Kelly Garriott Waite's Blog, page 5
January 9, 2014
Great 365 Day Purge - Day Nine
January 9, 2014
Day Nine of "The Great 365 Day Purge of 2014"
I have in front of me fifteen "candles" - white plastic tubes screwed into gold plastic bases: made-in-China products that every year I set in the windows to celebrate Christmas. Based upon this year's performance, each candle chews through two double-A batteries and a bulb in less than a week, even if I go from window to window unscrewing the bulbs every morning.
Assuming I use those candles for three weeks a year, I could easily go through ninety batteries a season. After ten years of such use, my family will have used nine hundred batteries.
To read more, click here.
Day Nine of "The Great 365 Day Purge of 2014"
I have in front of me fifteen "candles" - white plastic tubes screwed into gold plastic bases: made-in-China products that every year I set in the windows to celebrate Christmas. Based upon this year's performance, each candle chews through two double-A batteries and a bulb in less than a week, even if I go from window to window unscrewing the bulbs every morning.
Assuming I use those candles for three weeks a year, I could easily go through ninety batteries a season. After ten years of such use, my family will have used nine hundred batteries.
To read more, click here.
January 8, 2014
Who am I?
Viola opens the cabin door and stands in the doorframe, listening to the water drip from the icicles.
"You knew this day would come." Viola's grandson joins her at the door.
"Flowers will be here soon" Viola says.
"Why bother?" Charles says.
Viola turns to her grandson. "If I don't bother who will?" She forces herself to unclench her fists. "This is my life Charles."
She returns her gaze outside, anticipating the arrival of the spring flowers that she will use to prepare her tinctures and salves. Her healing balms.
"He's a portly man, sure enough," Charles remarks and Viola laughs, despite her promise to herself. She watches the way he picks his way up the trail, lifting his legs up high and examining the path before he set a foot down again.
"Man isn't accustomed to walking among briars and scat."
To read more, click here.
"You knew this day would come." Viola's grandson joins her at the door.
"Flowers will be here soon" Viola says.
"Why bother?" Charles says.
Viola turns to her grandson. "If I don't bother who will?" She forces herself to unclench her fists. "This is my life Charles."
She returns her gaze outside, anticipating the arrival of the spring flowers that she will use to prepare her tinctures and salves. Her healing balms.
"He's a portly man, sure enough," Charles remarks and Viola laughs, despite her promise to herself. She watches the way he picks his way up the trail, lifting his legs up high and examining the path before he set a foot down again.
"Man isn't accustomed to walking among briars and scat."
To read more, click here.
Great 365 Day Purge = Day Eight
January 8, 2014
Day Eight of "The Great 365 Day Purge of 2014"
Today, as the temperatures claw their way up to the thirties, I let go of trying to keep Grey Cat inside. While Calico Cat–the cat who adopted us in October–has been enjoying her indoor respite, curling up on a feather tick and sleeping for hours, forgetting entirely about birds and squirrels, Grey Cat is angry: Kept inside the house against his will, he runs to the door trying to slip out between our legs whenever we take the dogs out for a walk, sitting upon the kitchen table when denied, intently staring at the action outside: The snow that's so cold it squeaks underfoot...the three-foot-long icicles hanging from the gutters...the occasional bird that flits to the suet feeder...the Christmas trees piled curbside...the recycling bins blowing down the street.
Yesterday morning, in a last desperate bid to escape, Grey Cat crawled up the inside of the chimney and sat upon the damper, peering upside down at my daughter, refusing to come down. He emerged, some time later, sooty paws tracking across my hardwood floors and, of course, onto the kitchen table.
Today I open the door and let the cat run.
Read more here.
Day Eight of "The Great 365 Day Purge of 2014"
Today, as the temperatures claw their way up to the thirties, I let go of trying to keep Grey Cat inside. While Calico Cat–the cat who adopted us in October–has been enjoying her indoor respite, curling up on a feather tick and sleeping for hours, forgetting entirely about birds and squirrels, Grey Cat is angry: Kept inside the house against his will, he runs to the door trying to slip out between our legs whenever we take the dogs out for a walk, sitting upon the kitchen table when denied, intently staring at the action outside: The snow that's so cold it squeaks underfoot...the three-foot-long icicles hanging from the gutters...the occasional bird that flits to the suet feeder...the Christmas trees piled curbside...the recycling bins blowing down the street.
Yesterday morning, in a last desperate bid to escape, Grey Cat crawled up the inside of the chimney and sat upon the damper, peering upside down at my daughter, refusing to come down. He emerged, some time later, sooty paws tracking across my hardwood floors and, of course, onto the kitchen table.
Today I open the door and let the cat run.
Read more here.
