Nonattachment

One of the many chores that we did over the weekend, which was in fact mostly chore-oriented in case that wasn't obvious from other posts about it, was to drop a load of things we do not need off at the Goodwill.

I both love and hate giving things to Goodwill. On the one hand, I find it very freeing to let go of what I no longer need, of material stuff that longer serves me. And what a bonus that by doing that, other people can get things for cheap, and a third-party can serve the poor in the process. It's all good. On the other hand, what if you end up needing it again someday? Then what?

The load we dropped of on Sunday included:

• an old fan
• six or seven blankets, most of which were old and very worn and a couple of which were new but made of that poly fiber stuff that makes your skin crawl when you touch it
• the stuffed animal turtle that our friend Greg won at the county fair we went to for my birthday last year and then gave to me
• an old suitcase of Eric's that was referred to as "the dog" because the handle had broken off and been replaced by a leash. Eric found that giving it dog commands was effective at increasing its obedience and could be seen quietly shouting "Heel! Heel!" at the suitcase when it was falling over as he tried to lead it down the airport corridor.
• some flower pots that I picked up for free at a moving sale and that we determined were simply too hideous to keep around

See? None of this is stuff that I will ever ever need again. Except for maybe the blankets. You never know when you will need a ratty old blanket to wrap up an injured, bleeding animal or to pad something fragile in transport. But for now, the extra closet space is worth it.

Easy go

I've been trying to sell my futon couch (that lays flat to be a bed) on craigslist since the week before our chocolate brown couch was delivered, so about a month now. Once we got the couch, we put the futon in our storage area, which is also known as the space in the parking spot not taken up by the car. It was clear the futon was not going to age well in this damp basement-y environment, especially with me rolling into it every time I parked the car.

I reposted it again yesterday at the fire sale price of $75 and got a woman who was interested in just the frame, which seemed to me like a good start. She came by mid-morning to pick it up in an SUV which was too small for it. As we were trying earnestly but unsuccessfully to force it in anyway, a chick mechanic from the hybrid garage across the street sauntered over. "Looks like you ladies need a woman's help," she cooed. Apparently we did: with a power drill she unscrewed the awkward piece of the frame that was causing the problem and she had the frame in and the SUV's rear door closed lickety-split. Off drove the frame, leaving me with just the moldering mattress remaining to unload.

The first guy who responded to the mattress-only ad asked what size it was. I told him it was a queen* and he wrote back "Woohoo! I'll take it as long as it's not covered with animal fur or blood haha." I told him it was his and that he would have to supply his own animal fur and blood. I didn't mention that the plum-colored cover it was wearing was doing an excellent job hiding the large greasy stain on the original cover from a piece of aged manchego left sitting on it overnight, possibly because I once fell asleep on the couch while eating cheese at 2am, or maybe from something else.

And thus, the futon now joins a table and chairs on the (troublingly long) list of things I paid to move across the country just to sell on a different craigslist.

*I'd say there's a solid 40% chance it was not actually a queen