Purely Whimsical

I think I am going to try to do a photo-a-day challenge at the beginning of the trip. I’ll use this as a guide. It says January, but hey, this will be new for me!

Today I will be winnowing through the last bit of stuff that I couldn’t bear to part with in the earlier phases of this process. I think I’ll need hugs at the end of the day.

Bought some e-cigs, hoping to convert over so no more cig smell but still get the nicotine fix. We’ll see how that goes.

Made a car camping list last night. Only partial one. It’s so huge!!!! And not even complete.

It’s also waaaay cold. I’m kind of sorry I won’t be here this summer. I’m pretty sure the mosquitoes will be light this year.

We are almost ready to leave Anchorage; the condo has been emptied, still sorting through the last of the dregs of schtuff for permanent storage. It was a long road, mostly due to sheer laziness (but let’s not dwell on that….) Craigslist has been very useful for day labor and finding contractors, etc. I’m amazed at how one can get such cheap labor. Mind you, most of them show up with a fifth and may not show up the next day, but they do work.

The new car is going to be used for the Northern American part of the trip. I’m thinking of signing up for SiriusXM radio for the Alcan since after a while it seems like it would be nice to listen to something besides my own music list. Has anyone ever used it? Thoughts?

First leg is going to be a drive across Canada. The in-dash GPS on the car is going to be nice. I still have second thoughts about keeping the !brand! !new! vehicle for this, but it will be so comfortable to travel with, it’s covered by manufacturers warranty, and truly, I adore this car. During the winter, I had to be careful driving because for me it was like driving on dry pavement, and I had to be aware of the (non) stopping capabilities and less able handling of the vehicles around me. The anti-skid control was a little miraculous. You never noticed it working, you just didn’t skid around corners. Ever.

The hardest part of all of this was letting go of my fiber stash. Country songs ran through my head a lot. Ultimately this will be a good thing (so I keep telling myself). There was a lot of stuff there that really should have just gone, but I’m going to probably wish for a long time that I hadn’t thrown away my bell collection. C’est la vie.

The fiber retreat was a really good destashing event, a large amount of stuff was sold or given away. I am totally blown away by the generosity of the fiber community. Some people insisted on giving me money for what I intended as gifts, and others wouldn’t take my money at all. Thanks very much. I’m not very demonstrative, but you should know that I did shed some private happy tears. You know who you are.

A friend is getting most of my truly amazingly large collection of fountain pens and inks. Two flat rate large priority rate boxes are full, and I think I might be able to fill another. I’m glad these are going to a good home and not into a landfill. A humongous box of painting supplies and other stuff went to a cousin, some soap melting supplies to another cousin. I hope you all have fun; I did. In retrospect, I wish I had painted more. I love the whole process of planning a painting, then executing it and using the errors to make something far better than I had ever envisioned.

There’s some other random stuff waiting to be mailed out to family…

One thing I think I’ve learned throughout this process is that a) I was a bit of a hoarder (like most fiber people) b) getting rid of this stuff is rather freeing, as little as I wanted to part with some of it c) we focus way too much on stuff.

For instance, some of you may be surprised to know that I had kept just about all of your correspondence since I was a teenager. Cards, postcards, letters, all that. I used to occasionally go through them, and it would always bring a smile to my face. For instance, there was a thank you letter that one of my cousins sent to me when she was just five years old that was totally adorable. She didn’t know that letters needed postage, and she addressed it to me, but no physical address… It always brought a smile to my face. Now, almost all of those are now in the landfill, but I did save a few postcards and one card is being remailed to the sender because I want you to know I totes could have saved that to show to your grandchildren you but didn’t. Because I love you.

Clothes. I am totally taking Stacy and Clinton’s words to heart and will simply get rid of clothing that doesn’t fit or is otherwise unfit to wear. I’m a little appalled at how many clothes I really had. Cute clothes, but dang. I had two king pillowcases full of socks for petes sake! We won’t talk about tshirts and jeans. And I’m keeping the duffel bag of scarves but lets keep that as our secret?

Fiber stuff is always hard to control. I think it breeds when you aren’t looking. My new goal is to never buy any fiber without a specific goal that results in a usable object. Whether I keep it or I give it away, no more buying fat quarters of fabric because I adore the pattern or colors and I’ll think of something to use it in, same goes for roving and yarn and so on. It’s a goal that I hope I’ll stick to. Parting with my stash has been painful at times, and I can’t help feeling it’s a little crazy to think that way. I don’t want to ever, ever do this again.

This has been a little rambly, but I wanted to get a recentish post up letting you all know I’m here, alive, and about to start adventuring.

It’s scary and I’m terribly sad about leaving my spoiled dog and feeling more than a little bad about leaving her with someone for both of their sakes since she is totally and thoroughly spoiled. Honestly, if she’d fit in a shoulder bag I’d totally carry her around in my purse. And we’d both love it.