January 7, 2014
Change
Charlie and Ruth liked to get to the diner early on Sunday, the old Buick angled in to a parking spot right in front of the diner's windows so that Charlie could ensure nobody was stealing his old Buick, not that anyone would want to steal that old boat of a car, Ruth always thought.
"Three eggs over easy," Charlie told the waitress when she tried to hand him a menu. "Sausage. Toast, no butter. You new here?"
The waitress blushed, fingered the lace at her collar. "Can you tell?"
To read more, click here."
"Three eggs over easy," Charlie told the waitress when she tried to hand him a menu. "Sausage. Toast, no butter. You new here?"
The waitress blushed, fingered the lace at her collar. "Can you tell?"
To read more, click here."
Great 365 Day Purge = Day Seven
January 7, 2014
Day Seven of "The Great 2014 Purge."
But I do not shred the Bible I've kept in my trunk for years, given to me during the short span of time when I attended Sunday School at the local Lutheran church. This Bible, Good News for a New Age, consists strictly of the New Testament and has several passages marked in pencil or underlined in orange highlighter, passages that must have spoken to me at one time: Luke 12:15-22...Corinthians 2:5...Romans 1:12...John 14:15.
I scratch out my name, neatly penciled in the inside cover, and put the Bible in the giveaway box.
To read more, click, here.
Day Seven of "The Great 2014 Purge."
But I do not shred the Bible I've kept in my trunk for years, given to me during the short span of time when I attended Sunday School at the local Lutheran church. This Bible, Good News for a New Age, consists strictly of the New Testament and has several passages marked in pencil or underlined in orange highlighter, passages that must have spoken to me at one time: Luke 12:15-22...Corinthians 2:5...Romans 1:12...John 14:15.
I scratch out my name, neatly penciled in the inside cover, and put the Bible in the giveaway box.
To read more, click, here.
January 6, 2014
Great 365 Day Purge - Day 6
January 6, 2014
Day Six of "The Great 2014 Purge."
And since I am authorized to shred, today I shred an box full of index cards: Some are snippets of dialogue I've overheard and recorded over the years. Some are descriptions of characters. Still others are plot notes for a story I was writing.
I also shred an old passport from a college trip to Europe, a passport I thought I'd lost.
I shred cards from my bridal and baby showers; yellowed newspaper clippings; my final high school transcript.
I shred my high school graduation announcement; the program from my college commencement; three of my wedding invitations and one of my sister's, the twenty-five cent stamp neatly affixed upside down on the response envelope.
I shred two expired driver's licenses and an advertisement for a failed cleaning business a friend and I started.
I shred the results from some standardized test. A certificate of completion for a high school driver education course. The 8th grade occupational interest test, on which I reported I wished to be a nurse and showed no interest in writing.
I recycle the school newspaper that shows my class rank. The other newspaper that shares the senior confessions, in which I admit to, among other things, filling the soap dispenser in the boy's bathroom with mustard.
To read more, click here.
Day Six of "The Great 2014 Purge."
And since I am authorized to shred, today I shred an box full of index cards: Some are snippets of dialogue I've overheard and recorded over the years. Some are descriptions of characters. Still others are plot notes for a story I was writing.
I also shred an old passport from a college trip to Europe, a passport I thought I'd lost.
I shred cards from my bridal and baby showers; yellowed newspaper clippings; my final high school transcript.
I shred my high school graduation announcement; the program from my college commencement; three of my wedding invitations and one of my sister's, the twenty-five cent stamp neatly affixed upside down on the response envelope.
I shred two expired driver's licenses and an advertisement for a failed cleaning business a friend and I started.
I shred the results from some standardized test. A certificate of completion for a high school driver education course. The 8th grade occupational interest test, on which I reported I wished to be a nurse and showed no interest in writing.
I recycle the school newspaper that shows my class rank. The other newspaper that shares the senior confessions, in which I admit to, among other things, filling the soap dispenser in the boy's bathroom with mustard.
To read more, click here.
January 5, 2014
Day Five of the Great 365 Day Purge
Day Five of "The Great 2014 Purge."
A break from the trunk this day. Today, I'm getting rid of the Dell laptop I crashed a year ago, spilling a hot mug of tea over the keyboard, destroying the motherboard in a quick sizzle.
I pull the hard drive out of the laptop and set it aside.
Another computer: Desktop. A slow behemoth of a machine that nobody uses anymore. Full of photographs. Music. School papers. Taxes.
I want to delete everything on the hard drive, format it a couple of times and reinstall Windows before pulling it, to make sure the data is wiped clean. In the DOS days of old, this would have been a snap: Get yourself to the c prompt and type del *.* before telling the computer to format.
To read more, click here.
