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Dec. 23rd, 2022 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrottieWhen my mother moved out of and sold the house, I came out to help process stuff. One of her shticks she was on was wanting a printer. She'd tell people she really wanted a printer, and they'd buy her a new one or give her one. She had a closet full of about 20 printers. She wouldn't get around to setting them up, or would try and get frustrated (she needs help with all things computer, but has trouble asking for help *doing* things). In MN, you have to pay to recycle electronics, mattresses, and a lot of other things, so that was fun.
Trying to help her with her laptop she got for Christmas several years ago now and didn't use, we had to go hunting for the power adapter. She thought it was in a big wooden cabinet, and she was right. This cabinet is a neat concealed computer desk, containing the Linux Via Nano system I'd built for her, before she was on a string of two Mac Minis. This machine had a homebrew remote desktop access thing done up so I could connect and help her. I pushed the button and it turned on. There it sat for a decade, hidden and untouched, in a small apartment. I'd never seen the cabinet open before. My brother had to have set that up. Many other things were found while looking for that adapter and it turned in to a decluttering project, but that and a box full of cameras were the most interesting. The same thing that happened with printers and computers apparently happened with cameras, and I was not aware. I'm guessing she was going around telling friends and family she needs a digital camera, forgetting that she has one, or thinking she needs a different one for some reason. So, I found close to a dozen cameras, digital and film in there. Some digital cameras still had their charging cord in plastic. She used them until the battery died and then started using another. As with the printers, the things she apparently forgets she has aren't scattered all over but are all put in to the place for forgotten things of that type. The smartphone revolution was incredibly good for her, giving her one object (other than her keys and cards and cane, all of which are touch and go) to keep track of. Computers are an odd case. She'll use it heavily for sewing patterns, Zoom/Skype, little web games, online banking, email, etc, etc, then she'll run in to some seemingly minor problem.
It's not just things that are "no... but actually yes" on existing. When my brother and I first showed up and we were up late chatting, I asked where she was swimming when she was, because I was hoping to get some swimming in. She didn't know and couldn't remember. I found a place nearby. She asked where I went, then when I told her, got a braindump of every place you can swim, all across the entire metro area including an hour drive away, all of the places she was going with friends, where she was going during which era for which programs, all about the facilities, like old-style pre-virtual memory Unix swapping a swapped-out process back in to memory. I guess I do that too, to some degree.
Just as when I visit my friend A, lots of processing of stuff, helping with projects and things. Started unloading photos on to the laptop last night (up till at least 2am every night) and should probably back them up myself. Need to figure out where to send "disposable" film cameras for processing and do that. Lots of appliance and electronics recycling and various brand new digital devices that aren't very old that are basically untouched that maybe can be donated.
Said I wasn't going to write about antics not wanting to shame so I guess lied a bit and also not detailing minutia and also the antics kind of take over everything so there really isn't much else. Lots of other shepherding and adulting projects but they aren't interesting.
Wind is howling. The blowing wind over the snow is reportedly going to make ice.
Edit: Okay, lots of people have stashes of unprocessed returnable film cameras and old electronics gizmos, and she does ask for help by making lots of calls and talking to people, but communication often has a gap (car tires were spinning in the snow a bit the other day, sending her on a quest to crowd-source intelligence and build consensus on that from all of her friends and the car maintenance records, while I walked downstairs, looked at the tires, decided they were basically new but just simply not snow tires, for example). Some electronics desire may be a not-unfounded hope that a new version of something makes it easy enough to jibe with her, which the phone kind of did, but she still turns off cell data and has to go to the cell store to get it turned back on, but she *can* get sales associates at the cell store to fix her settings. Gifts get kept out of politeness, not wanting to admit that an ebook reader is not practical for her or that it's one more thing and too much work. Growing up, always assumed she was just really, really, really social, and that does seem to be part of it, but there's also a huge amount of crowdsourcing what to do and generally trying to fit in by having conversations that make her not fit in. Friends that are patient and sympathetic are dear to her.
Trying to help her with her laptop she got for Christmas several years ago now and didn't use, we had to go hunting for the power adapter. She thought it was in a big wooden cabinet, and she was right. This cabinet is a neat concealed computer desk, containing the Linux Via Nano system I'd built for her, before she was on a string of two Mac Minis. This machine had a homebrew remote desktop access thing done up so I could connect and help her. I pushed the button and it turned on. There it sat for a decade, hidden and untouched, in a small apartment. I'd never seen the cabinet open before. My brother had to have set that up. Many other things were found while looking for that adapter and it turned in to a decluttering project, but that and a box full of cameras were the most interesting. The same thing that happened with printers and computers apparently happened with cameras, and I was not aware. I'm guessing she was going around telling friends and family she needs a digital camera, forgetting that she has one, or thinking she needs a different one for some reason. So, I found close to a dozen cameras, digital and film in there. Some digital cameras still had their charging cord in plastic. She used them until the battery died and then started using another. As with the printers, the things she apparently forgets she has aren't scattered all over but are all put in to the place for forgotten things of that type. The smartphone revolution was incredibly good for her, giving her one object (other than her keys and cards and cane, all of which are touch and go) to keep track of. Computers are an odd case. She'll use it heavily for sewing patterns, Zoom/Skype, little web games, online banking, email, etc, etc, then she'll run in to some seemingly minor problem.
It's not just things that are "no... but actually yes" on existing. When my brother and I first showed up and we were up late chatting, I asked where she was swimming when she was, because I was hoping to get some swimming in. She didn't know and couldn't remember. I found a place nearby. She asked where I went, then when I told her, got a braindump of every place you can swim, all across the entire metro area including an hour drive away, all of the places she was going with friends, where she was going during which era for which programs, all about the facilities, like old-style pre-virtual memory Unix swapping a swapped-out process back in to memory. I guess I do that too, to some degree.
Just as when I visit my friend A, lots of processing of stuff, helping with projects and things. Started unloading photos on to the laptop last night (up till at least 2am every night) and should probably back them up myself. Need to figure out where to send "disposable" film cameras for processing and do that. Lots of appliance and electronics recycling and various brand new digital devices that aren't very old that are basically untouched that maybe can be donated.
Said I wasn't going to write about antics not wanting to shame so I guess lied a bit and also not detailing minutia and also the antics kind of take over everything so there really isn't much else. Lots of other shepherding and adulting projects but they aren't interesting.
Wind is howling. The blowing wind over the snow is reportedly going to make ice.
Edit: Okay, lots of people have stashes of unprocessed returnable film cameras and old electronics gizmos, and she does ask for help by making lots of calls and talking to people, but communication often has a gap (car tires were spinning in the snow a bit the other day, sending her on a quest to crowd-source intelligence and build consensus on that from all of her friends and the car maintenance records, while I walked downstairs, looked at the tires, decided they were basically new but just simply not snow tires, for example). Some electronics desire may be a not-unfounded hope that a new version of something makes it easy enough to jibe with her, which the phone kind of did, but she still turns off cell data and has to go to the cell store to get it turned back on, but she *can* get sales associates at the cell store to fix her settings. Gifts get kept out of politeness, not wanting to admit that an ebook reader is not practical for her or that it's one more thing and too much work. Growing up, always assumed she was just really, really, really social, and that does seem to be part of it, but there's also a huge amount of crowdsourcing what to do and generally trying to fit in by having conversations that make her not fit in. Friends that are patient and sympathetic are dear to her.
