How can I get rid of bulky items?

 

After a decade of forced retirement, I've decided to replace much of the furniture in my apartment.  For example, my sofa is worn out and will be replaced soon.  I have three chests in the bedroom that I plan to replace with two new ones sometime in the next couple of years, and I will likely replace the entertainment center, coffee table and end tables in the living room as well. 

But to do this, I must figure out how to get rid of the bulky furniture.  I have several options for getting rid of the sofa, and none of them are that great, as they will cost me money.  The coffee and end tables can be taken apart for disposal.  Even the chests in the bedroom can be slid down the stairs and "walked" to the dumpster area for bulk pick up.  But the entertainment center poses a problem.  It weighs 450 pounds when empty. and it took 3 people to get it into my apartment.  I will need help getting it out of the apartment, and will likely need to pay a good price to remove it.

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With the above being said, there is another headache I have to deal with - annoying salespeople.  For the most part, I've found people working at furniture stores as of late to be too close to used car salesmen for comfort. All of them tend to hover around, not giving the customer enough breathing room to examine the merchandise in peace.  If you give them ANY information, they will being up the various financing terms, as well as how good their delivery process is.  But, not all of them know their product well, as was the case of one sales person we met about a month ago.  

On a hot day in July, we decided to cross the river and look at some furniture.  Entering the store, we met a fellow from the Indian subcontinent who proceeded to follow us around the store, wherever we wanted to browse.  Shortly after we mentioned what we were looking for, but after a few minutes of browsing, he tried to find an opening to sell us a mattress.  (I need a new one too, but I'm planning on going to Saatva for one designed for fat people like me. But I digress.)  When we sat on an expensive leather covered sofa, he extolled the virtues of the sofa and its construction, not knowing that we knew of another sofa made by the same people with the same frame.  He stated that this was the only one of its kind, not knowing that we knew otherwise.  He was very insistent in trying to make a sale that day, but I brushed him off.  But this wasn't the end of him.

About a week later, I got a call from the salesman.  He sounded upset that I didn't call him back to finalize a sale.  Luckily, the answering machine took the call.  In a later conversation with RQS, I stated why he wasn't going to get the sale.  First, all my credit cards are in Mario's name and I met this man in Marian mode.  But, more important, was the fact that he didn't know his merchandise well enough. We had met a second salesman, this time with me in Mario mode, and he knew his stuff.  This is the person who will get the sale when I'm ready to drop the hammer.  Again, I digress.  This morning, the first salesman woke us up, hoping that we'd answer the land line to set a date for another appointment to close the deal.  Obviously, this won't happen anytime soon....

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The question remains...

How will I end up getting rid of the old sofa?

A Trump supporter posted a reply on Mario's Facebook page.

 

The other day, I posted an image similar to this with the phrase:

Lock him up!
Lock him up!
Lock him up!

And she responded, replying that Biden should be the one locked up.  Regardless of how one feels about Trump and Biden, I am disgusted by both parties' inability to discipline troublesome members when they break the law. I was one who said that Bill Clinton should have been impeached for committing perjury in regard to having sex with Monica Lewinsky.  I was also in favor of going after Bush #43 for unwarranted searches (actually, unwarranted, secret wiretaps) after 9/11.  Yet, I would have given him a hall pass on that if Congress had given him an express OK.  So when the GOP refused to discipline Trump, I was appalled.

Being a member of the LGBT community, I feel at risk by the laws being passed in our most conservative states.  The radical right would rather us not exist, and wants to deny us the medical treatment we need when it is called for, as well as denying us our basic civil rights.  Trump gave the radical right a hall pass to pass laws that would disenfranchise us in exchange for them looking the other way while he cut deals with unsavory characters and with foreign powers.  

The radical right wants to use our existence as if it were a waving red cape at a bull in a bullfight.  To preserve their power, the right's leaders are making us their focus of hatred.  Considering that my acquaintance likely uses Fox "News" as her only news source, I can't help but believe that a reasonably sane person can be corrupted by a steady diet of misinformation that reinforces her existing beliefs.  

I don't believe that our current president is guilty of a crime.  However, I do believe that the son is guilty of a crime for which he had a plea bargain deal, and should have been allowed to cop the plea.  Instead, we will have a trial where justice is not served.  The verdict passed on the son may (or may not) be just, and the trial will be used by the political right to smear our president.  So I closed out the conversational thread by saying that if there is evidence, the father should be tainted.  But if not, the political right should stop stirring up the base with falsehoods.

