Today — okay, technically yesterday, though I’m time-stamping this — was another clean-up day at the office. I didn’t finish boxing up all the old files I wanted to, but I did throw away a big box of floppy disks and CDs, which at one point contained important manuscript files and are nothing much more than landfill or coasters. There were also a couple of zip disks in there, which I remember at one point being the thing for file storage — my old boss at Penn State loved them — but which I realized I hadn’t actually seen in use for a long, long time. I was amused to discover, then, via Wikipedia that they are still used…”by retro computing enthusiasts.” They went in the trash. Or recycling. Honestly, I handed off the box to our mail room guy and de facto office manager, and I’m not really sure what he did with them.
But they’re out of my hands, no longer collecting dust under the second chair in my cubicle, and nothing I have to bring with me when we move offices in the spring.
After work, I met up with my parents for dinner, and then a live performance of A Prairie Home Companion. It was a lot of fun, if maybe a little shaggy around the edges. (Friday night is the dress rehearsal for the Saturday radio broadcast.) There was a lot of great music, and some really nice poetry, though at this point I may be a little Home Companion‘ed-out, having seen another simulcast of the show just back in October.
Then again, I think I enjoyed the evening a lot more than the couple in front of me, who I think were most amused by the fact that one of the guest musicians, a really talented jazz pianist, was named Dick Hyman. See — even frat boys can find something to giggle about on public radio!
