I just looked at the clock and realized 9:00PM has passed already. I’m surprised.

This morning I woke near six and worked out by 7:30 or so. I answered a few emails, etc., then hit the basement cleaning hard at nine, setting up my mp3 player and boom box to play Stars on random. By 11 I had generated fifteen or so bags of garbage, thrown some crap into the garage that won’t fit in a garbage bag and may require a dumpster later, and bagged up about ten bags of clothes for the Salvation Army or whatever. Goddamn my basement is gross. I took a break for lunch then hit the basement again (this time to Sparklehorse). The second cleaning wave was harder and more exacting. Toys and books spread were spread all over. I organized M’s books into storage tubs and divided toys between the “garbage bag” and “keep for a while” categories. I threw out a lot of baby-type toys, esp. they electronic ones that’ll never work again. By three I showered and hit Target for storage tub reinforcements. After a quick dinner I hit the weird corner of the basement with the makeshift bookshelves. Although I’m still in “mess up the space while cleaning” mode I’m making progress. I’m sick of spiderwebs in my hair. Someday I’d like to put an extra room in the basement. We’ll see.

Dawn, our neighbor, walked past while I was out front so we talked for a while about reading (she’s in a book club) and neighborhood girl drama. Later her husband called to ask if I wanted to hit the bar for a beer. I was already in my pajamas but I didn’t want to be an asshole so I met him downtown. We talked mostly of work (his supervisor sucks) and local gossip. Since I had been alone for the better part of three days I had to relearn how to use my voice and, you know, converse with people. That’s not easy.

As you probably know I don’t deal well with free time. Projects beget projects and I’m sort of feeling like I should get a ton done, too. We’ll see what happens. Tomorrow I’d like to finish as much of the basement as I can without M’s input. It’ll still look messy until all the garbage bags (up to about thirty!) and clothes bags are gone. But it’s progress. More later…off to read Murakami. Good night.