Bloggity-blog

I’m actually working at the Bank Cafe! Finished my blueberry muffin and charged my phone using my new battery charger (claimed from the "reuse" table in my building). Now I’m just sipping my iced tea and killing time before an appointment. Everything is great except for...

As of this morning our latest new case numbers are back up to the late February rate and still climbing as near as I can tell. I’m being very cautious -- I broke out my mask with the straw slit so I can be mostly covered while drinking when people are nearby.

Still, it’s nice to finally be back here after a year and almost four months even if this is going to be temporary. And it was great to spread out over a table here in the mezzanine and get some computer work done.

At the moment most of my time is devoted to clearing out my storage unit -- a process now in its second month but seemingly drawing to a satisfying conclusion. The appointment is to give someone my Timex-Sinclair ZX81 set-up. Not an easy thing to find a home for. Still a list of things I’m working through, but I’ve done pretty well and gotten rid of a lot of stuff. Not always easy, but satisfying when it is gone.

Walking home from the P.O. I was watching a guy crossing the street against the light and the traffic. He then stopped in front of me -- still blocking a lane of traffic -- to ask for money. He had a spiel but he was doing a great job of telling the real story: He didn’t care about anyone but himself and wanted a handout because ignoring the rules hadn’t worked so well for him. Was he really a Vietnam era veteran? Don’t know. Don’t care.

I’m back at the Bank Cafe again, Fully masked. With a glass of iced tea at my side -- they didn’t have any of the treats I like. I’m just doing odds and ends on the computer while checking up on the people who said they were interested in my old computer books but then went silent as soon as I had said books home. Abducted by aliens is my working hypothesis.

I’m really surprised by how much I’ve gotten rid of. I’m still working on the old newspapers and related media. I have three containers of stuff that a friend in Chico expressed a mild interest in last year, but I’m not sure if hauling it up there to him would be a good idea or not. I would like to do it, but I don’t think he would really be happy to get the stuff. Still looking at other options for that stuff and for the furniture in storage that is the main reason I’ve had the storage unit all this time. Surprisingly hard to give away nice furniture at the moment. I’ve found what seems to be the best option as a last resort hauling service, but I would rather find a home for the furniture myself. I just paid almost $100 to properly recycle twenty-five pounds of floppies, discs and other media that the hauling people could have dealt with but this way I know it’s handled as well as possible. Same with the old computers and related computer equipment -- though that didn’t cost me anything. I just dropped it off to a local service.

Day 32 Post-pandemic

This is the weekend so I’m at Another Cafe instead of Bank Cafe. It is less distanced and ventilated here, so I’m keeping my mask on most of the time. Our new case numbers are now up to late February and still rising as near as I can tell. Still no word on the percentage of unvaxxed/vaxxed.

My storage unit cleanout project is moving steadily forward. Everything has more or less fallen into place except for what I thought would be the easiest -- my mother’s very nice bedroom furniture. I had two people say they were interested in some old computer books I advertised on a whim, but after I brought them home I haven’t heard a word from either party. Frustrating, but not as much of a problem as the furniture.

My upstairs neighbor helped me yesterday by providing the truck we used to swap a load of stuff to my apartment with a load of stuff to get rid of to my storage unit. There are still a few odd little jobs, and running down the final options for the furniture, before I call in the haulers to empty the unit. Then I’m going to have a bunch of re-organizing to do in my apartment, but that’s the fun part.

Someone could make money turning this into a business. That’s kind of what estate people do, but this is pre-estate/probate. The goal -- my goal -- is to responsibly find new homes or recycle/upcycle as much stuff as possible and then reorganize anything that doesn’t get trashed. The problem is that it will almost always be easiest/cheapest to simply dump stuff in the landfill rather than work to find a new home and then dispatch the stuff. I’ve spent a lot of money on shipping costs. And after this is all wrapped up, I will be finally joining the Mechanic’s Institute Library mostly so I can then give them the Civil War Chess Set I was given decades ago and don’t have any use for. But that’s equal to one month’s savings now that I don’t have to rent the storage unit.

There is also a trip to Chico in my future to give away a bunch of stuff to some friends who are big ebay sellers. I’m actually looking forward to taking a post-pandemic road trip, even if it's just up and back or overnight.

