Nice weather = clean garage

This weekend the weather brought us a brief respite from the throes of winter. It was 55 degrees here yesterday - 55 - and I'm not even tired of the cold yet!

Suffice to say, yesterday and today have been glorious. Which meant, for us, time to clean out the garage.

Sounds simple, but even the simplest of tasks can become complicated. Like when we decided to properly store our awnings. The contractor took them down and placed them in the garage, which was so addled with miscellany that we barely noticed. But the weeks of scraping ice and snow have been encouraging us to figure out a way to clear a space for at least one car, so we had to deal with, among other things, the awnings.

The previous owner had rigged up a system to store the awnings on a platform attached to the roof of the garage with pulleys (it would be too awkward to just hoist them up into the rafters - this I can say with absolute certainty, meaning trial and error). We lowered it with no problem, loaded on the awnings, then went to lift.

We could barely make it budge. Using every ounce of our strength, Alison and I got it about three feet off the floor; Gary was not going to be able to life the other side alone.

After some deliberation (much of which did not involve me and my non-mechanically inclined mind), Gary decided to add additional pulleys. Ah, the joys of being married to an engineer - I realize this is basic physics, nothing of the earth-shattering variety, but my little head just cannot wrap itself around issues that involve machines (even of the simple variety) or indeed, any sort of spatial relations. I am always happy to edit a sentence for grammar or clarity, but when it came to the pulleys, I was just a hindrance.

So this afternoon, Gary finished assembling the new-and-improved pulley system, which involved trips to five hardware stores and much more rope. (I'm thinking a few obscenities must have played a role as well.) When the four of us made an attempt, it went up easy as pie. The awnings are now stored high above our heads.

Success? Well, not quite - adding the extra pulleys added a few extra inches to the entire system, meaning that the garage door could not clear the awning platform. Frustration, until Gary figured out ways to pull the ropes tighter. Now success was the result.

After all that work, I'm thinking we should have just pitched the awnings. I'm not sure we want to use them again, anyway.

So, following the awning storage fiasco, we hauled several old moving boxes stuffed with packing paper to the recycling center; stored the boxes we will need to pack up the kitchen in the shed; cleared out several garage boxes and put away some tools; put all the various basket, volley, and soccer balls in their proper tub; put the bicycles away - some are suspended from the ceiling, some are in the shed; and vowed to, this spring, carefully, carefully sort through every remaining garage box and get rid of the stuff we do not need.

All in all, a successful mid-winter garage cleansing. And when it was all over, I pulled my car into the garage.* With any luck, the contractor will get his few remaining items out of there and we will have two cars in the garage, leaving only Alison parking outside.

Such a good feeling. Even if the end result is only a cleaner garage, it is still making me feel good. As they say, it's the little things in life that truly make us happy. And I have to say, a tidy garage is definitely making me happy.

*I offered the spot to Gary, but he figured, for now, it's simpler for me to park there since I do not leave the house before 7.30 a.m. the way he and Alison do. Plus, it will be warm all week - 60 on Tuesday - so no one will be scraping ice this week.