respublica

Another of Life's little irritants

Recently we received a new cable box from Charter Spectrum because starting April 3 they will be changing over to updated models and our old one would not work. So this morning we decided we better get to replacing the old with the new. Sounds easy, right? Well it wasn't. Or, it was, but it didn't seem that way for an hour. I spent too much time on Spectrum's web site trying to learn how to do this which meant dealing with a lot of gibberish and passwords and etc. I was about out of my mind and this drove Dale crazy. I kept reading the manual and coming up with no good understanding of what was involved.

In the end, Dale finally said, "let's just hook it up and see what happens." That was the correct answer. We put all the cables where they should go, turned on the tv and it came on. Actually it came on to channel 4, just 4 and not at all filling the whole screen. So back to the instructions, this time with the remote. On the screen was the message that it would take 20 minutes or more to finish setting up and so we waited. Then the remote instructions said to push the tv button and then hold down the setup button until the tv button begins blinking.

Good luck with that. But, unfortunately the instructions did not tell me to put the batteries in correctly and I had them in backwards. Once that was rectified, we now have tv like it should be. That's not to say there wasn't a bit of consternation going on around here this morning. I headed over to the Spectrum office to turn in the old box and halfway there the skies opened up and pouring rain came down and got harder and harder when i tried to leave that office.

And that was enough for one day. I will say, though, getting through set up on almost any electronic machine is hard these days. Just try and set the clock on the microwave or oven in one try. That was my second job today, the minute hand display was off. I had to finally look up our manual online to see how to do something as simple as that. It was not at all obvious.

Since all this Dale has spent most of the day in his basement.

And now several hours late it is still pouring and we have Lenten service at 4.

The shelves keep multiplying

Dale has continued putting together more and more glass front bookshelves over in Collinsville. I first posted about them at the end of May. He has really expanded them since. I do wonder aloud at times if there will ever be an end point or will these shelves eventually circle the entire basement. Here was yesterday.

All of this involves putting old seminary faculty homes windows into frames which involves a lot of routing and other stuff before they are hung. He does have a lot of books, but there are a lot of windows still stacked up. This may or may not ever end.

Words from 1947, true today

French novelist, Albert Camus, wrote this in 1947's The Plague: "There's no question of heroism in all this. It's a matter of common decency. That's an idea which may make some people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is — common decency."

What's in that Purse?

While clearing out one of our bookshelves the other day I came across one of Nora Ephron's books from 2006, "I Feel Bad About My Neck" And other thoughts about being a woman.

I sat down and started reading and found my self laughing out loud. Ephron you may remember was a writer and screen writer. The movies she wrote included, When Harry Met Sally, Silkwood, Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Julie and Julia.

She was funny and quite an observer of life in general.  Early on in this book she discusses purses and the obsession women have with them and I immediately felt a sort of kinship with her because I do not like have to haul a purse around. All I really need most days is two pockets, one for phone and car key, the other for my wallet.

Here is her take on purses:

"I hate my purse. I absolutely hate it. Here's what happens with a purse. You start small. You start pledging yourself to neatness. You start vowing that This Time Things Will Be Different. You start with things you absolutely need-Your wallet and a few cosmetics that you have actually put into a brand-new shiny cosmetics bag. But within seconds your purse has accumulated the debris of a lifetime. The cosmetics have fallen out of the shiny bag, the coins have fallen from the wallet, the credit cards are somewhere in the abyss. What's more, a huge amount of space is being taken up by a technological marvel that holds your address book and calendar. And, there's half a bottle of water, along with several snacks you saved from an airplane trip just in case you ever found yourself starving. Perhaps you can fit your sneakers into your purse. Yes, by God you can!"

She goes on about purses much more. If you ever come across this book, and you are a woman, get it.

Nora was married 3 times, the second was to Carl Bernstein, one of the reporters who broke the Watergate scandal.

Takin Stock

Another section from Nora Ephron's book, "I Feel Bad About My Neck" relates preparing to move after many years in one place. I kind of relate to this right now.

"We threw away whole pieces of our lives: the Care Bears, the wire shelving in the basemen, boxes full of bank statements, the posters we hung on the walls, the stereo speakers that no longer worked, the first computer we ever bought, the snowboard, the surfboard, the drum kit. Boxes of clothing went to charity. Boxes of books went to libraries.

We were forced to confront what we'd outgrown, what we no longer need, who we were. We'd Taken Stock. It was as if we'd died but got to sort through our things; it was as if we'd been reborn and were now able to start accumulating things all over again."

How many have you read?

The New York Public Library turns 125 this year and to celebrate, the library dug into its records and calculated a list of the 10 books that have been checked out the most in its history. The most checked out book turned out to be The Snowy Day by Ezra Zach Yeats originally published in 1962. It was checked out 485,583 times. It was about a young boy's encounter with snow for the first time and although a childrens' book, adults have loved it just as much.

This intrigued me because I'd never heard of this book with it's "beautiful artwork". So, I went to Amazon and sure enough, they still sell it. I ordered the 5.99 book and it comes today.

The rest of the list of most checked out books is found at this link.

Oh no a wet book

When I went outside this morning the first thing I noticed was a book laying on the driveway next to the back door of Dale's car. Unfortunately it was wet since it must have sat there all night in a light drizzle. This book, Homer's Odyssey, is a paperback which he has owned for years, maybe since high school and has his notes and underlining all through it. It must have fallen out of the car when he came home and moved out some other things. He doesn't know about this yet and I've been doing some google searching on how to dry a wet book. It may be a good thing that it is the edges which are wet, not entire pages, but that is still unknown.

There isn't any tried and true way to dry this that I found so it comes back sort of normal, the book is old enough that the pages are yellowed. I know this book can be purchased new at any bookstore, but, boy, all his notes and underlining are worth saving.

Them is us

Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse has a new book out and it's one I plan to order. This guy is a thinker, a rare bird these days.

An excerpt: "Repairing America’s physical infrastructure, although expensive, is conceptually simple, involving steel and concrete. The crumbling of America’s social infrastructure presents a daunting challenge: We do not [yet] know how...”

The book is titled, Them: Why We Hate Each Other--and How to Heal

Too many books, what to do?

We're in the process of moving things around in our house, clearing things out, giving away, throwing away, all the usual processes when you are stumbling over too much stuff. I learned today that there is a book drop off area at  several Macy's at their loading dock area. At the Galleria, this area is at the southwest corner of the south parking lot.

This is good news for me, it's close by and I can bring many hardback fiction books I've read but won't read again. Also these books will be part of the annual Great St. Louis Book Fair. I hate the idea of tossing out actual books so this is a big help.

What Difference Does it Make?

Hillary has a book out and has begun the grand tour.