Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Beware Video Dodo

A few years ago, I can remember talking to my former morning show co-host about my weekend and, at one point, she stopped me and asked me to explain the concept of a video store. She had never heard of a video store! 

One of my current colleagues just about fell off his chair when he heard me say recently, I had been to the video store to pick up a movie. “Who goes to a video store?” he demanded with a snort of indignation. 

I’ve always found video stores to be very convenient, not to mention a great excuse to go for a walk. Movieland, International, Super Club Videotron; they’re all video stores that make up part of my fairly rich movie viewing history. As soon as a movie is available for purchase, we rent it, watch it and bring it back.

Over the weekend, we stopped at the video store to return “Paddington 2”, which I quite enjoyed. I told you it was fairly rich. There was a notice on the door explaining that the store would be closing permanently. Now we’re wondering what we’ll do to watch movies in the comfort of our home. 

Frankly, Netflix sucks. We occasionally watch movies on the service but they are certainly not the latest releases. We rarely find the movies or television shows we want to watch. Often, we end up watching stuff because it’s there, not because it’s our choice. 

I’m already wistful about record stores. I miss records and buying CD’s. There’s something exciting about having a physical copy of an artist’s record, or CD, in your hand, as opposed to blended into some infinite and impersonal list of 1’s and 0’s on an iPod or, worse, somewhere in cyberspace. 

I don’t miss videocassettes, but I will miss DVD’s.

My son does not watch movies, but suggested iTunes as a possible solution to our movie viewing problem. Another possibility is Amazon. Do we stream or download? It seems everyone has a questionable website to suggest. “Why pay?” they scoff. Piracy schmiracy. Great.

A DVD just seems so much simpler. I know; in a year I’ll be asking indignantly, “Who goes to a video store?” Like the dodo bird, they and all their members will be extinct. Until then, I feel like, yet again, we’re being forcibly funneled into the flow of choiceless fools.

I’m pressing rewind, but no such luck.

Friday, May 11, 2018

Save It

The house next to us is being torn down. The developer has already cut down several trees on the lot. We are hoping to keep the two trees that stand smack dab in the middle of our property and the lot being developed. Our backyard fence actually goes around the two trees in question!


The developer wants all the trees to come down and, last fall, was hastily cutting branches off the two shared trees before I went out to speak to him.

I contacted the city in hopes someone there would be able to help us protect the two disputed trees from destruction. The pair of trees provide our yard with shade, a bit of privacy and they serve as a perfect perching place for birds eating at our busy feeders. 

A city urban planner agreed to meet me at our home during lunch hour Monday April 23rd so that the situation could be assessed firsthand.

On the date of the scheduled meeting, I was running late. My punctuality could potentially be called into question! I was supposed to meet the urban planner at 12:10. Driving to our house, I was caught behind a slow motorist who, annoyingly, preferred doing 40 in a 50 zone. I tailgated, to get the driver to go faster, so I wouldn’t be late for my appointment.

Finally, the driver turned on their left turn signal. Since I was going straight at that corner, I pulled alongside the slowpoke. I looked at the woman who was driving and before she made her turn, she made a face at me.  She made the turn. I kept going and turned left at the next corner.

I got out of my vehicle in the driveway at home, on time, and a minute or two later, lo and behold the slow-driving woman pulled up at our house. If she recognized me and/or my vehicle, she graciously never showed it.

I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere, but I’m just as sure I don’t want to hear it.