The final countdown, and a disappointment

 Yesterday I actually saw inside husband's garage and shed, for the first time in weeks and weeks.  I was absolutely aghast to see that they are both - still - almost full of junk.  Husband was supposed to have been clearing them out over the past 2 or 3 weeks.....now I admit I haven't been monitoring his progress as I've been so busy inside the house, but it honestly looks like he hasn't touched them.  At all.  Goodness knows what he's been doing whilst he's been outside - sloping off to chat to neighbours, I suspect.  I was so annoyed - I've been working my socks off these past few weeks, not only with the physical stuff of clearing and packing, but all the admin stuff involved with moving, and having to keep up with washing, cooking, shopping etc, ordering our meds early to ensure we don't run out, appointments for Betty and trying to keep her fairly calm, when she's clearly unsettled with all that's going on.  And arranging our trips over to the new place, and what to take each time we go.  It's no wonder I'm not sleeping well - my brain is ticking over relentlessly.  And now I'm stressed up to the eyeballs again, my shoulders are up round my ears and I have a permanent tension headache.

The thing is, due to various commitments we have over the next week, husband has got just 3.5 DAYS left to clear the shed and garage.  And I have no idea how's he's going to manage it.  The amount of junk there will mean probably 5 or 6 trips to the tip, and some of the stuff he won't even be able to fit in the car unless he chops it up.  I've been telling him for literally months and months he needed to get rid of all this crap, but obviously he hasn't.  And now he's left it almost too late.  I know he's probably stressed about it all - what does he think I am?!  This is him all over - prevaricates, buries his head in the sand, puts things off and ends up doing nothing.  Well, he now knows he's got to get on with it, or else leave it all behind and risk the landlord keeping our deposit to pay for clearance.  Just to make matters even worse, the tip is closed today, and there's a load more rain forecast for tomorrow.

At the bungalow yesterday morning, Hannah the Housing Support lady came round to tell us she's hosting a Christmas afternoon tea at the community centre the week after we move in - so that'll be a good opportunity to get to know everyone.  We unpacked a few more boxes there and I made another list of a few little things we still need, like hooks for the bathroom door, a bathroom mirror and toilet roll holder.  I also rearranged some of the plans for where furniture is going.

Today I'm packing the store cupboard surplus food supplies, cleaning the fridge freezer which we're not keeping and is being collected by a local charity, and gathering up/packing any odds and sods.  We're up early (even earlier than has been the norm over the past 2 or 3 weeks), husband's done a lot of thinking during the night and has decided he's going to take some of the wood he's accumulated (from who knows where) over to the bungalow this morning, along with gardening tools....he says he can use the wood to make a fence at the back of the car port, to prevent Betty running out into the road.  I didn't even know he had this wood, it'll save us having to buy any fence panels, which is something.  At least he's thinking positively now following my serious talk with him yesterday.  He's also said that the chap coming to collect the fridge freezer (the local vicar's husband, who works for a charity) can have some of the surplus of gardening tools he's collected, that'll clear some more stuff out of his shed.  The charity chap says he knows local families who have allotments to cut costs by growing their own veg, so they'll be glad of any tools.

One week to go!