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Victory Conditions
Jun. 7th, 2025 09:45 pmBoth cars are finally parked in the garage again. It has been a bit more than nine years since a pallet of books for ISFiC Press needed to be stored in the garage, which meant that one of the cars had to stay in the driveway. It is remarkably hard to get a pallet of books to go away once it arrives.
Gretchen parked in the driveway during a variety of miserable weather for most of that time. Winter, of course, is the worst with snow and ice. It was very good of her. We replaced her van in December 2023 and the new van, being a PHEV, took the space in the garage so it could be charged.
I did not like parking in the driveway. I think I liked frost less than I liked snow.
At various times in the intervening nine years, we attempted to clear out the garage. We finally got the books moved out to the storage locker, which made it possible. But at one point, I decided that I needed to clear the mass of boxes that had been stored in the library as we had the kitchen remodeled out to the garage so I could get the library back. Then *more* boxes got stored in the library. Oops. Now I had set back the garage cleaning *and* still didn't get the library back.
Eventually, the boxes in the library were dispatched once and for all, along with the boxes that had gone to the garage. There was hope! Except that we had tossed a variety of things into the garage in the interim, because it got them out of the way. This was true. Inconvenient when trying to clean the garage, but true.
When it looked like we were going to fix the fence ourselves, I bought the lumber in preparation for this and stored it in (chorus) *the garage*. Then we hired someone to fix the fence, but I now had all of this perfectly good lumber occupying too much of the garage. Gretchen noted several times that we could not clean out the garage successfully with all of that lumber out there. Gretchen was (as usual) correct.
About a month ago, I found myself with some time to kill and Gretchen's van was not in the garage. I *found* places to tuck all the lumber where it was out of the way. I now have a partially cedar-lined garage with all the pickets that are tucked away in between the studs. But the lumber was out of the way, so Gretchen's precondition was satisfied.
Over the last three weekends, we have (with varying numbers of kids) spent some time out in the garage. Two huge boxes full of unread Chicago Tribunes went into the recycling bin over successive weekends. I saved enough to use as charcoal starter for some indefinite period of time. Shelves were rearranged and boxes shoehorned onto them. Broken things were disposed of. Useful things were either kept or boxed up for Goodwill. The back of Gretchen's van is *very* full with three outgrown bicycles that will be leaving tomorrow.
Thursday, I put out the pallet that had once held up Mount McGuire and the old Oriental rug that the mice had gotten to for the garbage collection. Happily, they took both. The garbage bin and recycling bin were *very* full.
Today, I decided to finish it up. I went out and collected the donations for the girls' softball league that will be picked up tomorrow: two helmets, two sets of cleats, my lineup board from the season when I was a head coach, and a batting tee. The last of the stuff for Goodwill went into the car. Things were tucked into corners.
Then I went in and got the remaining magnetic hooks, attached them to the big metal shelves that hold up my tool bag and the small sound system, and draped the cord for the charging plug for Gretchen's van over them so that she wouldn't drive across it trying to get in. I swept things into a pile, then recruited K to help me bag the mess for the trash.
And the floor was empty.
I rolled the trash cans and the dolly off onto the grass for the moment and pulled my car out of the driveway, parking it on the street. I had already gotten the key to Gretchen's van, so I backed it out of the garage, got a running start, and pulled it into the freshly cleared space where it fit nicely. There was even space to plug it into the charger.
I put the dolly and the cans back into their space on my side of the garage. Then I went across the circle, got my car, and pulled it in.
There was much rejoicing.
There are still a great many cleaning projects to finish up around the house, but this one, at least, is finally finished.
Gretchen parked in the driveway during a variety of miserable weather for most of that time. Winter, of course, is the worst with snow and ice. It was very good of her. We replaced her van in December 2023 and the new van, being a PHEV, took the space in the garage so it could be charged.
I did not like parking in the driveway. I think I liked frost less than I liked snow.
At various times in the intervening nine years, we attempted to clear out the garage. We finally got the books moved out to the storage locker, which made it possible. But at one point, I decided that I needed to clear the mass of boxes that had been stored in the library as we had the kitchen remodeled out to the garage so I could get the library back. Then *more* boxes got stored in the library. Oops. Now I had set back the garage cleaning *and* still didn't get the library back.
Eventually, the boxes in the library were dispatched once and for all, along with the boxes that had gone to the garage. There was hope! Except that we had tossed a variety of things into the garage in the interim, because it got them out of the way. This was true. Inconvenient when trying to clean the garage, but true.
When it looked like we were going to fix the fence ourselves, I bought the lumber in preparation for this and stored it in (chorus) *the garage*. Then we hired someone to fix the fence, but I now had all of this perfectly good lumber occupying too much of the garage. Gretchen noted several times that we could not clean out the garage successfully with all of that lumber out there. Gretchen was (as usual) correct.
About a month ago, I found myself with some time to kill and Gretchen's van was not in the garage. I *found* places to tuck all the lumber where it was out of the way. I now have a partially cedar-lined garage with all the pickets that are tucked away in between the studs. But the lumber was out of the way, so Gretchen's precondition was satisfied.
Over the last three weekends, we have (with varying numbers of kids) spent some time out in the garage. Two huge boxes full of unread Chicago Tribunes went into the recycling bin over successive weekends. I saved enough to use as charcoal starter for some indefinite period of time. Shelves were rearranged and boxes shoehorned onto them. Broken things were disposed of. Useful things were either kept or boxed up for Goodwill. The back of Gretchen's van is *very* full with three outgrown bicycles that will be leaving tomorrow.
Thursday, I put out the pallet that had once held up Mount McGuire and the old Oriental rug that the mice had gotten to for the garbage collection. Happily, they took both. The garbage bin and recycling bin were *very* full.
Today, I decided to finish it up. I went out and collected the donations for the girls' softball league that will be picked up tomorrow: two helmets, two sets of cleats, my lineup board from the season when I was a head coach, and a batting tee. The last of the stuff for Goodwill went into the car. Things were tucked into corners.
Then I went in and got the remaining magnetic hooks, attached them to the big metal shelves that hold up my tool bag and the small sound system, and draped the cord for the charging plug for Gretchen's van over them so that she wouldn't drive across it trying to get in. I swept things into a pile, then recruited K to help me bag the mess for the trash.
And the floor was empty.
I rolled the trash cans and the dolly off onto the grass for the moment and pulled my car out of the driveway, parking it on the street. I had already gotten the key to Gretchen's van, so I backed it out of the garage, got a running start, and pulled it into the freshly cleared space where it fit nicely. There was even space to plug it into the charger.
I put the dolly and the cans back into their space on my side of the garage. Then I went across the circle, got my car, and pulled it in.
There was much rejoicing.
There are still a great many cleaning projects to finish up around the house, but this one, at least, is finally finished.