December 9, 2004
Dear Everyone:
Last Thursday’s ARMA
(Association of Records Managers and Administrators) meeting pulled in
about 23 people. This could
be a record (no pun intended).
The reason, of course, was because of the speaker:
An official
statistician for
Major
League Baseball affiliated with the
All those extra people showed up because the only records they were interested in were baseball records and they wanted to know how these guys come up with all the statistics that pop up on the screen while you’re watching the game. Until recently, the answer was “my notebook”. Now it’s “my laptop” (and my notebook). He was an interesting speaker and it made for a nice change of pace.
Then, Friday night, Mother had a bit of a health
scare. So on Sunday I popped
up to
On Tuesday, we paid a visit to Mother’s regular doctor… and discovered yet another way to get to the doctor’s office. Having missed the part about “turn left on 17th”, we kept going straight on the road until we came to the end of it. This turned out to be the other end of 32nd, which is the street the doctor’s office is on. So we just ended up approaching it from the other direction.
The regular doctor made an appointment with a specialist for next Monday. “Frankie” will fly out this coming Sunday and plans to stay until the following Sunday. So Mother will have company for a while.
As long as I was there, I helped go through a pile of mail, separating out the bills from the “please send money we’re a worthy organization” from the periodicals (which go into a basket in the bathroom for reading material) from plain old junk mail. When I tried to use the (relatively new) shredder, it wouldn’t shred. It just made faint grumbling noises. Unplugging it and turning the “top” over, I discovered that it was completely jammed.
So I spent some time Wednesday morning unjamming it. First I pulled bits out with my fingers. Then I added a letter opener, a pair of tweezers, and finally a steak knife to the arsenal. Ultimately, I did get the shredder cleared, but quickly found that it would tend to jam again if you tried to feed it too many sheets of paper.
I also realized what had caused the problem in the beginning: gummed labels. You know, those “complimentary” return labels that come with so many pleas for money. Don’t feed gummed labels to your shredder. And another thing: Shredders need to be oiled frequently. The rule of thumb is, oil the teeth each time you empty the basket.
But I didn’t have time to get some oil, so “Frankie” will have to take care of it next week. Plain old sewing machine oil works fine, although the shredder manufacturers are beginning to supply oil as well. You should be able to find it at any office warehouse store.
While I was in
Likewise, when I arrived in
So one of the things I’ll plan to do this weekend is take a couple pairs of pliers to undo the nuts and bolts that hold what’s left of it together and take it apart. It served me for a number of years. In the spring, when shade becomes an issue again, I’ll look for something else. By that time, we’ll all be in our new “offices” (spelled c-u-b-i-c-l-e-s) in “Pleasanton” and I can order something over the Internet and have it delivered.
If anyone is planning on mailing Christmas gifts to “Marshall”, Mother, “Jeannie” or me, send them to “Jeannie’s” home address. She has a very understanding mail delivery person who knows to put packages in the closet next to the garage.
Love, as always,
Pete
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