Helluva day here in NYC yesterday.

posted by The Vidiot @ 8:08 AM Permalink

I have to share.

My mom has this friend, we'll call him P. P and L (P's lover of 35 years or so) have finally decided to close out their $500/month, 5th floor, lower-east-side walk-up. They've long since retired to Florida where L leads a quiet existence due to heart problems. They've been paying the rent on the walk-up here for years, just sort of keeping the apartment as a storage space.

Here's the nightmare: P was a bit of a packrat (understatement) and had a hard time throwing anything out (understatement). He's also kind of an hysterical guy. (BIG understatement) My mom had been helping him go through his stuff, separating the wheat from the chaff as it were, but P just couldn't do all of it and in the end, he just left it all. Of course, days later, he remembered several MORE things he left behind and my mom needed to go back to the apartment and ferret them out. She took me along with her.

Boy, I wish I had taken pictures. You CANNOT believe what we walked into. The door barely opened, trash and boxes and bags and sheets and WOW. ALL over the place. Chipping paint, paper covered windows, mouse poo (something hissed at me in the living room) and there was absolutely NO entrance to the bedroom. I managed to step on something (that fortunately didn't hiss at me) so I could poke my head in to see what was in there and I saw this amazing fagulous mirror! Completely out of reach. Never to be saved.

Me and mom spent HOURS going through the place (Mr. Vidiot stopped by to do some heavy lifting for us and he was stunned into silence. If you know anything about Mr. Vidiot, silence is not usually his 'thing'.) And still, not a dent was made in the pile. We did manage to sort some stuff out, find some of the stuff he'd forgotten to take, and he's leaving me his set of Bavarian china (which is a lovely, simple white and I LOVE it.) Beyond that though, whoa.

And I tell you this for one reason and one reason only: If you're a packrat, if you collect things, STOP! Don't do it to your family and friends. If you don't go through it, they will after you're too sick or dead. It's a nightmare. It's gross and dirty and on top of that, I learned things about P that I didn't want to know. Secrets are secrets for a reason: they're either dirty or disgusting or both.

Cast off the detritus of your life! Save yourself and your family!

Now, back to our regular programming.

Oh, and about that, I'd like to formally welcome our new correspondents. They're a welcome addition to the blog. More points of view, more stuff to read. It's all good.