The other day, i received a bunch of stuff from my mother's condo. This is the stuff that I wanted, that my sister and I sorted out in June and that she packed and shipped to me. She packed and shipped her stuff to California for a number of years.

So we now have a new bed and headboard, new nightstands, a beautiful blanket chest, and lots of kipple. Books. Artwork. Stuff. Stuff that we're trying to make room for.

In amongst (amongst?) the stuff is stuff I gave my mother over the years. A pewter bud vase and a sugar and creamer, bought at a shop in West Hartford Center. Alice in Wonderland and Eloise items - characters that Mom and I especially loved. And a few things that are baffling and you just gotta put aside until you figre out "why do I have this?"

Among all the items I've dug through so far, are notes and cards - not a lot. As Pat and I went through a slew of birthday and valentines and mother's day cards,we tossed several treesworth (treesworth?) of paper. Some stuff of course, we kept including a note I sent Mom that read in part

A couple of years ago, during a really bad time, one night you said to me, I want you to go to bed every night saying "My mommy loves me."

I sent this card when i was in my mid-30s, so she had told that to her supposedly grown-up daughter. I went on to say to her that it helped a lot and I was so grateful. And asked (since she was going through a terrible time, very depressed) if it would help to remember that I loved her. Gooey, no? Gooey, oh yes.

Another artifact is pretty wonderful for a wholly different reason. It's a slide rule. I looked it up. It was made by a company based in Hoboken, which started making slide rules in 1886. This rule came in a lovely leather case on which is written (burned into the leather, I assume),

H L GOLDBERG
WINCHESTER HALL
YALE UNIVERSITY

My dad and Howard, my step-father, both had slide rules. Both were engineers. Howard got both Bachelors and Masters degrees from Yale and was, I'd guess, pretty damn proud to be a Yalie. And I can't figure out what Winchester Hall is. So far.

It's all so hard to process. Where does it go? Do I keep it? For now? Yeah. There are so many emotions to work through first. Is the 4081-3 model better, more valuable than another slide rule? It's wonderful "old" technology and yet, of course, "old" is so relative. You can "google" this slide rule and find the "slide rule museum" on line. Go ahead!

What to do? what to do.