To Hell And Back

Spent all of last week in Montana. The intent of the trip was to assist The Better Half's father in organizing his affairs, thinning out the flotsam and jetsam around the house, and to clean up. I'd say we accomplished about 8% of what needs to be done.

See, TBH's father is ill. His original prognosis was that he had 18-24 months left to live...and that was 23 months ago. He has held up remarkably well, although treatment does take a toll.

Anyhoo, as some of my 9 faithful readers know, TBH's dad is a bit, um, frugal...and he's a hoarder and a pack rat. Therefore, his house and garage are packed with stuff that has long lived out its usefulness but is still kept around. Although he did ask for our help in ridding his house of stuff, in the end we wound up butting heads about everything...and that made the trip tense for all of us.

I suppose it is difficult to watch people go through the things you have collected in life and determining whether or not they should be kept, donated or tossed...but I'm hoping when I'm nearing the end of the line I handle my affairs with a little more grace and tact than what we endured (especially TBH...the trip was rough on her).