October 14, 2004
Dear Everyone:
The Cold that I woke up with one week ago today has pretty much withered away. Either it was a very mild Cold, or one that I still had some immunity to. Either way, the only thing left is the sinuses that can’t seem to make up their minds to be too dry or too goopy; and the vestiges of a cough, which may actually be due to autumn allergies and smoke. There’s a wildfire not far from here and the prevailing winds are bringing the smoke to us instead to blowing it the other way.
I got home last night just in time for the Presidential Debate on TV. I hadn’t planned it that way, but that’s what happened. So I decided to do some multitasking: Started a load of laundry, tuned the TV to whatever channel was showing the Debate, and began excavating through the mountain of mail that had accumulated on my dining table.
One of the advantages to living alone is that if you put something down, it stays right where you put it until you pick it up again. (Of course, this does not apply to “Jeannie”, whose house seems the be home to legions of Borrowers capable of causing a multitude of objects to vanish the second you take your eyes off them.)
So when I get home and dump the day’s mail on the
dining table, the mail stays there until I get around to dealing with
it. Usually, I go through it
on the patio before I actually come into the house.
That way, the more obvious
junk mail
can go directly into the
recycle bin
without every entering the house.
However, what with our trip to
Last night, I took armloads of paper and dumped it all in the middle of the living room floor. It actually took more than one trip. Then I started on basic triage: Ads, fliers, announcements, anything that could go directly into the recycle bin got flung over by the TV, where the Senator and the Shrub whacked away at each other. (Oh, look! Macy’s is having a sale… three weeks ago. And another sale… two weeks ago. And another one last week.)
Things that looked more like “real” mail went into one pile. Pleas for money (i.e., charitable organizations) went into another pile. These I will deal with all together next month. Bills got opened immediately (oops! This one’s due tomorrow!) and placed in a special pile. Election propaganda went into a large paper grocery bag, to be dealt with, one way or another, before November 2nd. I even found my vote-by-mail absentee ballot and the Voter Information Guide, which I hadn’t realized had arrived already.
Next I went through the envelopes that were probably junk mail, but you have to make sure. Many were “you’re already approved for a $10,000 credit card!” Ditto offers to refinance the house. These go through a special process: The envelope and terms (in incredibly fine print) go into the recycle pile. The actual application, which has my name and address on it, goes into the to-be-shredded pile, which is on the chair behind me as I’ve run out of places to put piles. The postage-paid return envelope will go back to the company that sent it.
They only have to pay postage on the envelopes that are delivered to them. Sometimes, I put extra things in the envelopes, like the terms form from some other bank. Or 50¢ off a pizza from a local restaurant. The point is to punish these people for flooding my mailbox every week. I had over a dozen of these envelopes to put in the mail this morning.
The smarter ones are catching on and don’t send return-envelopes anymore, just a postcard, or an 800 number to call. Or, they use a window-envelope so you have to put the form, with your name and address, into the envelope. Those just get recycled.
So I now have a large pile to to-be-shredded waiting for this weekend. Shredding is a good thing to do while watching TV. It drowns out the sound of the commercials. And a pile of bills to be paid.
And I got a postcard from “Frankie” (and “Larry”)
who’re visiting my niece, “Liza”, in
Love, as always,
Pete
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