House of Horrors

Last Thursday I had a check up with Dr. L and though Vlad has not decreased in size, he’s getting softer which is a good sign. Everyone is very happy with my progress and evidently I’m the fifth patient in this study and I’m rocking it. So onward and upward.

Friday we left for Pittsburgh to clean out Sam’s parents house, which has not been lived in in 8 years, but has 40 years of junk accumulated. All his siblings came in to help and it was really something. There were spaces in the basement that, after 33 years of marriage, I had no idea existed. There was a “cold cellar” that I swear to god was the inspiration for Psycho’s fruit cellar. All we needed was a skeleton in a revolving chair.

Theirs

So for 4 days we cleaned. I have to hand it to Sams sister and brother who did the majority of the work, because Sams knee went out. But together they all did an unbelievable job clearing out. We had a Veterans organization come for donations and 1-800-gotjunk came with 3 trucks to unload. I would HIGHLY recommend them.

Sams OTHER sister is a bit of a hoarder and eventually I got yelled at because I threw away dead plants and put them on the porch in the heat. Which killed them. NOT the non-watering for 8 years. It was all I could do not to throw the dead plant at her head. She was, however, brave about the process. Im sure we’ll be hearing about things we got rid of for the next 10 years, but that’s the way it goes.

After everything, being at the house for 12 hours a day, eating fast food for every meal and constantly being covered in grime, it was a good time to reconnect with family. We all pitch in when we’re needed and, happily we are one step closer to getting the house sold.

I also got to spend a day at the museum with my sister-in-law (who was the only smart one, and stayed away), my nephew and my other nephew’s girlfriends daughter (got that?) Eli is 14 and was a good sport about everything and Alayna in 4 and has more energy than you can imagine. It was a really fun day that I needed in the middle of everything. My sister-in-law and I have always seen eye to eye and its great having someone in the family that I can rely on. It was wonderful showing the kids the dinosaurs, the igloos and everything the Natural History Museum had to offer.

We are now in the airport, delayed because of weather, but happy to be getting back home.