This may be more of a problem next week when I am taking another two days off, and then Christmas week when I am only in the office on Dec 24! There are certainly a few projects that I could and probably should focus on -- restarting the quilt (while I have made progress on it, it is clear it won't be ready for Christmas) and finishing this puzzle (which has been on the floor of my study since the summer!) and reading a few of the books in my book box and posting a few book reviews on the blog. And of course going through about a dozen boxes in the basement and throwing out more stuff. I will say it is getting harder and harder to sell used things, particularly CDs. I took a whole stack to a used book/CD store, and the guy would only accept one. I'll probably try two more stores, then give up in despair. I've probably passed the time when I can get money for DVDs, even kids' DVDs, since people just want to stream nowadays. Basically, my entire collection, particularly the DVDs and CDs, will just end up in a landfill thirty or so years from now. What an incredibly depressing thought... I'm not saying it was ever easy finding a place for collections after the owner had passed on, but at least there was a meaningful market for used books and CDs ten years ago. That era has simply passed away.
But back to my weekend plans. I had originally thought that I would see the Nelson Mandela exhibit up in North York on Sat. and then go see the caravan exhibit at the Aga Khan on Sun., followed by a matinee performance of Between Riverside and Crazy at Coal Mine. However, my wife is very under the weather today, so I think I will change the plans to focus on putting up the Christmas tree today (and seeing Mandela next week). I do have all the boxes of ornaments upstairs, but I still need to bring the tree up. My goal is that when we put everything away in early January, we can consolidate the boxes and get rid of several. I'll still plan on taking my son to the caravan exhibit tomorrow, unless he gets sick as well. There is a moderate chance that I will go see The Lowest of the Low at Lee's Palace tonight. (Apparently, they sold out the Horseshoe last night, but as far as I can tell, there are still tickets to Lee's Palace.) So I think this will end up being a fairly busy and not very restful weekend, but I do have a fair bit of time off coming up next week, and I can look forward to that.
One thing that did pass me by is that the deadline to get discounts at the Shaw Festival has already passed (Friday at midnight). There was a very small chance that I was going to see both parts of The Mahabharata and possibly Synge's Playboy of the Western World. And while I am sure The Mahabharata is going to be quite the spectacle, I just am not feeling it right now. I'm also not sure I want to see Playboy at Shaw rates (I read it quite a while ago and it didn't really grab me). If it transfers to Toronto in a year or two I'll go, but I think I'll pass otherwise. Interestingly, it's not even possible to buy tickets at Stratford (if you aren't a member) until early January, so I have a few more weeks to go there.
Update: We did manage to get the tree up. I was getting increasingly annoyed at how many of the boxes were fairly close to empty. We should definitely be able to get rid of at least 4 or maybe even 5 boxes, even if we hang onto basically all of the ornaments.
After the tree was up, I did run over to Union Station and took care of a few things at work. Then I took a couple of books over to BMV and actually got some money for them! I also asked at Seekers to see if they would be interested in the Musil set, but I need to call later when the buyer is in. Then I went over to Lee's Palace. The Lowest of the Low was playing with Skye Wallace as the opening act. I wasn't sure if there were still tickets, but I thought so, and in fact I was able to get in by just paying the cover (and not all the Ticketmaster surcharges). It was a long wait, however, as I was behind two guys who were deeply invested in the Sterling Institute (which is a bit of a cult not completely dissimilar to Scientology). I managed to stay well clear of them when the doors finally opened. Because I was so early, I actually managed to get a seat along the wall where I stayed for the entire concert. I'll try to discuss this in a separate post, but it was a good, but long, concert. They finally wrapped up the 4th encore at 12:30, and I didn't get home until just about 1 am. Definitely later than I am used to staying out...
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