February 22, 2007
Dear Everyone:
By last Saturday, “Jeannie’s” kitchen had been completely demolished. The only cabinet still standing was the one holding up the sink. The refrigerator was still in place. But “Jeannie” was contemplating moving it so she could paint the wall behind it.
Thus everything that used to be in the kitchen cupboards and drawers was now tucked away in boxes in the garage. So when the garage light burned out, it was not an easy thing to replace it. The replacement bulbs had been in the kitchen. Now they were in the garage in any one of many boxes.
“Jeannie” went next door to see if she could borrow a light bulb. Her neighbor said his garage light had also just gone out. But rather than hunt in the dark for the replacement bulb, he just “borrowed” one from a lamp. A practice which “Jeannie” immediately emulated. Problem solved.
I helped pack the desperately fragile crystal stemware and genuine antique Wedgwood china teapots and biscuit (i.e., “cookie”) jars. Then we took on the glass dragons, having increased our supply of bubble wrap at the nearby Warehouse Office Supply Store. Eventually, everything in the china cabinet was bubble wrapped within an inch of its life and safely stowed in boxes and cases.
On my way home that afternoon, I stopped at a different Warehouse Office Supply Store and found an external 3-½ inch diskette drive for my laptop. “Jeannie” and I had taken a look at her office and realized that she had literally hundreds of diskettes in the closet and other places. Most of them contained copies of jobs that had long since been done, but which she needed to keep at least for the foreseeable future.
But they took up a lot of space and dollars. We decided if I could find a diskette drive for my laptop, I could copy the contents of the diskettes to my computer, then burn them to CDs. Once I had the diskette drive and tested it, I called “Jeannie” to let her know.
On Sunday, we took cases, boxes and baskets of diskettes and loaded them into the back seat of my car. On Monday, which was Presidents Day, and therefore a holiday, I started transferring files from the diskettes to a new set of folders on my laptop. I got through 60 in the first run. I can work on them over time while I get caught up on “deferred viewing”.
Once all the files are removed, I’ll reformat the diskettes and return them to “Jeannie”. She’ll reuse them to copy more files. Apparently, she hands them out to clients like candy.
All of this is going to save “Jeannie” tons of space and money. And it gives me something relatively brainless to do while watching TV. This is what is known as a win-win situation.
Love, as always,
Pete
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