The process of parting with my family’s history has been interesting, not to say painful at times. Some of my stuff I’ve given up just because I’ve given up so much of my parents’ stuff. It is right that I’m having to do this as it is a consequence of my decision to not have kids. After I die there will be no one with any particular interest in my father or his parents or even in my mother’s first husband who died in WW2. I’ve kept family stuff -- mostly photos -- when there are surviving family members that might be interested. I’ve also saved a record of their families in the unlikely event their Midwestern homes are totaled by a tornado or fire. Everything else has been recycled (maybe, still not certain if B&W or Color prints are actually recyclable). Anyway, most of it is gone along with the paper and software record of my computer career. And even so I still have records most people don’t, especially virtually every check I’ve ever written and most of the work invoices for those computer years.

In five years I could very well go through my paper and photo records and toss out a bunch more. As it is, my apartment is going to hold more of my essential records than before but less obviously... maybe. Some of my storage decisions are still TBD. But I think my apartment is going to end up looking a little emptier than before. Which was my goal. And the next iteration, when I strip my life down to the bare minimum, will be easier to manage as it won’t involve bus trips to a different county -- over the Golden Gate Bridge each way. I do still fantasize about a fire that magically deletes everything -- while somehow giving me enough time to escape with the really important stuff I have organized into easily collected and moved storage units. There would be a sense of liberation along with the sense of loss. Thinking about what I would do at that point with my space (post restoration) is quite a delight.

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

(Mostly books)

1. - About Cold Flat Junction & The Elegance of the Hedgehog

13. About Belle Ruin & The Sunflower

16. The Sunflower part 2

18. The Sunflower part 3

23. The Sunflower part 4

26. The Sunflower part 5

27. The Sunflower Last & The tale of Potty

28. Sk8tr girl & The Last of Potty

29. About Faust, Doctor Faustus, & Parades End

31. About Belle Ruin

32. About Doctor Faustus & Mann

37. About Doctor Faustus

58. About Doctor Faustus & The Ode to Joy

61. About Fadeaway Girl

65. About Parades End, TMM, and The Brothers K

70. A Century of Wisdom + About Faust

74. A Century of Wisdom

77. A Century of Wisdom + About The Brothers K

78. Last of A Century of Wisdom

84. Absalom, Absalom

86. About Social Contract Theory (article)

87. Absalom, Absalom + About Social Contract Theory

88. Absalom, Absalom

89. Absalom, Absalom

90. Absalom, Absalom

91. About Musicophilia

92. Musicophilia

93. Musicophilia + About Absalom, Absalom

94. Musicophilia

95. About Absalom, Absalom

96. Musicophilia

97. About Absalom, Absalom

98. Absalom, Absalom

99. Absalom, Absalom

100. Absalom, Absalom

101. Absalom, Absalom

102. Absalom, Absalom + A Man Called Ove

103. Absalom, Absalom + A Man Called Ove

104. About The Road to Little Dribbling

105. Absalom, Absalom

106. Absalom, Absalom

107. Absalom, Absalom + About the social contract

108. Absalom, Absalom + About The Trojan War

109. Absalom, Absalom

110. Absalom, Absalom + The Trojan War

111. Absalom, Absalom + The Trojan War

112. Absalom, Absalom

113. Candide + Vertigo

114. Candide + Vertigo + On super powers and nobility

115. Candide + Vertigo

117. About Sense & Sensibility

118. About social contract

122. Candide + Vertigo

123. Vertigo

124. Candide + Vertigo

125. Books For Living

126. Candide + Vertigo

128. About Candide

129. Vertigo + About Candide

130. Proust Was a Neuroscientist + Vertigo + About Candide

131. Proust Was a Neuroscientist

132. Proust Was a Neuroscientist + About Candide

133. Proust Was a Neuroscientist + About Candide

134. Proust Was a Neuroscientist

135. Proust Was a Neuroscientist + Vertigo

136. Proust Was a Neuroscientist

137. Proust Was a Neuroscientist

138. Proust Was a Neuroscientist

139. Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Paul Cezanne

140. Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Paul Cezanne

141. Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Paul Cezanne

142. Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Igor Stravinsky

143. Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Igor Stravinsky

144. Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Gertrude Stein

145. Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Gertrude Stein

146. Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Virginia Woolf