My New Task

So, back in Wimberley, still trying to decide what to do with my life, my mother has given me a task to do. She has a box of records, formerly in the attic, that she now wishes destroyed, by shredding in particular. There are bank statements, credit card statements, receipts, old checks (lots of these), medical records, tax records, anything and everything which my mother thought to save and most with personal information. These records go back to the beginning of 1988, when we lived in Oklahoma.
I accepted my mission actually glad to have something to do, and then my mother started to tell me all the guidelines. Oops.
The box was in the attic and there is no telling what it contains, so she doesn't want it in the house. The shredder is almost worthless, overheating after 10 minutes and making this an ongoing project instead of a day of shredding frenzy.
So I'm in and out of the garage all day, sorting through 18 years of paper stuffed into the overcrowded box, finding spiders, unnamed bugs, mud nests.
But I have my ipod, and occasionally a cat or two. Meh. I would have preferred a fire, though I still have dreams of a shredding frenzy.....

Update: I cannot believe this woman kept all her receipts. It's interesting that for the moment I think about stores in a different way - for example, I'm liking the stores that do NOT use staples and also insist on putting credit card numbers on everything.