When my computer guy was getting ready to leave, I asked him if he could use anything in the big plastic bin in the corner of my office (mostly obsolete cables and the occasional keyboard or headset). This Mt. Vesuvius of once-relevant hardware has absorbed into itself at least 10 years of the detritus of down-loadable software. Stuff that was imperative in the sea of ever-changing upgrades no longer fits today’s equipment.
I read an article recently that fits up there in the idea-box sending me comfort in my growing short-term memory bank.
The writer was listing a few of the gazillion symptoms one can blame on Parkinson’s disease. One jumped off the screen to me. We all know there’s usually tremor, loss of balance, memory loss, and on and on, but this writer added that PD’s symptoms sometimes include an inability to get things done. Projects start but do not finish, loss of interest in the job at hand come to mind.
Me? Oh, yeah. Although I can say in all honesty that memory has been a problem all my life. I think PD takes your worst personal characteristics and makes them even worse, much worse.
Anyhow, I looked around the other day and noticed at least three conspicuous blights afflicting my life and home.
Getting rid of the aforementioned obsolete hardware by putting it back on the shelf, there was the matter of my closet. I have shelves of sweaters and tees, and trying to sort them logically for the winter should be a no-brainer. I have skirts that I can’t wear because when I got skinny my hips went away, and I can’t keep clothing that is dependent upon elastic waistbands from falling down.
Since I also lost more than four inches in height, my few skirts seem to be getting longer and longer, and my slacks have on more than one occasion slid perilously low when I knelt at the communion rail.
Well, I solved that dilemma just about the way my computer guru did with the computer junk. I stuffed it all in the back of the closet and put what was actually inspected and sorted where it looks good in front. Open the bi-fold doors and things don’t look too bad, but get behind the neat façade and I can’t be held responsible for the chaos back there.
Take a look there in our bedroom at an open-shelf storage system they used to call a room divider. About five feet long and placed against a wall, it holds one of our old clocks and quite a few books, mostly Dave’s sea stories and music resources plus a good Bose radio and speakers, ever tuned to FM 90.1 and 88.1.
We have a gold mine of CDs in our shared collection, with most of them downstairs on the bedroom wall and the rest upstairs in “Dave’s” room where he sometimes retires to avoid whatever may be happening downstairs.
When it became obvious that music for the home was going digital, we started replacing many of our 8-tracks and cassette recordings with CDs.
Dave made two plywood shelves, with a “stop” on the back edge so the CDs won’t get pushed over, and I very proudly came up with a system that allows me to find a disk with minimal searching.
The shelves are at least five feet long, times two, and six inches deep – that’s a lot of music. Each CD can hold so much more than the old-fashioned kind that instead of just one recording of, say, The Blue Danube Waltz, there are collections of Johann Strauss waltzes or “The Best of Viennese Waltzes,” or Boston Pops’ concerts, or The Blue Danube played on glass armonicas (to use Benjamin Franklin’s spelling), or The Blue Danube conducted by Peter Schickele.
So where should I slip my latest purchases, Waves of the Danube? Beside The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Salt Lake City Blues? Waltzes in the style of PDQ Bach?
Today I was making decisions as to where to put each disk, until I threw up my hands and vowed to complete my sweaters and shoes reorganization later.
Note: Permit me to remind you that the Fayette Interfaith Alliance Thanksgiving Dinner is on for this evening, 7 p.m., at Congregation B’Nai Israel on Georgia Hwy.54 at the Fayette/Clayton county line.
The Alliance is composed of Protestant and Roman Catholic congregations in Peachtree City and Fayette, the Islamic Center, as well as B’Nai Israel.
Bring non-perishable foods to give to the Midwest Food Bank Planners would appreciate chips or crackers to provide for the reception following the service.
SallieS@Juno.com
