Yesterday Team E— came over and worked with me and Lisa Costello to make some more progress on sorting my basement. We got through a number of boxes of files and receipts and whatnot. This included sorting a fair amount of material to my archive at NIU. Likewise uncovering artifacts such as the wedding album from my first marriage (1987-1990), healthcare paperwork from my teen years, my great-grandfather's pocket watches, and other entertainment both high and low.

Our system is to divide things into boxes. So far, we've come up with the following categories:

• Current and recent paperwork to be dealt with (i.e., 2012 and 2013 taxes, etc.)


• Older paperwork to be held on to (i.e., pre-2012 but still recent taxes, etc.)


• Items to go to archive


• Interesting things to give away at JayCon or some such


• Items to go to the_child


• Items to go to Mother of the Child


• Items to go to my parents


• Old audio and video tapes to have digitally converted

Probably plus a few more I forgot. (Which reminds me, if anyone knows of a good, cheap analog-to-digital conversion service for audio cassettes and 8mm video cassettes, please turn me on.)

All of this was somewhat limited by the rather unfortunate state of my right foot. The third little toe (the ring toe?) is very big and purple, and there's an interesting purplish-green bruise all across the top of my foot at the base of my toes. I can walk with minimal pain now, and in another day or two will probably be able to drive again. But ouch.

So I sat on the bed in the basement and sorted file boxes while we spread dust and mold everywhere. Some of those boxes haven't been opened since I moved from Texas in 2000. It's amazing, the crannies a life gets crammed into.

I am just a voyager on the seas of recollection.