Following up on my mom's request to coordinate a quote from our preferred gardener, Francisco, to remove an extensive array of bushes and trees from her backyard, I spent Saturday afternoon at her place attending to that visit as well as assisting with the triage of a recent computer scam/takeover incident. It's hard for me to fathom how anybody with any ethics or humanity might find themselves capable of working to gain financially through the act of deceiving an elderly person to get access to their banking information. Still, it's clearly not only a fact that such unscrupulous people exist, but that doing so works. Fortunately, she's not that ignorant and knows better, so she was spared. I walked her through my first-hand understanding of how responding to emails and engaging with websites, petitions, and surveys can inadvertently open the door to more opportunities and risks of being taken advantage of. While doing so, I spotted a nearby container of View-Master slides we'd overlooked when recently sending a hundred or more photos for scanning out. She and I looked at these briefly within the past year or two, including my putting fresh batteries into the handheld view. These are all personal photos, too, from earlier in her life, shot during an era where stereoscopic images were captured and viewed through those handheld viewers, as well as special projectors explicitly made for this purpose. I looked it up as we talked about the need to sort them out to identify which had images worth the cost of scanning and which were not of importance. The cost to scan a single disc of 8 images starts at $15! We glanced at a few of them before taking them to the front room, where we could more easily review them at her larger table. While en route she said I should stop by the den to check out all the work Lindsey had put into clearing it out further the day beforehand. It was jaw-dropping to find it so dramatically improved. Loads of wrapping paper, ribbons and a wide assortment of other related items were gone. These are the sort of efforts that, made now, allow us to understand the contents of importance better and ensure the rest gets redirected to my mom's wishes, rather than ending up someday in a dumpster on the driveway. As we were heading out, my eyes landed on a large, aged box adorned with the "View-Master" logo. Lo and behold, it turned out to be one of those specialized projectors! It quickly occurred to me that, assuming it worked, which according to her, there's no reasons it should not, I could very easily setup a workstation in our guest bedroom with which I could project and review the images on a flat white board and take a clean, clear HDR photo of all but the most obviously unnecessary ones. It'll take time, sure, but I'll enjoy the experience immensely. Unfortunately, it turned out that the box was missing a key element for this - the original power cord! It's a unique circular one that isn't something I would have at home, but was easily found on eBay for $30 with shipping. A fraction of the cost of outsourcing this effort. It's ordered, en route, and I believe the first few weeks of September will include a substantial amount of my time working through this collection. What a find, and how very fortunate it was that the cleaning of the den resulted in the surfacing of the projector just at the time that the discs resurfaced as something to triage. These things amaze me, yet I'm becoming more accustomed to them. Meanwhile, in other areas of interest, as you may know, I have aggressively shied away from having a TV in the house for years now, let alone devoting 2 hours of my valuable time to watching, as I like to point out, others live a life instead of the viewer (me) living their own. But my weakness for old movies, alongside the easy access to the low-cost options at the Stanford Theater, has gotten he best of me throughout the summer and especially over the past few days. After seeing 'Midnight' & 'The Palm Beach Story' Friday night, I returned Saturday to see "Citizen Kane" and "Gilda". This was likely my 20+ watching of Kane and probably the 4th or 5th time at Stanford. I listened to a podcast before attending that helped me catch a subtle nuance I'd either forgotten or never noticed - the snowglobe amongst Susan's belongings in her apartment on the night they met, which plays a crucial role later (no spoilers here, I'll leave that to Charles Shultz). I sat closer than usual to be fully immersed in the visuals, rather than from the balcony or back wall, which was almost worth the subsequent day and night of neck-related pain. I need to remember to proactively consider how even subtle issues, like this one, can persist for 4 hours and cause problems. Kelly and Velma joined me for "Gilda", which I'd never seen before. I loved it and can completely understand how Rita Hayworth was idolized for her beauty and sensuality. We discussed this and lots of other thought-provoking topics on their Patio over wine and cheese afterwards. But wait, there's more. Today saw the geeks (minus Brian, plus Ethan) returning to the Plaza Theaters for "The Return of the King", part three of the Peter Jackson "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The extended versions. And this one ranged just over 4 hours alone! It was great to see on the big screen with the right sound equipment, and I'm glad I did it. I don't know that I'd do it again like I have for "Kane" and others. The evening concluded with a gathering of friends at the Marioni's for a farewell dinner for Vinny before he heads to Italy for an extended stay abroad. It was rewarding to attend, but I was fried by the end and returned home to some unwanted frustrations and a need just to get some rest and space from conflict, frustration and demands.