Category: Life with Pratts

Shredding my past away

I got started on a major shredding project, getting rid of ancient bills, and of course my old, toy-quality shredder died. Most of the new models I looked at weren’t right for the space I have, then I found the Fellowes P-12C for $80 at BJ’s Warehouse.

Sorting old magazines and comic books takes a lot of time, because I end up reading and remembering, but I was surprised that old bank statements have something of the same effect on me. This is a summary of my checking and savings accounts in August, 1984.

The deposits included business travel reimbursements, because I didn’t have a company credit card. The savings account is interesting. I had less than $1500 (about $3200, adjusted for inflation) and on that I earned over $6 interest. My savings account is much more substantial now, but it doesn’t earn that much in a year, even unadjusted for inflation; but, as you can see, the gain in ’84 was offset by the monthly fee for the checking account.

Follow-up: The shredder died in 2019, having seen only occasional light use.

Winter remnant

It was an extremely tough winter here in Massachusetts. In February, when I was up on the roof shoveling snow, I wondered if there would be any damage left behind. Tonight, I know the answer is probably yes.

It’s raining very heavily, and Eric noticed water in the basement. It was coming down from the chimney wall, and I ended up in the attic (which is really more of a crawl space), and found a leak in the roof where the chimney goes through. The kitchen faucet has a bizarre problem, and I can see it was caused by the plumber doing a crappy installation job years ago.

A couple of days ago the automatic garage door wouldn’t open, and I found a broken wire in the electric eye transmitter that opens the door if the beam is broken. I redid all the wires and now it works. I was hoping that would be my only household emergency this week. Oh, well….

Tornado!

We’re getting a taste of what Alabama and Missouri suffered. A tornado touched down in Western Massachusetts, with two confirmed deaths in my old stomping grounds of Westfield. Mike Dobbs, whose “Out of the Inkwell” blog is a link over on the right, lost every tree in his Springfield yard, and one of them destroyed his car. The lightning/thunder/rain here, closer to Boston, has let up twice, only to get even worse again each time. The lights have flickered a couple of times, so I’ll post this now in case we lose power.

Update: news reports corrected the two deaths in Westfield. They were actually in West Springfield, a neighboring town.

Gray car, gold card

Bought a new car today. A 2011 Honda CRV. I’d set the money aside for it a while ago and told the dealer I didn’t want financing. After the test drive the salesman said that accepting financing was the only way I could get the deal without having a bank check in hand — as if that were possible to get on a Sunday. I said goodbye, and made it clear I wasn’t kidding. I ended up buying the car with my Amex Gold card.

Saturday notes

  • Took the fam to dinner at the Legal Seafood Test Kitchen (LTK) in Boston. Spent $193, including tip, but worth it for the quality of the food and to celebrate Eric finishing his freshman year of college.
  • How could I have forgotten that the Roku HD player remote controls the fan speed in the Haier air conditioner on the porch?
  • My definition of physical fitness is weighing 165 pounds and being able to run 13 miles (half marathon distance) any day of the year. The way things are going, I may need to come up with a new definition.