Moving again

Every time I move I swear that I will never do it again. But here I am moving once again. As some of you may know I left Greeley and moved in with my daughter and son-in-law in Cheyenne, Wyo., until I could find a place of my own.

I just closed on a townhouse on Thursday and on Sunday will have to move my stuff from a storage facility in Greeley and into my new place. My back hurts just thinking about it.

The biggest problem is that I have too much stuff. I was starting to get rid of a lot of my stuff by dropping it off with my two daughters, but they are on to me now and won’t accept any more of my stuff.

I am one of those people who keeps everything. I have boxes and boxes of newspapers and magazines that I either wrote stories in or edited dating back to when I started my career in journalism in 1991. I also have boxes and boxes of photos dating back to grade school. Of course I saved all this stuff because I thought my daughters would love to have it after I’m gone. Guess not.

I also have my own private library. Most of the books in this library are hard cover and heavy. I packed them in small boxes so they would be easier to move. But there are a lot of little, heavy boxes. Then, of course, there are the book shelves.

I am also a holiday decorator so I have tons of totes full of Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter decorations. Now I’m afraid they will take up the whole garage and I won’t have room to park my truck.

I had planned to have a rummage sale when I was in Greeley but I could never find the time. Now I’m wishing I had just made time. The plan now is to have a rummage sale in Cheyenne this spring. And this time I will make time for it no matter what happens.

What is ironic is that a lot of my stuff I bought at other people’s rummage sales, including a dentist chair. I still don’t know why I had to have a dentist chair. But I was so famous for my rummaging that the Grand Forks Herald, where I worked as a columnist and reporter, started a contest called Rummaging with Rona.

People would apply to be a part of Rummaging with Rona. The ones who were chosen got to bring one friend. Then we got a limo and drove to rummage sales followed by an entourage of trucks — for carrying the big stuff — and we would rummage all day. It got to be so popular that people would wait to have their rummage sales during the Rummaging with Rona weekend. Many people would have the Rummaging with Rona posters in their garages and some even insisted on having their pictures taken with me.

The contest was so popular that after I left the newspaper they continued it with another columnist. So it became Rummaging with Ryan. He wasn’t a big rummager, but I think he enjoyed it as much as I did.

So I guess it’s no wonder I have so much stuff. Oh my aching back.