Friday, January 3, 2014

Getting back to work on clearing out the house

Sunsets have been very nice here at Camp Driveway.  Perhaps it is because we are a bit higher and the trees are not blocking as much of the sky.


I  like the way the sunset is reflected on the Alfa slide. I did nothing to the color in this image. The rest of the coach was its normal white.


I vowed that as soon as we got back from San Diego I would get  back into getting rid of stuff, but was sidelined by a bad cold. 

However, after a couple of rest days I did get started on a new project.


Sorting our CDs.

Please don't tell me we should be just putting them on the computer.

I know that is a good option, but Craig is both the computer guy and the music guy and he has chosen not to do that yet.

We have well over 300 CDs.  Far too many to take along in the RV.  I had hoped Craig might sort through them, but that hasn't happened, so I started the project myself.  I packed them up and brought them into the Alfa.  

Until we sort them out we won't be able to use the couch!

Although I have no set number, I would like to get them down to about 100 of our favorites.  I started listening to them and making a pile of rejects several days ago. 

Craig is more of a music fan than I am, and he bought most of them, but I have my favorites too. 

After a couple of days, he joined me in the culling task and we have moved the project down to the house in the evenings so we can sit in front of a cozy fire while doing it.

We have rediscovered some CDs of artists we have always enjoyed [From Craig: Lynn Miles!!!], and listened to parts of many that we wondered why we had them in the first place!

Once we get them culled down to a manageable number we may transfer them to the computer, or not. The Alfa has a very nice sound system and two pretty good CD players.  We are just such old fashioned people.  Craig hasn't gotten into iTunes yet, but I'm sure he will once we are on the road.  He does read books on our Kindle and (since it broke) on the iPad using the Kindle App.  I think once he gets into making his own play list there will be no stopping him!

Craig has finally started to list his sound system equipment on a web marketplace called Audiogon. If anyone is interested in how it works, leave a comment and he will do a post or reply by email.

He sold all of his records last summer, and before we went to San Diego he took his turntable and related hardware to the same guy who bought the records.  He has the turntable and is working on selling the other stuff.  Little by little, we are dealing with the hard parts.

When we go down to the house now, it really feels different. We use the shower and the washing machine, and now have had a few evenings in front of the fire, but it no longer feels like home. The Alfa is our home! 

Our goal right now is to do everything we can to have it ready to  empty when the house does sell. We are not planning any trips for awhile.  

On that note, I must say the weather here has been fantastic.  Sunny and in the high sixties or low seventies most days. This is good for us because we are in the Alfa, but not really good for the mountains. It should be raining now. It is far too dry. But the rains came late last year too, so it's still possible that we won't have a drought year. When it rains here it is usually very intense and windy. That can be scary in an RV parked under big trees!

If you are in the East tonight (Jan. 3, 2014), keep warm and stay in. Sounds like you are really getting hit hard.

12 comments:

  1. Hi Merikay and Craig,
    I'm in the northeast (New Brunswick, Canada) and I envy you your weather. It has been in the -20*F's this week with wind chill factors in the -40*F's. Brrr…

    I enjoy reading about your trips, especially when you visited the America's Cup. Good luck with your house.
    Barrie

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  2. That sentence where you say that the house no longer feels like home... that the Alfa is home.. sure says a lot. Hope you get things wrapped up and are on your way soon!

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  3. It sounds like you're making headway. I downloaded our cd's to the computer, and then we sold them at garage sales for a couple bucks each. I'd like some info on Audiogone. Al still has a couple items he thinks might be worth selling. It's cold here in Florida too this am, down to 47. Time to head south!

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  4. Though we didn't have near as many CDs as you guys do, we copied each of them onto flash drives which we can play now on our player that came with the RV. We then sold them on Secondspin.com. Didn't get a lot from each CD, but wasn't a total loss.

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  5. Want another hint: take them all out of their cases, and put the actual cd disks in a big 100 CD case with the slide in plastic sleeves. We did that for all our DVD's .... 100 DVDs take up very little space now in our motorhome in a space about 15x6x8 for the case.

    But I did transfer all our music CD's to the computer, a backup drive, an MP3 player and also to my phone. So I have them in four places for assurance. I gave the original CD's to friends to enjoy....

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
    Karen and Steve
    (Blog) RVing: The USA Is Our Big Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com
    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

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  6. Wow, that header picture is stunning!!! What an awesome sunset. We also transferred all of our CDs onto the computer and then sold most of the CDs to Half-Price Books. Sorting through them is fun, isn't it!

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  7. Ahhhh, sitting in an almost empty house (not home), listening to music and enjoying a "campfire," sounds mighty relaxing. Just think, no bugs!

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  8. Transferring music is a long, slightly tiresome task... I did all of mine several years ago. But now I have them wherever I am which is handy. And it is fun to set up playlists for special occasions.
    The idea of putting them into a cd book is a great one. They will take up WAY less space.

    Enjoy the campfire, even if it doesn't feel like home.

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  9. Jim downloaded our CD's but we didn't have near as many as you do. But you are making progress. Hope the house sells soon so you can be on your way in your new home.

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  10. I feel your pain. Many times when we were cleaning out our house to sell, I wished it would just burn down... ;c)

    Don't worry, you will get there!

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  11. It will definitely sell. Not a lack of demand for charming habitation. Guess it's just a matter of getting the word out or building a market presence to it. But the buyers should arrive. They've got ways to get information.

    Casandra @ Gateway Select

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  12. I know you said, "Please don't say just put them on the computer", but I am going to anyways.

    Just put them on the computer. Forget about storage. It makes listening to music so much more convenient. Playlists created in minutes. Individual songs found in seconds.
    It'll probably be a two or three day project to rip 300 CD's onto your computer(s), but it's sooo worth it.

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