Shredding the Years

At this point in my life with a husband, adult man-child, grandsons, nonagenarian mom and mom in law I have a lot of junk.  Today in searching for an account password I managed to de-junk another drawer and box.  And at the same time relive some good memories.

The result of the de-junking was a couple of 30 gallon bags of shredded documents.  It really does not take a terribly long time to shred 5 or 6 years worth of my life as contained in documents.  Why did we have 3 and four copies of the same property assessment?  But I still could not bring myself to shred the mortgage on the first house we built in Texas.

I teared up a little when I found vet visit paperwork for Cinders and Samantha.  Cinders being our last cat and Sam was our beloved golden retriever "forced" on us by my son when he left home.  Sam was his dog.  Sam and I spent many a day in the back yard here at 3871.  Gene worked weekends and nights so Sam and Charlie, our 15 year old cat before Cinders, were my companions.  Charlie slept on me at night and any time I was sitting.  He would awake me preening my hair and sometimes my eyebrows.  Yep, I miss my animals.

Of course, all the paperwork traced hospital stays for Gene, counseling sessions and pain therapy for me.  I am pretty sure that none of our insurance companies have ever made a single penny off of us.  Well, at least that would be my impression looking at all those bills from St. John's and Cox.  Remind me to never complain about insurance in the future.

On this cloudy, raining on and off fall day, it was time to clear out unnecessary documents.  Though the documents are now cross shredded and in the compost pile, the memories are freshened in my mind.  Memories of furry companions, memories of healers and healing services also known as doctors, hospitals and clinics.

There in the 2002 tax folder were the last 2 pay stubs from Advanced Circuitry, aka Litton, aka Northrop Grumman.  One for me and one for Gene.  It has been 10 years.  It seems like forever and yet just yesterday at the same time.  Tonight it feels our lives passed so quickly.  As if we were not living them but shredding the years.