Perfect October?

[f6john]

I have experienced the best weather this month I can remember for October. Excellent riding weather every day, retired, grandkids back in school, no nagging household chores pending, and I got in a grand total of maybe 150 miles! That's the reason the weather has been so vivid in my mind. I've been making weekly trips to my childhood home, mostly pulling an enclosed trailer to work on getting my Mothers home cleared out. So it has been a two edged sword great riding weather and great house clearing weather too. The house work naturally got the nod because I sure wouldn't want to be doing it in freezing temps and snow.

It's also been a time to reconnect with my sister. She and I are coexecutors of my mother's estate and we have had more conversations and time together than we have since I left home in 1970. Lots of memories resurfaced and so many old papers and pictures I had long since forgotten even existed. Even after the property is sold and the estate settled, I hope we will keep the connection going, I think we will. Still lots to do  but I can see a little light at the end of the tunnel.

I hope all you have had similar experience with the weather this past month. I'm trying to keep up with all the Valkyrie developments by reading the posts but it's not like being a part of the activities. If I'm lucky, I'll get out in the wind tomorrow for a bit. The weather is supposed to be great again!

Sunday will be a special and memorable day this weekend too. My twin grandsons who are now ten, soon to be 11 years old made the decision to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior earlier this summer and they will be baptized Sunday. They are two great kids that make me quite proud! Hope all you guys and gals have a great weekend.

[Jersey mike]

Sometimes I believe there is a reason for everything but we're just not in on the conversation of those things. Sometimes the "universe" puts things into motion that it feels needs attention.

The weather has been perfect yet only a limited number of riding miles under your belt but perfect for clearing out mom's house and connecting with your sister.  

I hope things will continue to grow for you and your sister, don't force anything, if it's meant to be it will come naturally.

Congratulations on the baptisms and I hope a lifetime of blessings come their way. 

[Farside]

  I really liked your post John. Great things going on in you and your families life. Awesome decision for your twin grandsons and at a great age. Well done parents and family. Bringing family back together through the loss of your mom, very sorry for her loss but sounds like a blessing to me.  Moms know best

[f6john]

I voted early this past Friday so I'm heading back to Mom's place for more tasks to be completed. A lot of this work has been therapeutic because there is no cable or internet WiFi at mother's house and the buzz of politics gets pushed to the back of my mind.

I'm really just the workhorse in this operation, my wife has been an amazing organizer and planner during this ordeal. My sister is doing her part too but when it comes to the household personal property she has expressed interest in very few items. Her daughter has taken only some memorabilia. So far my wife has rescued most of the furnishings, many of which needed her close attention to touchups and such. I've been the moving guy and the trailer driver.

Back to my original thought, yes this has been a tumultuous year and has caused me to focus on how blessed I am.
 

[Jersey mike]

Blessings in disguise I call stuff like that. No cable, no internet = no distractions of any sort.

Rummaging through mom's stuff can be tough to do but as they say idle hands are the Devil's playthings. You don't make it sound as though you're on a set timeline to clear out the house so it doesn't sound like a frantic effort to just chuck everything into a dumpster.

We went through a similar situation with my in-laws home when we cleaned it out and to be honest all three of my wife's siblings took very little of any sentimental value, just a couple things here and there, I believe mostly photos and maybe a ceramic figurine or something along those lines.

I didn't empty the house myself, there was too much stuff, we hired a company to do the major clean out. My sister in law did all the cleaning out of "important papers" and hundreds of books. My father-in-law was very involved with youth soccer at many different levels for about 30 years and he had filing cabinets full of files on players, rosters of teams and correspondences with different organizations/coaches and leagues going back to typewriter written and carbon paper days. All that stuff got shredded.

I did a lot of work on the house to get it ready for the real estate agent. Once all the stuff in the basement was removed I did a complete cleaning...sweeping and vacuuming everything. I did a complete outside yard cleanup. Upstairs I removed old carpets to expose all the hardwood floors and removed all the old heavy drapery. We gave away many of my father-in-law's old stuff in the garage and his snowblower went to friends of my sister-in-law.

It's not an easy process but in some ways therapeutic.