driving south ...

... after a long day of work. I put in eight hours on Sunday, and was so tired I went straight home, heard the couch calling my name and laid down. After a short refreshing nap, I got my travel duds together and headed out for Valdosta. It is a struggle to drive down and back in one day, so I wanted to break it up, especially after having been on my poor tired feets at work all day. Without the interlude of that brief but gratifying nap, I don't think I could have done it. Would have most assuredly been pulling off at a curb-store some place to close my eyes for forty winks in order to arrive safely.

After spending a couple of hours recently emptying a file cabinet in my aunt's house, I was hoping to get some help for loading it in the back of my car to take home with me.  When I starting going through her fifty-plus years of accumulated paperwork, I ended up taking nearly twenty pounds of discards to the Office Depot for shredding. Plus a bin full of inane, innocuous stuff that went out to the street for recycling: transcripts from college, photos from adventures over the years, ancient road maps and travel guides.

It has been just over a year  of being the court appointed guardian, with a steady stream of  paperwork I feel I need to keep. Filling up dozens of files, gradually accumulating and expanding, in a slo-mo avalanche to the point that it won't fit in the grocery shopping basket originally used. The green plastic basket might have been shop-lifted when I was leaving work one day, and soon became the ideal receptacle for keeping files to organize all the statements, bills, receipts I might/might not need to document her expenses. Anything the probate court might want me to prove and legitimize at some point in the future- all this has taken over a corner in my house and needs to be find a more suitable home, give the appearance of tidily organized in hanging files in drawers of a cabinet.

But that help I was awaiting never showed up. I've formulated several back up plans for consideration next week, when I will return to Valdosta for another round of doctor appointments. Trying to think of other people who might have little hand-truck/dolly with wheels I can lure into helping me get the heavy, solid wood file cabinet hoisted up into the back of my car for transporting. I could go rent a dolly from Home Depot - but I don't think I can pick it up to get it in the car.  Realizing not only do I need the wheels to get it out of the house, but also need another set of hands, and feet to help me lift it up. Guess I will be  moving on to Plan B....