Cleaning up, 16 June 2015

[chrishansenhome]

After sitting in the church office from 10am-2pm, I was ready to do some more tidying up. I went through the rest of the material in the wardrobe in the spare room, and found some things I can give to the church Good-As-New sale, some clothing I can still wear and some that HWMBO can wear. I came across most of the Harry Potter books, probably belonging to a former flatmate of some sort, and an entire bag of US-format VHS tapes of the original Outer Limits series, complete except for the first show.

We no longer bother with VHS tapes, as we have a DVD player, a Sky+ box (like TiVo), and a Blu-Ray player in my computer. If I could ship them to someone in the United States who wanted them, I would, but they are hella heavy.

If I left them outside the building they might disappear. However, hardly anyone here in the UK could actually play them.

What I will probably do is disassemble the cassettes, discard the tape inside, and recycle the housings and the boxes.

I loved these tapes. When I lived in the Bronx I subscribed to the Columbia Video Club Outer Limits series, where I got one tape a month. I enjoyed the original series in 1963, and I enjoyed seeing them again in the 1980's.

Now I have the complete set on DVD, in the correct area format for the UK. They take up a lot less space than the tapes and I can play them on my computer or the TV. HWMBO scolded me for buying them, but I can say that they are a great asset and I'm really happy I bought them.

One of the sad things about tidying up is that one often has to discard or donate items that meant a lot, once upon a time. I haven't really started on the books, but I will have to buckle down and do that, shortly.

Wish me luck. We are now returning control of your television set to you.

Comments

[mango-king.livejournal.com]

Good lord - you lived in the Bronx in the 80s? Brave man, you. :-)

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

I lived in the Bronx from 1978 through 1991, and survived to tell the tale. No one can say it was easy: I was burglarised around 5 times, never had a good TV (this was pre-cable in the Bronx and a good TV would have been a waste of space). However, the flat was large (two bedrooms), it gave me a lot of exercise (5th-floor walkup!), and was relatively cheap.

I was mugged once during this time, but that was in Manhattan. And the life around Webb Avenue north of Kingsbridge Road was interesting. There was still an Irish bar between Webb and University, there was a great burger place down the hill at 231st east of Broadway (it's still there, I think). The number of men around who were hot and hunky was quite large.

All in all, I enjoyed it. I was glad to move to Chicago in August 1991, of course, but I learned an awful lot in the Bronx.

[mango-king.livejournal.com]

Those most have been some very colorful years! I remember NYC from the 80s, and it was pretty rough and tumble in a lot of spots. I do sort of miss the old seedy Times Square though, I have to say - I could tell you stories that would curl your hair. :-)
Man, I love Chicago, probably my favorite big city in the U.S., but those Winters are rough rough rough.

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

I could tell you stories that would curl your hair.

Well, why don't you tell some in your blog? I don't have much hair left, but I would love to get some of it curled.

I liked Chicago too, but my employer moved out of the city to Arlington Heights, the armpit of Illinois. I had to learn how to drive, and I wasn't good at it. I had a near miss, so I found a job in San Francisco and moved there in 1993.