Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Out with the Old

I don't know about you but I am always reluctant to throw out objects that can still be "useful" even if I have a brand new replacement object sitting in the wings, waiting for an opportunity to serve me. I struggled with this old keyboard, even to the point with all the letters gone I meticulously glued little cut out letters to the blank keys.

These pasted letters were wearing out too and I was contemplating making new ones when my head exploded.

For two years I've stored a brand new keyboard, just in case. I do this with mice mouses too. They are not expensive here, maybe $10. But you know, throwing something out which is still fixable, even badly fixable, is alien to my nature. Why not suffer on with a terrible keyboard. struggling with taxes, writing, etc.


So I did it - I threw it in the rubbish bin. Far less typos and repeated efforts to peck at wayward keys now on this spanking new keyboard.

So I'm making this grand announcement of what I have done here. As I struggle with tossing cranky old wastebaskets and holy-hell-lady laundry baskets while brand new replacements sit ready and waiting patiently in closets.
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As the Lodge Lurches 2

Grace's 5 elderly daughters were in the hallway yesterday carrying out boxes and bags of her belongings. So I stopped and spoke with them. Commiseration. Sympathy. She died in her sleep. Silently, peacefully. They were happy with her lovely ending. The five are all grandmothers themselves. Grace was a different era, a different generation. Never wore slacks, always skirts and blouses and cardies with her silver hair permed regularly. Classy slippers. Panty hose. I thought of the line from a book I'd read recnetly: "Things are so useless when they no longer belong to someone" as I briefly surveyed what they were carting out. I didn't share it with them. Just told them how lovely and quiet she was and that she will be missed. How lucky these almost 70 year-olds are to have had their mother for so long. Grace grew orchids outside her front door.
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Books Read and Rated Update - see sidebar for 2020.

35 comments:

  1. I have been a member of our church now for over 5 years, and in that time we have never used the 20 or so white insulated coffee pitchers. A new coffee system was installed just as we became members, and the new pump style carafes are far superior to any previous coffee server the church owned. But, the pitchers remained, taking up valuable space on a shelf in the church kitchen. I threw them away on Sunday. Five years is far too long to keep something no one uses.

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    1. Good for you DKZ, I must do something about the ratty "still usable" items I must toss. Taking up valuable cupboard space. I did toss an old casserole dish on the weekend. It had a crack but it was still usable. LOL

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  2. I plead guilty. I also put off buying replacements for things which 'sort of' work.
    And remember that heart breaking clean up. And the brand new shirts we threw out because the pins which held them in place had rusted...
    And hooray for graceful exits. I hope that when my time comes I wil be able to leave just as Grace did.

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    1. Yes me too EC. She went quietly they said. I love that. I remember all the brand new shirts we threw after my father died. A closet full. I am hoping one of the bros donated them to a shelter.

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  3. Guilty as well. I always save the old things for 'in case of' which never happens.

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    1. I guess it's a childhood of frugality. If it's still workable and breathing we use it to its last dying screech. I remember one of my bros wiping up after a coffee machine that leaked everywhere and he had a brand new one waiting in the garage.

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  4. I was inclined to do as you but more along the lines of keeping the old one, just in case. I think there is only one thing that I have kept like that now.

    The woman who died sounds rather like my mother, except in her case no silver hair. Grace died in the best possible way, a manner we can all hope for, but just not too soon

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    1. I love the peace of Grace's death. I miss the quiet sounds of her next door to me. She was incredibly regular doing her dishes, making her cups of tea. Our kitchens adjoined and I could hear her through the plumbing.

      yes, we all should be so lucky.

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  5. I've been told that when you die in your sleep it's because you've learned all the lessons and done all you were meant to here on Earth. I like to believe that. -Kate

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    1. Oh Kate I absolutely love that. My great grandmother in her nineties fell down her stairs and broke her neck and died. I wondered what that was all about. Her family disliked her.

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  6. On my keyboard previous to the current keyboard, I wore off the right hand registration bump. I got a whole new computer, on the theory it certainly was worn out too, after seventeen years.

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    1. What is this registration bump of which you speak? (LOL)

      17 years!! Dear gawd Joanne, that must be some kind of record.
      Was it a mac?

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  7. I don't usually keep old things too long, once I get used to the new, out goes the old. I still have my old laptop though, because it has a cd/dvd tray and this new one doesn't. I never used that tray much and probably don't need it, but I'll keep the old laptop a while longer. I've also got two older digital cameras, but thought I might pass those on to children who are just learning to take photos, but no, they use their phones to take photos now. I have a spare wireless keyboard in case this one fails, which isn't likely, but you never know...

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  8. If you need a spare mouse I've got 2, LOL. You reminded me I have a digital camera too that no one wants. I suppose thrift shops are taking them? I hate to dump it.

    XO
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    1. Remember to empty or remove the memory card first if you take it to a thrift shop.

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  9. The joke in my home is how I keep throwing things out, including messages in my WhatsApp application. There are times when I have to go back to the sender to request a resend as I suddenly realise that I would like to share it with someone else.

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    1. Ah you are too rigid entirely there Ramana my friend, I know I get ruthless with my inbox at times and have thrown out important stuff but the level of bumf rolling in is mind bending.
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  10. Replies
    1. Love you back, Ernestine, they can't put a good woman down and you are surely that.

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  11. You are too funny, the exact opposite of me. I tend to throw things away or donate them. On with the new, I always say.

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    1. My family is like this unfortunately thinking there is a lot of "use" in items long past their throwaway date.

      I wish I were more like you.

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  12. I have a brand new Waterpik stored in my bathroom cabinet, bought many months ago when the old one started making a different noise and I thought it was about to break. I think once I started having mobility issues, I made sure I had whatever supplies I might need soon in case there was a need at the time when I could not get out. Grace's daughters were lucky. I hope you're just as lucky in the next next-door-neighbor.

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    1. You totally get it. It's like the new knickers in their packs and the old ratties still in use as they are still "wearable". No they're not.

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  13. How lovely for Grace and her family! I'm sure she must have been one of those people who did not keep old stuff around 'just in case', unlike the rest of us ;-) Lessons learned indeed! I've never heard of a registration bump but I'm guessing it's the bump on the J key (also the F key) for locating your typing fingers on the keyboard without looking. For those of us who learned to touch type back in the day.

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    1. Those bumps are for blind people so they know the starting point for touch typing.

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    2. I just checked my keyboard and yes there are bumps. I must have noticed this before. I do long for those lovely round keys, the ones that never wore out on the old typewriters.

      Very satisfying to the touch.

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  14. Are computer mouses (mice) pluralized as mouses or mice? You are the only other person using mouses for the plural. Welcome to my world. I am a mouses person.

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  15. Mice for the rodents, mouses for the computer attachment.

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    1. Meece is quite wonderful a unique word for a gathering of computer mouses at their annual convention.

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  16. I tend to do the same - keep old keyboards, old routers etc on the off chance they might come in handy some day. Needless to say, they never do.

    I hope I die in my sleep, that's the ideal way to go.

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    1. Not to mention the cord, Nick, that no longer connect to anything. I had about 100 of them hanging up in the house when I moved out. Baffling collection for old palm pilots and old cameras, etc. Useful my arse. Really.

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  17. I used to keep lots of things like that, but I've really gotten more to the point where I prefer space to the clutter so I pitch things that don't work and use the good ones.

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