This and That, Here and There

I have been reading a couple of books on de-cluttering the family home.  It makes me tired just to read them.  One of them, by a Japanese professional organizer, says to start with the closet, which is enough right there to grind my efforts to a halt.  When we cleaned out the closet after N died, there were a few brief days when that side of the closet was empty; but soon after my clothes migrated to that side as well, and now the closet is crammed again.  It doesn't help that I have been buying clothes (and other things) online, it is my main form of entertainment these days.  I don't see anyone other than the therapists and the lady who does my nails here.  Even R seldom comes downstairs, I don't know what her problem is.  If not for C I would end up in a nursing home with no privacy but lots and lots of therapy.  No, thanks.

I opened a dry cleaners bag that has been hanging there for months, and I find a card from the cleaners saying that they "tried and tried" to remove a stain on my gold silk shirt and were unable to do so.  The thing is, I don't remember having any stain on that shirt at all when I took it to them.  The stain, about as big as the palm of my hand and right in the center of the right side of the shirt, is stiff like a sweet spill, and I believe the cleaners put it there.  But after all this time, I can't very well complain.  I think I will try the stain remover in the Dryel package, I have nothing to lose at this point.  I can always wear a sweater, shawl, whatever, if I make the stain worse.  No more business for them, convenient though they are.

I found a book by Roger Zelazny, Nine Princes in Amber, that I thought had been purged from my books years ago.  Looking online at ABE, I found it was the first of 10 books, all about Amber, a sci-fi compendium.  Now I am divided about getting some of the other books, I am pretty sure I read the second and third ones, but I would need to re-read this one to see if it has stood the test of time.  Some of the sci-fi books read as really dated, and I don't want to waste my reading time.  I have no idea how this book ended up on my shelf.

 I have been looking for iPhone covers for my 5c, the current one is a flip type and the binding is starting to crack.  I need to get one now, since this is a really old iPhone and I am surprised there are any still available (on Amazon, of course).  I found one I really like, with a chain wrist loop, I liked it until I saw the price, $88 dollars!!!  I have no idea why, all of the other ones (pages and pages) are $10 or less.  I finally settled on one, I hope it actually fits, there are so many versions available.  I don't use my phone much, only 4 or so people have my number, and all the other calls are spam.  Don't know who is releasing my number to the spammers.  The ones I hate are those that sound real, one is "from R" , my daughter's name, and it catches my attention.  I got one that said "Grandma?" which was way off, since I don't have anyone to call me that.

I collect fountain pens, mainly Parker Vacumatic ones from the 40s and 50s, but they have caught on with collectors with deeper pockets than I have, so I now have some modern Parkers, Crosses, and Shaffer pens.  I need to disassemble them and clean them inside, then store them empty.  They are leaking ink all inside their pouch/cap and I should just use one at a time, then clean it and move on to another.  I have dispo gloves to wear, the ink stains my nails blue, really blue!  Maybe I will tackle a couple today.

This post has wandered around a bit, but if I don't make a list of what I want to write, I can never remember when I am sitting at the keyboard.  Meanwhile, Aloha!