I diddled around this morning and finally took the dog out at 8. Almost too late and too hot again, but we did get in 2.1 miles. We passed the new garbage cans and the green cans. I joked, when we got the can Tuesday and I cleaned out the stuff I'd been holding in the fridge, that I probably shouldn't dump it till I read the "instruction manual" they included in the can. Well, guess what. Apparently there are people who didn't know how to use them. I passed a "Green Waste" can with a tag on it. Of course, curious, I stopped to read the tag, and it said that the can was only for greenery, not garbage. I thought maybe the green guy had been by, so when I reached home I checked ours, still full. Then as I was unlocking the door, along came the "garbage cops." They were driving a County truck right next to the curb, and the passenger would reach out and flip up the lid on the green cans an inch, then let it drop. Fortunately, we were not among the Garbage Clueless.

Is this thing loaded?

I've been working in a desultory fashion in back, though it gets too hot fairly soon in the day. Yesterday I unearthed a long vinyl blind. Unfortunately, the roller was bent, but Rich and I cannibalized the vinyl and the wood at the bottom. There's a drapery rod, as well. I'm not sure where these came from, since all the ones in the house, now, seem to work. Anyway, today the rummage sale people were to come by and I filled most of one of their bags. This is incredibly hard for me, though giving it away is easier than pitching stuff. I know for a fact that if I throw away a roll of thread with only a needleful of thread left on it, or an unbent pin, that I am doomed to die in dire poverty. As for the threadless spools, why those can be used in craft projects, right? You can tell, all those years of preschool and Kindergarten, then teaching, I can't throw out perfectly good art supplies.

I'm not QUITE as bad as my Mother. I don't keep years of TV Guides and empty cigarette cartons. But I have my moments. Rich is a hoarder as well. We both grew up poor, (we play the "I was poorer than you were" game, which I win, but not by much) and don't feel at all comfortable throwing things out at all. He's struggling to keep hold of that drapery rod, now, and I am willing to send it away. I just discovered alt.recovery.clutter, which is full of my kind of people. Everyone seems to be reading and embracing Simple Abundance and all I want to do is free up the back room!

I drive my Yuppie daughter Monica mad. Bernadette, now, is definitely my daughter. She has spent the summer digging out her own room, leaving me with a lot of stuff for, she says, a garage sale. The neighbor, though, hired her to do some cleaning tomorrow, as the far-away grandchildren are coming for their annual visit, and their nearby half-brother has been using, and messing up, the playroom. Bernadette also will be folding lots and lots of laundry!

I do think Clinton's tears were genuine today, though I cynically think he was also knowing they looked good. Pity we had money for the Russian bailout (which is all gone now) and the Imperial trip to China, but none for the security upgrades of the Embasseys.

Yesterday's White House press briefing:

           Q    Does the White House know of any accusations of 
discrimination against Californians because of the 1973 House 
Impeachment Committee's of Stans, Ehrlichman, Haldeman and Nixon?
             
             MR. LOCKHART:  No.
             
             Q    And is my recollection correct that one of the 
impeachment committee staffers was a Hillary Rodham?
             
             MR. LOCKHART:  Yes.

Rich said I should deny hating Arkansas. After all, we lived there for two years, and, well, ... uh, never mind. I really liked our next-door neighbors and the kids in the Kindergarten class!

The Round Robin came today. This will work out well, as I can hand-carry it to Vince.

We went to a Loretto school board get-acquainted party tonight, which I'll tell about tomorrow.