DeJONGHE: It’s finally done!

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Finally, I have it finished. No, not yard work, although we did have some weather that got us all thinking about it.

I have cleaned and swept the deck of all debris winter deposited and pulled a bit of leaf blanket off some gardens to encourage the snow drops, crocuses, daffodils and hyacinths. They seem to find their way through most of the time but they seem so little to be working so hard so I like to help.

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DeJONGHE: It’s finally done! Back to video

I, too, need help to do any clean-up of my yard but not because I am too little. I need help because I used to load up the large bins in the back of the van to take to the waste depot but the back door of my van refuses to open for me. Had the latch looked at but it seems to opens for Rick who, obviously, has a delicate touch. After standing for over 25 minutes at the disposal site, squeezing and lifting, changing hands, trying to hold my mouth right, listening for the distinctive click, stomping my foot and almost saying bad words, I decided I was not going to go through that again.

It’s a bit too early yet to do major spring clean-up but I have already put my name on the list with James, who helped me the past couple years. I try to get a lot of the pick-up and raking done before he comes so it’s mostly dumping bins, loading and taking away piles.

I have always had regular, twice a year check-ups and maintenance done on the van so the old girl runs good but is in pretty bad shape on the outside. There is no point in having a van if you can’t use the back and I don’t think it’s worth putting any money into so I am on the lookout for a replacement.

Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked. What I have finally done is my income tax. A few weeks back I got out and sorted all the necessary paperwork. It sat in a pile in the office until I finally moved it to the dining room table where I have more room to spread out. Later I collected the necessary paper, pencils, erasers, ruler and calculator ready to begin. The one stack of papers got separated each into their own pile. All I had to do was sit down and begin marking out a ledger of sorts and begin filling in the weekly and monthly income and expenses before I got to the hard part of totaling the columns. I have to mentally work myself up to it.

Each step in the preparation takes several days as I condition my brain for the project but once I sit down and get started I don’t stop ‘til it’s done or strabismus sets in, whichever comes first. Eyesight still good so now all I have to do is deposit it at the accountants.

I wonder what they would say if I just took it all to them in a shoe box? Do you think the decrease in gas for the van (I got three months to the litre, last year) will offset the increase in groceries?

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