washer any more - one of my jobs tomorrow is to vacuum out in there; there's a lot of dust and also a few nibbled bits of things where the mouse apparently hung out. (It's unplugged so it won't be a shock hazard). 

Oh, and my fridge is FINE, it's as cold as it ever was, presumably that water was either an overfull drip pan or a clogged drain line from the freezer, or both. The freezer iced up in my absence (the seal on one corner has never been perfect) and once I cleaned out the frost things were better. I mean, I'll need a new fridge sooner or later (this one is more than 20 years old) but for now it's good.

Before that, though, I ran out to the local State Farm office, and talked to the woman there who does these things. I have an appointment at the glass place (it's actually a collision center that also does bodywork) tomorrow for them to evaluate it and, I presume, order a new windshield. At least the car is driveable in its current state, and I don't need to drive *far* for a while, so it doesn't matter if it takes a week or more to get the windshield replaced. 

They also gave me a list of recommended roofers; I'm going to call one of them (who does metal roofs, that's what I want) tomorrow to try to arrange for someone to come out and do an estimate. 

Then I got my mail; there are a few "paper" bills I had to pay right away. Also my Doki Doki crate was in the mail; I'm saving that as a treat for tomorrow after I get some other things done.

I also packed a bunch of boxes for the storage unit; I'm getting close but also I realize I've got a lot of yarn and fabric, and a lot of books, I could dispose of. The books will be easy - the local library does a large used book sale every fall and they said, when I called them, that they were accepting books right now, and if I called in advance they could bring out a cart for me to load up from my car. So part of the afternoon was sorting books and trying to get rid of one for every one or two I kept - I really did have a LOT of books. I did find a few that I forgot I had and want to read, so I put those aside to keep.

I also know I have a couple of "????" boxes of books (books I wasn't convinced I wanted to keep) at the storage unit and I can just tear into those to verify and then take them down there. 

With the yarn, I made an offer to friends on Twitter that if they knitted or crocheted and either wanted to pay postage or make a donation in the value of postage to one of the several charities I support regularly, I'd send out a standard-sized Priority mail box of whatever size they selected packed as full of yarn as I could. I have one taker already and she's getting a box full of mostly sockweight yarn. (she is also someone I know who celebrates pride month, and I'm pretty sure there's some rainbow-pattern-adjacent yarn in the yarn I'm deaccessioning, so it will go to her). I went a little too all-in on buying the self-striping yarn when it first came out, and I realize I have a lot I probably will never use. I also have some hand-dyed yarn I've decided I don't LOVE love, and while there's the whole sunk cost thing of it, also, it will be good to get that space back and that sort of openness to see what I have without it all being buried by other stuff.

My plan is to do a lot of sorting AT the storage unit because then I won't have to take the stuff back home, and I have a little more undistracting space there. 

I'm not sure how many of these boxes I can do; I'll see after I pack up the first one. Priority mail charges by the size of the box and you can cram a lot of yarn into a box if you try. 

So I got a lot done. And I can also clean the dining room tomorrow and I have a few kitchen type items I never use (like a fairly-new popcorn popper) and my church is doing a yard sale later this summer, so I could take those things down THERE and get rid of them. 

It does make you feel lighter to get rid of stuff that you aren't using and don't love. And the library will definitely benefit; I know the book sale brings in money they use to buy books for the collection. 

Tonight I am relaxing. I made one of my favorite simple dinners (the black-bean patties based on Ree Drummond's recipe - it's a can of beans, a cup of breadcrumbs, some cut up onion, chili powder, and garlic powder, and an egg to hold them together, then you fry them in a pan. They're the best "replacement hamburger" I've ever had and are just good on their own merits, even without being a meatless replacement for burger. And the things that go in them are things I tend to keep on hand all the time *anyway*.

I don't eat them on a bun; that feels like more carbohydrates than I want; I usually put either mayonnaise or sour cream on top of them and eat them like a patty:

I also decided I wanted a Treat, because in addition to the hard physical work I did today (and it was a hot day) and all the Peopling I had to do (calling on the phone and such), I also had worked out in the morning. So I went to Sonic and got a sundae

Not the *best* ice cream in town (that would either be Braum's or a pint of Blue Bell from the grocery), but the closest ice cream to me - Sonic is about a half mile away.

And now, I'm knitting on the simple Turkish stitch shawl thing.

Even though I used flash, you can't see the tiny sequins in there and that makes me sad.
Turkish stitch is easy - each row is an even number of stitches, you start and end with a knit stitch, and then every row is yarn over, slip-knit-pass, so it makes an every-row lace with "alternating" holes. 

It's slow going though because the yarn is close to laceweight and I admit one of the things that my pandemic-and-everything-affected -brain can't do so well any more is work patiently on a very slow project; I get frustrated at not finishing things. Though maybe if I deaccession some of the yarn I will feel less frantic about 'gotta finish stuff.'