Moving right along to the plot...
(And a request - see below…)
As I gird my loins for the near-ish new future, I ignored today the list I’d started with Important Things To Do, and went straight into obsessively alphabetizing my DVD collection, which virtually doubled when I was given two boxes of movies from a late friend’s estate. Lordy.
Until the new arrivals, all my DVDs had nicely fit into two small cabinets plus the “Potomac Home Companion” toolbox/step my father made for me when I lived on a houseboat.
As it turns out, only the movies titled from A through M fit in those three units. The stash is a bit over 200 movies. I took out a couple of duplicates, as well as the ones I’m unlikely to watch - action films, thrillers, testosterone-driven plot lines, etc., and will give them to my neighbor, if he wants them. He’s an electronics genius. He’s coming over tomorrow to disconnect the VHS player which has a VCR of The Full Monty stuck inside (I have the correct size wrench, but can’t manipulate it to grasp the nut that’s holding the cable in) and the old DVD player. I’ve been given a newer one. He may have to take the tv off the wall; way above my pay grade or skill set. We shall see.
I’m kind of getting used to the idea of streaming movies and my one tv show obsession (MidSomer Murders) now, but half the time, the streamed shows don’t start at the beginning, or I click on a title I want to see, and something else shows up. More arrgh.
Also on the good news front, my eldest sister read the tinyletter and is flying down here with another sister to buy the car and drive it back to Wisconsin. It really sucks to be told that I - a person who has been driving safely for 57 years, with only 2 minor fender benders (one of which was not my fault) - has to stop. I haven’t forgotten how to drive, and I’d already limited myself to daytime driving and not outside of the County. Whatever. I’ll deal with it. The timing is good, actually, because my wonderful neighbors next door lost a car to a blown engine, and their other one is on its last legs…so they’re driving mine until my sisters get here.
My sister Kate is coming in a couple weeks to “tie up a few loose ends” and go through the gobs of papers I’m afraid to shred or recycle. So much is done online now, but I am definitely a paper person, so I cling to what may or may not be important. I got rid of my great old USG vintage full-suspension 4-drawer file cabinet, and replaced it with a crappy 3-drawer whose drawers do not pull out all the way.
I’ve been thinking about writing my obituary while I still have some marbles and a sense of humor, and the bottom drawer of this cheesy cabinet is full of folders from all the issues I have tackled in hopes of garnering local support. Some of it worked. I need at least the titles of the issues before I recycle everything: Dark Sky, Safe Passages (for wildlife trying to cross interstates, which got a fortunate break when Helene blew out part of I-40 coming east toward Asheville!), Monsanto, campaign finance reform, tree ordinance, RepresentUs, water quality, road salt, asphalt, medicaid expansion, climate change, elections, Grab 'em By the Midterms - Vote!, Pink washing.
So, in case I croak before I get around to the obit, you’re all invited to contribute!
I may have mentioned this before, but I hope to be moving to a much smaller place in the neighborhood before long. I’d gotten an estimate from an excellent local realtor, and if I get what he says I probably will, I won’t be hitting any of you up for the rest of my life!
There may have been more when I started this, but it’ll have to wait (assuming it’ll ever come back).
OH - the request. Please, please, please - if your name (or at least part of your name) is not part of your email address, would you be so kind as to email me and tell me who you are? There are about 200 of you on this list, and I’m guessing I have no idea who a third of you are. I sure appreciate it - thank you!
Cheers,
Lucy