A break from the trunk this day. Today, I'm getting rid of the Dell laptop I crashed a year ago, spilling a hot mug of tea over the keyboard, destroying the motherboard in a quick sizzle.
I pull the hard drive out of the laptop and set it aside.
Another computer: Desktop. A slow behemoth of a machine that nobody uses anymore. Full of photographs. Music. School papers. Taxes.
I want to delete everything on the hard drive, format it a couple of times and reinstall Windows before pulling it, to make sure the data is wiped clean. In the DOS days of old, this would have been a snap: Get yourself to the c prompt and type del *.* before telling the computer to format.
To read more, click here.
January 4, 2014
Day Four of the Great 365 Day Purge
January 4, 2014
Day Four of "The Great 2014 Purge."
Still excavating from my trunk. Disks, this time. Old three-and-a-half inch disks, contents neatly inked on the label: Database programs I wrote twenty years ago. Work reports just as old. College papers. My writing.
I break off the metal piece; snap open the plastic case. I withdraw the disk and slice it in half with a pair of scissors, hoping that that measure is sufficient to keep people from reading the data thereupon.
I don't count the disks I destroy, recycling what I can, throwing out the rest. It must be at least sixty. In years past, I've likely thrown away twice that amount.
To read more, click here
Day Four of "The Great 2014 Purge."
Still excavating from my trunk. Disks, this time. Old three-and-a-half inch disks, contents neatly inked on the label: Database programs I wrote twenty years ago. Work reports just as old. College papers. My writing.
I break off the metal piece; snap open the plastic case. I withdraw the disk and slice it in half with a pair of scissors, hoping that that measure is sufficient to keep people from reading the data thereupon.
I don't count the disks I destroy, recycling what I can, throwing out the rest. It must be at least sixty. In years past, I've likely thrown away twice that amount.
To read more, click here
Day Four of the Great 365 Day Purge
January 4, 2014
Day Four of "The Great 2014 Purge."
Still excavating from my trunk. Disks, this time. Old three-and-a-half inch disks, contents neatly inked on the label: Database programs I wrote twenty years ago. Work reports just as old. College papers. My writing.
I break off the metal piece; snap open the plastic case. I withdraw the disk and slice it in half with a pair of scissors, hoping that that measure is sufficient to keep people from reading the data thereupon.
I don't count the disks I destroy, recycling what I can, throwing out the rest. It must be at least sixty. In years past, I've likely thrown away twice that amount.
To read more, click "a href="http://writinginthemarginsburstingatt...
Day Four of "The Great 2014 Purge."
Still excavating from my trunk. Disks, this time. Old three-and-a-half inch disks, contents neatly inked on the label: Database programs I wrote twenty years ago. Work reports just as old. College papers. My writing.
I break off the metal piece; snap open the plastic case. I withdraw the disk and slice it in half with a pair of scissors, hoping that that measure is sufficient to keep people from reading the data thereupon.
I don't count the disks I destroy, recycling what I can, throwing out the rest. It must be at least sixty. In years past, I've likely thrown away twice that amount.
To read more, click "a href="http://writinginthemarginsburstingatt...
January 3, 2014
Day Three of The Great 365 Day Purge
January 3, 2014
Day Three of "The Great 2014 Purge."
What is it about trunks, these beautiful wooden trunks, that I hold dear? Why must I feel compelled to clutter them with the detritus of my life? Today, I withdraw from my steamer trunk four boxes of checks dating from the nineties.
My children will not know the joy and drudgery of check-writing, that neat allocation of funds here...and here...and here. They conduct their banking with their phones, and use their debit cards for all their purchases.
In response to the Target data heist, my husband and I recently requested new debit cards. In anticipation of the two weeks during which we'll be without cards, we withdrew a substantial amount of money from our checking account. It's been an interesting experiment, this temporary return to cash-only transactions. We can see how easily the money slips through our fingers: groceries...take-out coffee...movies...gas...Christmas decorations...a hundred dollars we cannot account for.
Click here to read more.
Day Three of "The Great 2014 Purge."
What is it about trunks, these beautiful wooden trunks, that I hold dear? Why must I feel compelled to clutter them with the detritus of my life? Today, I withdraw from my steamer trunk four boxes of checks dating from the nineties.
My children will not know the joy and drudgery of check-writing, that neat allocation of funds here...and here...and here. They conduct their banking with their phones, and use their debit cards for all their purchases.
In response to the Target data heist, my husband and I recently requested new debit cards. In anticipation of the two weeks during which we'll be without cards, we withdrew a substantial amount of money from our checking account. It's been an interesting experiment, this temporary return to cash-only transactions. We can see how easily the money slips through our fingers: groceries...take-out coffee...movies...gas...Christmas decorations...a hundred dollars we cannot account for.
Click here to read more.
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