Monday 01/29/2024
First business today was to set up the auditorium for Oscar to rehearse. He is doing a book talk in a week, and his talk consists of him narrating the story of the book Passing by Nella Larsen, about a black woman passing as white in Harlem in the 1920s, while playing clips from the Netflix film of the book. He has a friend, David Richardson, who is doing his tech support: he has collected the movie clips on him computer and shows them on cue while Oscar talks. Richardson is real geek, arriving with not one but two backpacks full of gear. At least two Macbooks. So all I had to do was set up the system, lower the screen, then get out of the way.
The movie version of Passing, or what I’ve seen of during Oscar’s rehearsal, is very powerful. So many scenes have me just cringing, oh no, don’t do that, don’t say that agghhh you said it…
That out of the way, I went to FOPAL and processed two boxes of donations. Then bought coffee and peanut butter at the store next door. Back home, worked a bit on the Strollin’ video. Then it was time for Rhonda’s open meeting, this month discussing numerous changes in the ancillary fee schedule — none very significant to me — and some changes in Dining Services, again which seemed common-sense and no problem to me. Although like any hint of change in a senior residence, they provoked many questions and comments.
The meeting ended at 5:30 and obviously 75 people would now head into the dining room, so I went to my room and had my other can of mushroom soup and a sandwich. One number reported today was that although the CH contract promises 3 meals a day, the average resident only eats 1.8 meals a day, on average. Well today for me, that was 0.0 meals in the dining room, although 1.8 is a pretty good average for me.
Neighbor Brian reported the DVD player on the 11th floor wouldn’t play blu-ray discs. I went up after supper and tried it, and yes, it plays DVDs fine but gags on blu-rays. Hopefully one of the resident committees has money to buy a new one.
Codgerville 