Hat Trick

Hat Trick
Originally uploaded by 365 Things

What: Several things, actually. The photo shows some used manila envelopes that seemed too good to recycle.
Origin: Friends mailing things to me.
Usage: Not at all, once I retrieved the mail items.
Why kept: They all seemed Perfectly Good. And they were stacked on a shelf full of office supplies, where I'd never look for them, so Out Of Sight Out Of Mind. And, Aaargh.
Destination: Shredder, then recycling.

Bonus: I also got rid of my tax stuff, it's on its way to my unsuspecting tax guy in Queens. And I returned a mail order sweater, a Christmas gift I had requested, but the color wasn't as it had appeared in the catalogue.  (Requested a basic black replacement.)

And, I got rid of TV for the moment. I am so mad at Time Warner Cable that I could spit. Apparently, I have an old cable box that needed to be upgraded.

Instead of mailing notices, the customer service rep told me that last week, management had made an announcement to their Customer Service Representatives:  they had decided to shut service off to people like me.   This would then "prompt calls from customers" who would then make appointments to get new cable boxes.

Because we can't live without TV.

Uh, dude, that's like being dumped by text message. And I'm too old for that.   And I'm not co-dependent:  to paraphrase Anne Lamott, that's not how things work on my little acre when I'm paying for something.

So, no, Time Warner Cable. I'm shedding you. (I already had bare bones service. I think I can watch PBS newshour online. Other guilty TV pleasures I might just have to do without.) Buh-bye.

(And the NY Times and others have written about how we can watch TV without cable. If I gain a lot of energy, maybe I'll check that out.)

(And here's the Anne Lamott quote, courtesy of FeelingElephants:

“…Every single one of us at birth is given an emotional acre all our own. You get one, your awful Uncle Phil gets one, I get one, Tricia Nixon gets one, everyone gets one. As long as you don’t hurt anyone, you really get to do with your acre as you please. You can plant fruit trees or flowers or alphabetized rows of vegetables, or nothing at all. If you want your acre to look like a giant garage sale, or an auto-wrecking yard, that’s what you get to do with it. There’s a fence around your acre, though, with a gate, and if people keep coming onto your land and sliming it or trying to get you to do what they think is right, you get to ask them to leave. And they have to go, because this is your acre.”
—from Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, 1994.