The other day I went for a walk and on the way back picked up a candy wrapper on the sidewalk, to throw away when I got home. If I pick up other people’s trash (not a frequent activity, but not that uncommon either), I don’t expect a thank-you or for anyone to notice. But this time I did receive a thanks, of sorts.
I opened our outside garbage can and staring at me from the bottom was a pile of cables and an original WebTV. I had bought the WebTV years ago. The reasons given for this strange purchase ranged from “browsing the web in your living room is neat” to “it’s for my mom” (she didn’t end up liking it). The ancient and mostly-useless device almost made it into one of our garage sales, on Traci’s request, but I’d always feel guilty even trying to sell it. It was obvious she had thrown it away, giving up on me and my often unreasonable tendency to keep everything.
Rummaging through the technology junk, I salvaged a Firewire cable, audio/video cables, a power cable, and a Laserdisc remote control. It felt good to finally close the lid on the WebTV. Who knows, maybe the Laserdisc will be next.
