More Painful Tasks Accomplished

Yesterday I resumed the sorting and eliminating in a small way. When I retired, I purchased a travel wardrobe. There were pants, skirts, jumpers, vests, shorts, jackets and T-tops. Everything was either black or teal blue. I could mix and match the outfits. Those clothes traveled the world. Two years ago I bought a new travel wardrobe. My mother would tell me "waste not, want not" and "you might need that someday--don't be so quick to throw it out". My mother was usually very wise, and I followed her advice most of the time. However, I feel like she did me a disservice when she ingrained a reluctance to part with my belongings in me. Now I am suffering. I packed up the old travel clothes and took them to Goodwill.

 

Goodwill runs a computer store at Gateway Shopping Center. I called them up and asked them if they would be interested in my old Atari computer outfit. I was relieved to hear they will be happy to get it. The lady told me they are in the old Oshman's store. She said I could drive around to the loading dock in back and ring the buzzer. Someone will help me unload my car. I had forgotten how much Atari stuff I had. In addition to the 64k computer, there were two floppy disk drives, a 300 baud modem, two joy sticks, a numeric keypad, a monitor, an auxiliary box that allowed me to attach a printer and  an Epson dot-matrix printer. There was a copy of Visicalc for Atari. Visicalc was the first spreadsheet program and preceded Lotus 1-2-3. There was a database program, a word processor, and a graphics program. There were cartridges for Atari basic, and cartridges for several games such a Pacman and Ms Pacman. The money that I spent on that stuff would buy two of the finest computers on the market today. I had a lot of fun with it and learned a great deal about computers so it cannot be considered a complete waste.

 

Getting rid of the Atari computer nearly finishes the last bedroom upstairs. At least as I go through the first floor I will not be going up and downstairs as I carry things out to the car.

 

I have checked the price of bubble wrap at Lowes and Wal-Mart. I bought a couple of rolls of bubble wrap at Wal-Mart. I found a place on the Internet that sells moving cartons and supplies. They sent me a catalog. I checked Sam's Club and found they have rolls of bubble wrap and cartons and appear to have the best prices. I intend to go to Sam's Club next week and will see if they have the bubble wrap and boxes at the Beaumont store. When I finish the the sorting and eliminating, I intend to start packing my figurines, crystal and china.

 

Del Webb has a 60-day window in the sales contract to complete the house. I will be moving between July 15 and September 15. As far as I am concerned, the sooner the better. The temperature is already in the eighties. The Gulf of Mexico did not get a chance to cool sufficiently this winter. I am afraid that we may start to see tropical activity before the official start of hurricane season. I still have more work to do in the garage. I wish I had finished it before I started inside the house. It is going to be very warm in the garage. Also I did not paint my patio furniture. Maybe I can hire a handyman to do it for me in Frisco.

 

I have been searching the Internet for information on moving companies. I found one article that came from Consumers Union about moving in Texas that scared me silly. It was written in 1997 and hopefully the situation has improved. I called the Texas Department of Transportation to check on the complaint record of my first choice mover. The lady I talked to told me to check out a website called movingscam.com. I found a discussion forum on that site that seems to have a wealth of current information. I called a manager in the HR department of the company from which I retired to see if they were keeping any statistics on moving companies. They have outsourced the employee moves to a relocation service. He told me he was pleased with the company that moved him from the Beaumont area to the Houston area last year. He gave the name of an Allied agent in Houston that I had not heard of. When I looked them up, their web-site said they specialized in Houston-Dallas moves.