October 16, 1997
Dear Everyone:
If all goes well, I’ll be moving to my new home in
exactly two weeks. And, I
confess, I have not yet begun to pack.
But I’ve been thinking about it, and that’s the next best thing.
Last Tuesday, the loan officer and I decided it was
as good a time as any to lock in the interest rate on my loan.
On Wednesday, the rates started going up.
The loan officer says my timing is “impeccable”.
Here’s hoping my luck stays that good.
Fixin’ to get started on sending out Change of
Address notices this weekend.
(I’m waiting for the weekend because I’m too tired in the
evenings to make any sense and would not want my bills going to
Nantucket.)
This is where a computer can really come in handy.
I’ll create a template in
Word with all
the pertinent data (effective date, new address, new phone number if I
get that far along), then all I have to do is change the addressee info
and account number and print it.
The computer will even print the envelopes for me.
The computer will also help me list and prioritize
what should be moved when.
I’ll have the day before and the day after the movers arrive to deal
with small stuff. The movers
will only be moving actual furniture, appliances and things that are too
big to fit in my car. This
will keep the cost below $800.
And before they arrive, I hope to have an
intelligent floor plan worked out.
Although, as with the last move, when it doubt, it goes into the
smaller bedroom, which will eventually be a home office and library.
Speaking of the library, I still have to make at
least one more pass through my collection of books.
“Jeannie” says I collect books the way she collects clothes.
Once it lands on a shelf, it never leaves.
She’s right. But do I
really need to keep the
Heinlein
books I read in high school?
And am I ever really and truly going to go back to those Standard
Intermediate Arabic Workbooks?
I think not.
Hang onto
Shakespeare
and Homer.
A lot of the rest can go to the public library.
I’m giving up the free shelving that I have in my
Concord
place and will rely on two bookcases that have been serving duty as
shelves in one of the storage closets (which I’m also giving up).
I will start out with 171 inches of shelving space.
And I currently have over 370 inches worth of books.
Of course, I can keep a lot of them in the closet
in the smaller bedroom until I can get more, or at least taller,
bookcases. And then I can
start collecting new books.
Or newer editions of old books.
Movies...
“Jeannie” was not feeling well last weekend, so I
took the opportunity to go and see
The Game.
It stars
Michael Douglas, for whom “Jeannie” has developed a dislike.
It also stars
Sean Penn, for whom I have always had a dislike.
Douglas plays a
San Francisco
businessman, a millionaire who still lives in his deceased father’s
house. After all, it’s his
duty to do so. He’s very
dutiful, placing the interests of the stockholders before his own.
He’s not as much concerned with his own money as he is with the
employees’ pension plan.
He eats his breakfast standing at the kitchen
counter, so as not to inconvenience the housekeeper (played by a
gracefully aging
Caroll Baker). His idea
of a great dinner is a hamburger left to keep warm in the oven after the
housekeeper has gone home.
Then his younger brother (Penn) gives him a gift for his birthday.
The gift is “The Game”.
It appears to be some sort of role-playing thing, and Douglas
goes into it out of that same sense of duty to his brother.
Then strange things start to happen.
“The Game” becomes an object lesson in how to become completely
paranoid. Douglas doesn’t
quite know what’s going on and neither does the audience.
Is it a con job? Are
they after his money, or do they just want to drive him crazy?
Is his brother just a pawn, or is he the mastermind behind it
all?
I won’t give away any secrets except to say this:
In the end, the whole thing was really quite pointless.
And if any sibling of mine gave me a “gift” like this one, I’d
feed their liver to the fishes.
While they were still using it.
Love, as always,
Pete
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