June 20, 2002
Dear Everyone:
Last night was an ARMA (Association of Records Managers and Administrators) night. It was also a Homeowners Association Board of Directors night, so I had to choose my priorities. Since I was being sworn in as the Treasurer of the local chapter of ARMA, and since I could fax my proxy to the HOA Board, I elected to go to ARMA. So I didn’t get home until nearly bedtime. Hence, no Letter last night.
I had thought I might work on it during the day and
save it to a diskette, so that I would only need to print it last night,
but there were forces at work to prevent that.
In fact, there have been Forces At Work all week, preventing me
from Getting Things Done.
Very frustrating. Like
calling “Jeannie” every five minutes because I need to tell her
something, only she’s been on the phone since
Speaking of “Jeannie”, and Homeowners Associations, hers is having a tiff over one homeowner who has been making substantial changes to her townhouse. (Actually, the townhouse belongs to her elderly mother, but the daughter is in charge.)
One member of the Association board noticed that this person seemed to have built some kind of wall in her garage. A subsequent investigation showed that she had moved the downstairs bathroom into the garage in order to enlarge the kitchen. And taken out part of the wall along the stairwell. This would be a load-bearing wall and its possible collapse could have unfortunate consequences for the neighbors.
Everyone on the board, and their legal counsel, wants to sue this woman. “Jeannie” is the one lone voice of reason, primarily because she knows how expensive a lawsuit can be. They have decided, for the moment, to send a letter to all the owners, informing them that the Association rules require that all garages be cleared enough to allow one vehicle to be parked in the garage. (This has the added advantage of possibly helping with the critical parking crunch that also plagues this neighborhood.)
The upshot: “Jeannie” has to set an example by cleaning out her garage.
Last weekend, she borrowed the use of the big, (and ancient) baby-blue pickup truck that we used the last time she had to drag stuff out to the dump. We could only use the truck on Sunday, but her friend’s husband assured us that the only day of the year that the dump is closed is Christmas.
So we started “cleaning” the garage Saturday afternoon. “Cleaning” seemed to consist largely of picking things up on one side of the garage and setting them down again on the other side. All the while, wearing gloves, in case of spiders.
Eventually, we did identify some things that could actually be thrown out, and started placing them in the quite large trash can that “Jeannie” has. Example: I tossed a paper booklet into the can. “What was that?” “Jeannie” asked. Reply: “Owners manual to a printer you no longer have.” Ditto the diskettes with the printer drivers, and, ultimately, the printer table.
After rearranging a lot of things, we started sweeping the garage floor. “Jeannie”, with gloves and a dust tray, started picking up large quantities of Styrofoam “peanuts” that had spilled from somewhere at some time. As she made her way to the trash can, I followed behind, sweeping up the escapees that floated away.
On Sunday, we transferred certain large items from the trash can to the borrowed truck (the can was overflowing to a dangerous degree by this time). Then we loaded up the larger-than-the-trash-can items that “Jeannie” had finally decided she could no longer use. Example: A very old bed frame that’s too small to accommodate today’s mattresses.
Finally, we were ready to go to the dump. Since we were driving the same truck as last time, and since the engine died numerous times last time, it came as no surprise when it died numerous times on this trip. And, once again, we missed the dump on the first try. The sign is so politically correct, “Contra Costa Transfer Station”, that we didn’t realize that that means “city dump”.
But enough about that.
The Three
Musketeers.
The Count of Monte Cristo.
And now, The Bourne
Identity. Slowly, little
by little, someone appears to be in the process of recreating Richard
Chamberlain’s acting career.
He made all those movies, and they’ve all been made again in the past
few years.
The Bourne Identity stars Matt
Damon as a man who wakes up on a boat in the middle of the
It’s based on a book by Robert Ludlum. Chamberlain’s version was a two-part miniseries with Jaclyn Smith. But don’t worry if you’ve read the book or seen the previous version. All the current producers kept was the title, the name and, yes, there’s a girl. Everything else is changed. Apparently Ludlum was OK with that, since his name appears in the closing credits as an executive producer.
On the plus side, lots of great European architecture to look at. And Damon’s not hard to look at either.
Love, as always,
Pete
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