It saddens me that we no longer have the "fairness doctrine" to preserve objectivity in news reporting.  If this were in effect today, we wouldn't have a nation as polarized as we are now.

A day trip to Albany

 

The above picture of the Albany, NY Government Mall is a good example of why cellphone cameras will never completely replace the traditional camera - the compromises in lenses used in cellphones tend to result in image distortion that cannot be corrected.   

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Today, RQS and I decided to take a drive to Albany to visit the New York State Museum for a change of pace.  She had heard that some Berenice Abbott pictures were on display, and this was the perfect day to drive North and see them.  So, we started the day with a filling breakfast, and started our trip North. The drive was uneventful, save for my GI Tract issues.  (I won't go into any detail here, save that it delayed our arrival at the museum.)  Even at 80+ mph (people tend to have lead feet on the NYS Thruway), it felt like a leisurely drive.

Arriving at 3:30, we had 90 minutes to explore the museum, and we focused on the modern history of the state.  Of course, there was the now permanent exhibit for 9/11.  But we focused on finding the Abbott pictures - and were underwhelmed when we finally saw them.  Too few were on display to have made this trip worth it for the pictures alone.  Yet, the trip was worth it for the permanent exhibitions which included the contents of a Chinatown store, a barber shop, an early 20th century school room, and more.  Unfortunately, we missed going to the Carousel on the 4th floor, as it shuts down an hour before closing.

All too soon, we had to leave the museum for home   Next time, we'll get there a bit earlier, so that we could have a longer visit and see the whole museum.

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One thing of note: The museum had an exhibit of olden wedding dresses.  If I were to get married again, I want to be the one wearing the dress this time....

Shopping as entertainment

 

One thing that many males complain about is the female style of shopping.  Males usually have a good idea of what they shop for, and go directly to what they want in a store, pick it out, bring it to the checkout counter, and leave the store shortly after they arrive.  Contrast this with the female way of shopping.  Most females will enter the store and browse.  Although they know what they want to find, they look at all the available offerings to see if there is something special that may have been overlooked, and then get to the products they wanted to look at.  It doesn't matter whether the woman buys the product or not, as it is the search that seems to count.

Although the above may be an exaggeration of how the two genders tend to approach things, the approaches may relate to our history as a hunter/gatherer species.  Given how males process visual input for moving things, it makes sense for males to focus on a specific target, hunt for it, and then "bag it" to being home to the family.  Females focus more on stationary visual input and the other senses, and this may have given them an advantage when gathering food.  The slight differences in color, smell and taste may make a big difference when gathering food, as being able to interpret the subtle differences in fruits and plants may be the difference in whether one eats poison or nutritious food.

When I started going out as a female, I retained a male way of shopping.  I knew what I wanted to buy, and didn't want to waste any time in doing so.  Now that I'm retired, my style has changed a little - especially in clothes shopping.  I'll browse through catalogs, as well as clothing racks to see if there is something that interests me, and buy things if I find them interesting enough and needed enough.  Shopping is more fun now, as I can openly enjoy using the products of my searches - especially when I'm browsing through a candy store, like the one above.

Can you imagine what I'd be like if I were a Size 18 again?

It's a holiday weekend!

 

I'm not sure if my readers have noticed this, but I usually am a couple of weeks behind in my published posts.  The reason for this is that I don't want to give away my current location when I travel.  By doing this, I can always play catch-up with my posts when I return.  Hopefully, this explains why I gave this entry its title.

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Some quick thoughts on how I expect things to go:

RQS is coming up later today, and my place is a mess.  That's OK for now, but I have to clean it up a little before she gets here.  I'm not sure of how I plan to dress when she arrives.  But if I'm wearing trousers, it may be a surprise for her.

Sometime this weekend, we will be going to either Shoprite or Stew Leonard's to buy some live lobsters while they are on sale. My refrigerator is already filled to the gills, and I don't know where I'll put the lobsters while I'm waiting for the water to boil in which I'll cook them.  

I'm tempted to take a drive up to the New York State Museum (an exhibit is pictured above) over the weekend.  Saturday may be the best day for this long drive, as we can take our time going up to Albany and coming back to Westchester county in the evening.  Unlike my last long drive to the North Country, I plan on avoiding speed traps by taking slower routes on this trip.

