Today I helped Mom put eight collector's edition porcelain plates up for sale on eBay. Each was of a different species of bird. When they were new, back in 1990, they retailed for $65 a piece. This was discovered when scouring the internet for other sellers of the same product. The plates belonged to my grandmother, but interestingly enough, I had never even seen them before. Perhaps Grandmother kept them in storage. Mom is so sentimental/still traumatized by her own mother's death that she is only now going through all of the things she inherited upon her death. My Grandmother died, might I add, six years ago.
Mom said she should use the money from the sell of the plates to buy some really nice flowers to put on the grave-site. I said, Mom, how about doing something a little more practical with them, like, say, paying bills? My Grandmother was Depression-era practical, so I know she'd be much more inclined to agree with my point of view than hers.
Aside from that, my father read that a company was accepting donations of old electronic equipment, which it then recycles for a profit. After stuffing decades worth of worthless electronics into the trunk of my car, I was told to head in the direction of Vulcan Park. It has changed quite a bit since they renovated the statue and the grounds. Thank you, federal government. The state of Alabama certainly never thought refurbishing the place was worthy of its tax revenue. This is another example of when the whole turning-down-the-bailout-funds argument seems tremendously silly to me. If the U.S. Government didn't step in and fix things in all of these red states, the states themselves would never do it themselves. They're so averse to *gasp* raising taxes, and I suppose just content to squander the limited tax revenues they get on some redneck state representative's private lake place. Call it an "earmark".
Anyway, the site actually looks really nice now, not decaying and one step away from falling apart like it did for most of my childhood and early adolescence. They put it off for as long as they could, that is, until bits and pieces of the God of the Forge started falling to the ground. For a while, Vulcan Park was where a generation of Birmingham's more depressed individuals went to commit suicide. That's a fact you'll never see in any of the glossy brochures, for sure.
Apparently the electronics give away was also going on alongside a lightly-attended environmental fair that I had absolutely no interest in getting out of my car and perusing. The cause is noble, but I am not particularly thrilled by a visual demonstration of the latest energy-saving car engine or biofuel. If E were here and had wanted to go, however, I wouldn't have minded it because her company compensates for even the dullest external experiences.
Speaking of which, E wants to visit me here. I am certainly not averse to it, though I have to admit that we are going about the process of getting to know your relationship partner exceptionally fast. I know everyone would like her--both my parents and my sister. They've as much as said so. That's not what makes me a little nervous. It's just that this whole thing has gotten extremely serious much sooner than I would have ever liked. The week before I left DC, we were already debating whether or not we wanted kids. It caused some friction at the moment because she really wants them and I really don't. But she stopped me at the time and said, We have been dating a month. There will be plenty of time to have this argument later.
I couldn't agree more.
Mom said she should use the money from the sell of the plates to buy some really nice flowers to put on the grave-site. I said, Mom, how about doing something a little more practical with them, like, say, paying bills? My Grandmother was Depression-era practical, so I know she'd be much more inclined to agree with my point of view than hers.
Aside from that, my father read that a company was accepting donations of old electronic equipment, which it then recycles for a profit. After stuffing decades worth of worthless electronics into the trunk of my car, I was told to head in the direction of Vulcan Park. It has changed quite a bit since they renovated the statue and the grounds. Thank you, federal government. The state of Alabama certainly never thought refurbishing the place was worthy of its tax revenue. This is another example of when the whole turning-down-the-bailout-funds argument seems tremendously silly to me. If the U.S. Government didn't step in and fix things in all of these red states, the states themselves would never do it themselves. They're so averse to *gasp* raising taxes, and I suppose just content to squander the limited tax revenues they get on some redneck state representative's private lake place. Call it an "earmark".
Anyway, the site actually looks really nice now, not decaying and one step away from falling apart like it did for most of my childhood and early adolescence. They put it off for as long as they could, that is, until bits and pieces of the God of the Forge started falling to the ground. For a while, Vulcan Park was where a generation of Birmingham's more depressed individuals went to commit suicide. That's a fact you'll never see in any of the glossy brochures, for sure.
Apparently the electronics give away was also going on alongside a lightly-attended environmental fair that I had absolutely no interest in getting out of my car and perusing. The cause is noble, but I am not particularly thrilled by a visual demonstration of the latest energy-saving car engine or biofuel. If E were here and had wanted to go, however, I wouldn't have minded it because her company compensates for even the dullest external experiences.
Speaking of which, E wants to visit me here. I am certainly not averse to it, though I have to admit that we are going about the process of getting to know your relationship partner exceptionally fast. I know everyone would like her--both my parents and my sister. They've as much as said so. That's not what makes me a little nervous. It's just that this whole thing has gotten extremely serious much sooner than I would have ever liked. The week before I left DC, we were already debating whether or not we wanted kids. It caused some friction at the moment because she really wants them and I really don't. But she stopped me at the time and said, We have been dating a month. There will be plenty of time to have this argument later.
I couldn't agree more.