Windfall, maybe

[howeird]

The other day, someone left what appeared to be a perfectly good Epson CX6400 scanner/copier/printer by the dumpster with the installation CD and a note taped to it saying "if you can make this printer work, it's yours".

So of course I took it.

Fired it up, and electronically it's fine. The front panel said it was out of Cyan ink, and a test copy proved the scanner is fine, but the nozzles need cleaning. It won't even try to clean the nozzles because it's too low on ink. So I've ordered ink online, and will see what happens when it's had a chance to go through its maintenance routines. It will not replace my current scanner, because it does not appear to accept a film/slide attachment. And it's too big a footprint to replace my printer. Too heavy to sell on eBay (shipping would be a hassle).

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Which brings me to my current home project, scanning in photos from B&W negatives from my 1975-77 Thailand days. I didn't know I had any, so was surprised to find several pix of me with my RRC co-workers. Looks like either I set up a tripod or handed the camera to one of my co-workers. I was teaching them photography, so that would make sense. I am embarrassed that I do not remember their names. I think one of them was named Sombat, but I may be confusing his name with that of a famous Thai movie star he resembled.

I wonder if I put any of their names in my letters home to Mom & Dad? I have all those letters in a box in the closet, easy to get to. I was planning on scanning them (I have some good OCR software and I typed most of my letters on a nice Olympus electric I'd bought in a Bangkok pawn shop). Just need to budget some time. Lots of time. Two years of weekly letters' worth of time.

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Which brings me to a Shel Silverstein song, recorded by Bobby Bare on a recent CD called Old Dogs, on which famous country singers pay tribute to Shel. It's an excellent album, performed in front of a very live audience. The song is called Time and Bare's version goes something like this:

Is the snow falling just a bit deeper these days?
Are they building the stairs a bit steeper these days?
The town's really changed in so many ways
Time, just time

The young folks are growing exceptionally tall
And Newspaper print, it's becoming so small
And folks talk so soft, you can barely hear at all
Time, just time

The jokes aren't as witty as the old jokes once were
And the girls ain't half as pretty as I remember her
And today in the park, a grown man called me "Sir"
Time, just time

And you know I ain't quite so anxious now for fame or success
And my eye finds the girl in the plain simple dress
And I cling a bit longer to each warm caress
Time, just time

So it takes a bit longer to walk up a hill
What of it? My life now is much more fulfilled
But they're tearing down buildings that I watched 'em build
Time, time

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And today in the park, a grown man called me "Sir"

Why does this line bring tears to my eyes? Hmmmm.

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Testbed is online. Back to work.

 

Comments

[scendan.livejournal.com]

That is a lovely and bittersweet poem.