Sunday may be a day spent nearby, where we may go to see a movie.  The third movie in the Equalizer series interests me, only because of its leading star.  With that being said, I'm not sure if I want to see another "action" film.

And Monday, RQS and I will be going to Yonkers to spend the day with the Game Night crowd.  RQS is usually busy on Thursdays, and would rarely see these people   But she was there once, and enjoyed being with these people.  So she's thinking of making them a dessert this weekend.  At least, it will not require the use of my oven....

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As you can tell, I didn't have much to say about my life today, save for my plans for the weekend.  Later on, I'll find out whether things went according to plan....

I had two reasons to get up, and I was glad I did

 

Strangely enough, I didn't need my alarm to wake up today.  Instead, I fell out quickly after a short bio-break, and still got moving early enough to do things during the day.  On my list was doing 2 loads of laundry, and then going out to dinner with Vicki.

Although this was going to be a Marian Mode evening, I presented as Mario when I went downstairs to do the laundry.  Two loads, and just in time.  RQS comes up tomorrow for a long weekend, and I want to make sure that she has clean sheets to put on the bed when she's here.  (It's a lot nicer for her with clean sheets, and I wait for her to arrive to put fresh ones on the bed.)  If I'm lucky, I'll find the time to fold everything before she gets here, but....

Around 6:00, I arrive at Vicki's place and we then go to Lefteris for dinner.  Vicki has lost the weight she wanted, and now should qualify for the procedure she wanted to have done several months ago.  Both of us consider Lefteris our go-to restaurant for Greek food, and both of us felt sated at the end of the meal.

As you can see, as long as I have something that motivates me to get up, I will do so.  Today was a good day for me, and I'll be looking forward to a long weekend with RQS.

Rambling on a little....

 

When I have no urgent commitments for the day, I tend to do nothing.  Today, I did it well.  My energy levels usually don't start rising until the afternoon.  And then, it's often too late to do much of anything. This was my day today. With that being said, I still got around to doing a little reading - something I don't make enough time to do. 

One of the things I usually put off doing is laundry.  Most of us tend to put this task off until we have enough whites or colors to fill a basket, and do the laundry one load at a time.  Living in an apartment, I have to do the laundry within a certain time period during the day, and it's not convenient for me. So, it's a task I put off until I have no choice but to take care of it.  And that will be the first thing I do tomorrow.

Like many procrastinators, I tend to put off certain tasks that I hate doing.  In my case, it's dealing with people.  I have to figure out how to get rid of a sofa, and feel much more comfortable communicating with emails, than to pick up a phone and talk with a human.  (Could it be a fear of having "no" told to me?  Or, is it a simple case of ambivalence?  Who knows?)  I did make a call to the Salvation Army to see if they could accept a donation of my sofa, and if they could pick it up.  Unfortunately, their phone system has people call a central number, which then gets forwarded to a regional site - and that site was busy.  No provision was made to take a message.  Then, I sent an email to a local outlet of Habitat for Humanity to ask the same question .  And this time, I got a response - the person I need to reach won't be back until after the holiday.  Until I know how and when my sofa will leave this apartment, I can't buy its' replacement.  AARGH!!!!

Given everything, I shouldn't be in a rush to spend money.  I have bills coming in, and I shouldn't touch my 401k unless I need to do so.  At least, I have this option, where many people my age don't have my resources.  Right now, I have 4 known big ticket expenses to plan for:

1. New Car
2. New Sofa
3. New Mattress
4. Norway Cruise
   

Of these, I only plan to finance the car with a bank loan - everything else will be paid for out of current income or savings.  But, I won't get financing from a dealer.  Most can't be trusted as far as one can spit.  If I see anything questionable on the deal, I will walk away - as I did last year when a dealer in Goshen, NY decided to hide a bogus $900 charge in the contract. 

You'll notice that I've said nothing about my partner or being transgender.  As I've noted elsewhere, this blog chronicles my life. Being trans or having a partner are only parts of my life.  But I do take interest in current events involving the transgender community, such as Canada's recent advisory to those in the LGBTIQ community in regard to visiting the USA.  It's sad to know that our Northern Neighbor would protect my rights more than my country would protect mine....