Lots of Monkeys

I hold the silver dollar in my hand. The year embossed on it is 1928, a full 47 years before my birth.

The man who handed it to me is Alex, from the Ukraine. He tells me a story about the depression in the Ukraine and how the Jewish storekeepers would only accept silver, since paper money was worthless. It’s why, to this day, he carries around five silver dollars in his wallet, a simple black billfold wrapped in a white handkerchief.

He talks of entertainment in the 1950s. The village in the Ukraine had nothing in terms of entertainment, but did have one phone line shared among six households. So when the phone rang, everyone picked up and just listened in on the conversation.

“There were no secrets in the village,” he tells me this as a dry fact.

He feels sorry for young people, inheriting the world that they live in. Things were better when he was growing up.

He has no need for a computer, he’s 88 years old. In two years he’ll be 90 and what is there to do anyway for a 90 year old on the internet? What’s so interesting that he can’t read about it later in the paper?

We talk for a while and then he walks off.  I haven’t been in to Whole Foods for breakfast for a while, but Alex’s words still stick with me.

I have a hoarding problem. I’ve got too much stuff. I know this.

But I think I’m finally getting better. It’s moving slowly, but it’s definitely getting better.

One of my biggest issues is media. I have bookcases that are filled with DVDs and games. Not all of them are great. I’ve managed to stop the influx of mediocre titles. With Netflix and Gamefly. These two services take care of the entertainment needs, and honestly, lots of titles that go through my mailbox aren’t worth owning.

Worth experiencing once, sure. But not good enough to own. There are exceptions, for instance the time I rented Borderlands and then ended up pouring 40 hours into it. I bought it then. I figured I owed them that much if I enjoyed myself with it.

I’ve learned a couple of techniques from the always useful LifeHacker. The first is getting over the psychological aspect of stuff. You are not your stuff. Another thing I learned is that touching anything is likely to bring up memories of the item in question. By then, you start to develop an emotion for it, and then are unlikely to give it away.

Just being aware of the touch response has been liberating. I can then really evaluate the item by thinking about how much I’ve used it within the last month or so.

• Got up early, but not quite early enough and I missed the lunar eclipse as it dipped below the treeline. Ah well. Not like it wasn’t well documented.
• Played the ukulele for a while and had a meal replacement drink.
• Did laundry.
• Drank some “not tea” with a lot of honey.
• Watched a jail break movie with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. (Toy Story 3) Was one of three people to started laughing immediately when they heard, “That’s a night in the box.”
• Had lunch at the new Friendship Heights Whole Foods.
• Took a two hour nap.
• Rode the bus to Mandu and had jap-chae.
• Took pictures of the sidewalk map of the solar system in Dupont Circle.
• Found out that Larry’s Ice Cream doesn’t make malts. Was both surprised and disappointed.
• Thought I wanted a banana smoothie, but ended up giving it away.
• Had a cupcake.
• Received a voice mail with singing.
• Stuck the dollar bill that the smart trip machine wouldn’t take in the coin slot of a parking meter.

Monday came and went and I ended up in the Emergency Room at Sibley.

About nine in the morning, I decided that I needed Claritin-D since it was a high pollen day. By ten, I was on an ambulance to Sibley. If you don’t need to hear the details, then you can probably skip the rest of the post. If you love details very much, then please go on.

On Monday, a pill got stuck in my throat, I went to the hospital, and three hours later it was cleared without intervention. Continue reading →