It's finally almost cool enough to finish cleaning out the basement. I planned on doing it over the summer, but we didn't have one single crappy day the entire time. The basement still feels warm - it retains the summer heat as easily as it absorbs the winter chill - but I decide to work down there, anyway.
I have to put the workout space back together. It has been in a semi-disarray since I had the washer and dryer changed out in mid-July. I also need to call the junk man. I meant to do that a year ago, but I never finished getting the big stuff out. This conundrum has left me with a small pile of junk on my patio for an entire year.
However, I'm also discovering other gems as I work my way across the vast wasteland of assorted junk in the basement. For example, I am not a gardener. I have cement outside of my house, yet I feel the need to own several pairs of gardening gloves, some trowels, etc. Sure. Okay, I guess. I have a long garden hose, brand new, that I intended to use with the landlord's water spigot, but, after I invested in the hose, someone bent the spigot so the hose won't really attach at all. Terrific. That's okay because I don't have to water my nonexistent garden.
I do find a boombox, which is great because my MP3 player keeps changing to Christmas music while I work out, and that just stresses me out and defeats the purpose of trying to relax and get healthy. The boombox still works, radio and all, even in the basement, and all it needs is a quick dusting to move from the junk side to the gym side.
Speaking of winter, how many ice scrapers does it take to clear off a car? Don't answer that! I know this! Apparently, a dozen. Yes, I already have a scraper or two, one with a brush and at least one without, packed in my car at all times. The scraper comes in handy to rid the windshield of bird droppings, and the brush helps during pollen season. Both get employed during worm-poop season, as well.
Imagine, though, my amazement at finding more scrapers, and then more, and even more scrapers in the basement. Anyone need a scraper? I think I kept buying them when my kids would constantly complain that they didn't have ice scrapers. In fact, they did. What they did not have were clean cars. The ice scrapers were somewhere underneath empty coffee cups and important mail, all of which created extra insulation on the floors of their vehicles.
Now all I need is the number of a reliable and reasonable junk dealer. I've got to get this crap off my patio before winter comes. I don't really want to shovel around the stuff again, and I'm sure my landlord is starting to suspect that I'm in the contraband business, selling used appliances out of my home. If only the washer-dryer delivery service could've taken the stuff away, then I'd be happy. At least the only two things I need to dump somewhere myself are three computer hard drives.
Once all of that's gone, I can go back to seeing how many basketballs, badminton racquets, and pairs of crutches I have stashed down there. My basement is just a large-scale version of Mary Poppins' carpetbag; it's a never-ending stream of useless but fascinating treasure.
