Apparently, I'm the transition team for my parents. For the past week and a half I've been running around doing errands for them and it's cut my writing and grading time to shreds.
Meredith and I have been busily arranging books, DVDs, VHS tapes, and CDs into their newly installed cabinets. What's clear is that they've collected a lot of crap in the 32 years of life in the sticks of Eastern Oregon.
I found all kinds of crap--for example, a Newsweek magazine from 1974 featuring the Patty Hearst story.
Why would you keep that?
Additional head-scratchers--five magnifying glasses, seven dictionaries, five bibles, a plastic bag full of wedding trinkets from other peoples' weddings.
Then there are the hundreds of pictures of me littered here and there, between book pages, in boxes, sprinkled loosely throughout the clutter.
I'm going mad.
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Out of all this, however, I have some how managed to get a nice television.
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Finals week this week. Thank goodness.
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My mini Macbook came yesterday. I couldn't hop onto the internet because I transferred the entire contents of my older desktop to the laptop. That process took 6 hours.
All told, the 13" Macbook is more powerful than my G5 Tower, which is crazy. . .
Love this thing . . . I'm blogging with it right now. The key pad takes some getting used to. There's no click button--you press the keypad itself. Also, you can rotate objects, resize objects, and right click on the same pad, depending on how you move your hand or fingers on the pad. Wild.
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(Geek mode off)
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Haven't written a lick for a couple of months. The big push of the quarter coupled with the parental move has left me with very little time. Priority, of course, goes to L's care. The last official day of transition for my folks will be the 21st of this month. Thank goodness.
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Current spin:
School of Seven Bells. "Half Asleep."
1 hour ago
4 comments:
Hey Ollie, in an interesting parallel episode, Oscar and I have been part of the transition team for my parents' home too - same house for the past 30 years but spring cleaning in a big way. There really is something "inspiring" me to think about writing, in the way so much old stuff gathers over so much time, what sentimental or emotional value trinkets and objects have, even if they have been out of sight out of mind in the back of a run down leaky shed for decades. As soon as you unearth them, something happens to the air. I feel like I've witnessed my mother transformed by the unearthing of objects.
And as far as the yard work goes, it's like having a super long head of hair and getting it all chopped off, that old weight lifted. Yep, I've got stuff to write. I tink you do too!
BJP,
Truth is, I've got three "projects" that are on the back burner. I'm happy that I got what I consider to be a third book circulating, but I really want to get to these newer projects.
My parents haven't actually been transformed. I think they're not going quietly to retirement, which I completely understand. My mother was almost the singular pediatrician in my hometown for the better part of 32 years. A lot of her former patients are even having grandchildren who are/were being seen by her. So she created a vast community in a little sleepy town in Eastern Oregon. It's a void both the community and she are trying to fill. Hopefully grandson-care will "fill" that void. I do know that Lucas at this stage in his development is a handful, so "Lola" and "Lolo" will have plenty to do.
Oooh, I'd keep the Patty Hearst mag. I'm fascinated by her.
Glad you're loving the MacBook. Once you go Mac, you never go back. :)
Collin, I've been using a Mac since the SE/30 days. Before that, I used a C 64
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