I have been worried that my new tenant may be some kind of con artist. Since I'm in New York and can't really monitor what is going on out there. Some strange things have been happening I'll talk about later. But after today, I am not so worried. I talked to him and he asked me if I could send him a copy of the lease. His kids got ahold of his copy and tore it to shreds.  He needs it to get his daughter into the local school. It probably was in the same spot on the table where we signed it 2 months ago. Till them dang kids got ahold of it. They're in that destructive age you know.

  But the jokes on him, he doesn't know what a lazy slob I am, I don't even know if I can find my copy!

Homeless

I've been officially homeless now for about 2 months. I stayed at my mom's house in Syracuse for awhile, then i was riding my bike through Canada for a month, now I am at my sister's house in West Hurley, NY. It's a great life without all that stuff. Looks like it will be going full circle soon and I'll be living back in MI for awhile.

Trash Mountain

When you think about it, the term trash mountain literally means "mountain of trash".

Never trust a craigslister

I've spent the day waiting for three different people from craigslist to come get their stuff.
Nobody showed up. The only thing I got real responses from was the old tires I put on the FREE list, then I got 5 calls, and someone was here in 15 min.
I did get rid of my broken washing machine though. I got it as far as the bottom of the basement stairs but couldn't get it any farther by myself. I set the trap by putting a couple of metal items at the curb; a rusty shelving unit and some chicken wire. Then I sat on the porch and waited. Within 30 min. some scrappers showed up and started loading thier pickup. I said "Hey you guys want a washing machine?" "Sure" Wel it's in the basement you just have to bring it up. "OK" !

I'm sorry, the kitchen is closed

I packed up all my pots and pans and threw out all the food. No more cooking here. There are no dishes either because I've been throwing them out every day instead of washing them.

Storage unit is almost full.

I haven't updated in awhile, I plead exhaustion. I rented a 10' x 10' storage unit and have been taking a couple of van loads a day there. Almost done, in a couple of days everything I own will be there or in my car. I was going to leave the window AC for the family moving in (wow I guess I don't even know their name, Sullivan or O'Sullivan or something like that) but I was worried that they would use the AC all the time and run up their electric bill and have nothing left for rent, so they lose, I'm taking it to storage.

Some things I'll miss about Detroit. I went to the fruit & vegtable market today; bought 4 bananas, 3 apples , 3 oranges 3 hot peppers, 2 green peppers, fresh cilantro, fresh spinach, gnocchi potato dumplings, 1/2 gallon cider, mushrooms,

all for $11.70. This is the midwest, where the livin' is easy.

Day, ?

Ok, I was in Hawaii for the last 10 days, plus time for jet lag and back and forth to Syracuse, which is where we boarded the plane. So nothing done once again. Tommorow is go time, I'm getting a storage unit and loading it up. A family wants to rent the house starting Aug 1. They are highly motivated because they are currently living in a tent. What, me worry??

more complaining

I was getting discouraged by all the work I have to do here, all the stuff I have to go through. But I realized that this is stuff I have been carrying most of my life. The last time I moved I didn't have time to go through anything, just threw it in the u-haul and moved to Warren. Also I figure that the girls have most of the stuff from their life saved; say half with me and half with their mom. So add up my age, plus 1/2 the girls' ages, and I've got over 65 years of stuff here.

Another weekend at the beach

Day 51

Here is the last chair in a set of 4 given to me by a guy I worked with when I first moved here (1999!). These have been great porch sitting chairs but I am afraid every time I sit now that I will end up on the cement. So it's goodbye and time for a folding camp chair. Those chairs are not as loyal as this one, they will last one season at best.

BTW, the green armchair at the top is just temporary, waiting for the guy next door to come and get it, if he doesn't soon it will go in the trash too. Proud to say that the round table was trash-picked, so total cost for everything on the porch and ten years of use was zero dollars.

Day 50

Here's the basement. I'm slowly going through things and getting boxes upstairs and stuff to the trash. I counted 47 plastic bins full of stuff throughout the house.

The sad story of the screen house

After I set up the screen house in the backyard, I decided to leave it up for a couple of hours to air it out. But I didn't stake it down. THe wind picked it uP and crashed it down sideways, breaking one of the poles. SO much for that.

Day 48

When moving, every little thing has to be dealt with. This screen house has been in it's bag for a year. Tommorow I'm going to sell it at a garage sale. I had to set it all up, take a picture to show that it is complete, then take it down and put it back in the bag to take over to the sale.

Day 47

This

This is my friend Big Jim; Memorial Day, 2008. He works as a security guard at different sites around Metro Detroit. This site is at the corner of W. Jefferson and Dragoon St. in Detroit, about a mile from the Ambassador Bridge to Canada. Once a thriving neighborhood, with people employed at local industrial sites or in supporting businesses like restaurants or bars, now mostly home to folks on assistance; Section 8 rentals and food stamps. Most nights there are a few cars flying by at 60+ mph on the 30 mph street, and four or five people on bicycles, bound for rendezvous unknown. We set up our Memorial Day barbeque at 2 am right on the sidewalk. No one cares or notices.

I added the above as an explanation as to why on day 47, I yet again got nothing done. I went to Jim's house after the dentist this morning at 11:30 am to bring him my fish tank. But HE's the kind of person who won't let you leave. After an hour or so, I said, "what time do you have to go to bed?" Jim works 11pm to 7 am so has to sleep during the day. He says " In about an hour." Perfect, I've got a couple things to do, so we'll hang out and drink coffee till 12:30, then I'll take off. But no it doesn't ever work that way. At 2:30, two hours later, I make a move to get going. "Hey where are you going?" OK, fine. Now it's 3:30, better get going..., OK says Jim, just let me lock up the back porch then I'll walk out with you to your car. 1/2 hour later at 4 pm I'm driving away. He has to get up at 9:00 pm to get ready for work so now he's got 5 hours to sleep, I dont know how he does it.

Anyway the above is my perfect excuse for getting nothing done on day 47.

day 46

Nothing accomplished this weekend. I went to see my kids in Ann Arbor. We went to the beach, cold and overcast but no one else there it was fun. Then we bought some movies from a going out of business rental place and watched a couple of them Monday afternoon. Sure beats house cleaning.

Day 43

Today's dilemma. I want to keep my computer up till the last. But I want to sell the table it is on. So now must go through everything on the table to the right of the computer, then switch computer to that one. Upside is I still haven't filed my state taxes and they are somewhere on that table, when found I will finish them.

Day 42

This is a blog about my attempt to move from Michigan to New York.

I named this site "notwithoutmystuff", but I really do want to go without my stuff. I want to chuck it all but I can't seem to do it. I always watch that show Hoarders, but now who's laughing.