It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . .

Oh, wait...I think that one's taken .  ;)

But it somehow fits as a description of the past few days.

My last post told you that I went to the doctor about my old, arthritic knee.  And probably in the one before that I mentioned being sick with the crud (not THE crud, "just" a cold).  So I was pretty much jacked-up from head to knee.  The knee has been bothering me since October, the cold for two weeks.

Anyway.

The doctor wanted to administer a steroid shot to the knee.  Geez, the very THOUGHT of that.  So I said, "Doc, can't I just take an oral steroid?  It would help this cough, too."  He consented to calling in a prescription.  And it's working!  For both problems!  Yay!

On the way home from the doctor's office, while driving in that crazy Memphis traffic, my son called to ask if The Granddaughters could spend the night.  "Of course, they can!"  I was all excited.

I had completely forgotten about the plan for the coming weekend.

You see, Nanny's sister ("Melvie") died last week.  Nobody saw it coming.  When her sisters couldn't raise her on the telephone, Nanny went to check on her in person.  Aunt Melvie had died sitting upright on the couch.  She lived alone in a small apartment that was crammed with her collections.  This weekend we were supposed to begin emptying the space.  The Husband, his sister, and some cousins had agreed to meet at the apartment Saturday morning to box up her possessions.  

I felt bad for crapping out on the boxing job in favor of hanging with The Granddaughters, but not bad enough to call off the sleep-over.  The girls and I had a leisurely morning, breakfasting and crafting, then we went to see the new Spiderman movie.  (It was LONG!)  After the movie, though, I joined the workers at the apartment.  We worked all evening, then went back yesterday to organize the boxes.  We distributed food, clothing, and other things among the neighbors and brought some personal items home for Melvie's sisters to go through.  There is still much to get rid of.  But it was good to see the cousins.

This endeavor taught me a lesson.  Although I am not the packrat that Melvie was, there's a lot of stuff in this house that needs to GO so that our children don't have to deal with it when we're gone.  I shall be working on that in the coming weeks.