Have you ever started off the day thinking it would be perfectly normal and then have it change into something entirely unexpected?  We did today.  It seemed like it would be an ordinary day, but after our walk this morning, I took the snow pole out to the back yard, going through our basement.  It dawned on me it was getting filled up with things we've taken down there without actually putting anything away - just leaving it on a table or a chair or the work bench.  It looked like Fibber McGee's closet after the door was opened.  (Never mind, you're probably not old enough to remember Fibber McGee and Molly on the radio back in the dark ages before TV).  

Since a good share of it was my stuff, I just told Fred at breakfast I'd be working in the basement today.  Right off he volunteered to help.  Anyone with pack rat tendencies knows having help when sorting through treasures is not always desirable, so it was with a bit of "what'll I do now?" for me as we headed down the stairs.  Almost the first thing I touched was a box that proved to have some books in it Fred had been looking for.  That made his day - but what to do with them?

After moving items and clearing off his old desk, left over from the days he had his computer down there, we hoisted a small bookcase onto the desk and chucked his books into it.  Making room on the desk was no small feat, so the next step was to sort all the abandoned but "maybe we'll need it someday" computer parts.  I turned that over to Fred and went on to my sewing corner which had spilled over to at least half of the whole area, having been shoved aside when the new furnace installation was going on.  I had things pretty well under control by lunch time, but Fred was still going through files on the old computer, a job that still isn't completed.  It's ironic:  by accident, computers have been known to crash and everything is lost, but when you intentionally want to wipe one clean, it's an agonizingly stubborn process to get done permanently.

Our basement looks better than it did this morning, and I even found a few treasures I'd forgotten about.  Fred found some pictures of people neither of us could identify, and Woody had a wonderful time until I accidentally stepped on his foot when I was trying to close a drawer just as he was rushing to see what was in it.  

Woody has some interesting adventures in the basement.  He likes to leap up to go through the window that leads into the crawl space under the addition we put on a few years ago.  He makes it up just fine, but when he's ready to jump down, he often jumps onto a table I use for things like making Christmas decorations, wrapping packages, etc., and it always has lots of loose papers and other objects on it that scoot out from under him when he lands there, so I frequently find things on the floor.  When we began the project this morning, there were items on the floor that had been stored on a rack overhead - insulation board, large picture mats, etc. - so I'm guessing he took a flying leap to investigate and of course toppled all that stuff.  It must have been quite a ride down.
He gets very bored this time of year when it's beginning to get too cold to go outside, and has to release pent up energy, I guess. 

Weather is still good, sunny days and cold nights, and the forecast is for good weather probably through Thanksgiving, although this morning one forecaster said that while it looks good, it's too early to promise anything.