Family take em or leave em

So I went up to help my mother clean out her basement. First let's say that this is an unfinished basement and it floods on occasion. This basement has not been cleaned for decades. To say it's a gross job is a mild understatement. My brother who lives next door to my mother helped as well. I swear I am the only fully functioning son my mother has. Thirdborn 2 years ago tried to stop a golf cart by Barny Rubbling it. Yea let that soak in for a minute. He totally tore up his leg and now he has problems with stairs and lifting things. So clearing out the basement became me carrying things up the stairs and him just bringing them to the foot of the stairs. I wanted to tell him he really needn't bother. But alas.

I did get to see the job secondborn did on my mothers porch enclosure. He did a nice job I was very impressed. My mother was saying how she wanted to put a motion light at the new entrance. She said it would be nice to have some warning before someone comes through the door. I said "Well won't you lock it?" Without thinking because she really does live out in the middle of nowhere and the only people that ever come there are people she knows. She said only thirdborn comes in without knocking, with that I said "Don't you think you may want to start locking it?" She laughed.

Anyway we got most of the basement done. The reason, other than it needed it, was that my mom is putting in a gas heating system. Before the house had a fuel oil system that was uber expensive to keep up and it is probably 60 years old. So it is good that she is getting this done. Though I must say she and thirdborn are so alike in the fact that they won't throw out anything. There was a filthy and I mean filthy jacket on the floor of the basement that I was going to throw away and thirdborn looks at it and says "What are you throwing that away for? It's still good.""Seriously, are you kidding me this thing is gross." To that I say whatever. It's easy to convince my mother to throw things out except when he is around. They are such pack rats. I also don't really think much of the suggestions of a man who tried to stop a speeding golf cart with his foot.