Do you remember that Brady Bunch episode where Marsha was writing in her secret diary about her secret/ potentially embarrassing/yet undying love for Desi Arnez Jr.? Then she hid this secret diary away in their carport/garage next to the astroturf lawn, only to have it be discovered by the youngest one in curls, Cindy, just in time for it to be given to the man collecting books for the charity book drive?? Upon discovering this unintentional theft of the volume containing the innermost thoughts, hopes, dreams, not to mention swoonings of tweenage Marsha, the entire Brady clan was sent into emergency detective/ clean-up mode—they must find the bookstore that had become the unwitting new home to this, the most private and precious diary of a young girl! And not just any young girl, the one and only Marsha Marsha Marsha Brady! Fortunately/ amazingly/ incredibly for this teen queen, after several minutes of angst and many tears, not only was the diary found by Mrs. Brady and Sister Cindy (all is now forgiven) Brady—of course, but awesome housekeeper/cook/laundress/ bowler/advice giver, Alice, just happened to be buds with one Desi Arnez Jr.’s housekeeper/cook/laundress/ not sure about the bowling/advice giver!! Awesome!! And groovy Alice arranged for groovy Desi Jr. to come over to tell Marsha how groovy it was to keep a groovy diary where she could write all about how groovy he was—groovy!!
It is a classic episode—Marsha and Desi Jr., drama, a happy/entirely believable ending, what’s not to love??
This brings us to last Wednesday at the Goff house. Mr. Goff has been dutifully working on the main room of our basement—we are (he and Curtis, actually) in the sheet- rocking stage. Paul had just ordered and received a lovely and surprisingly small new LED projector (with 30,000 very cool available running hours on the very cool/ low energy using bulb) that he had mounted into the ceiling so we would know exactly where to paint out the screen—exciting stuff! The sheet-rocking business is a dusty one, so Paul had removed the new projector from its ceiling perch to keep it in fine working condition for the upcoming day when walls are painted, carpet is in, and the Goff’s would gather as a family with popcorn, licorice and smiles for movie night!
Mrs. Goff had helped Curtis go through his closet and eliminate some things that no longer fit. These items were put into grocery bags that were sitting in the hall. I had some errands to do that would be in the general vicinity of the local DI. In a continual effort to make the most out of my time/money/ gasoline, all of the bags of items to be donated came with me on my errands and were dropped off at the DI.
Around 9:30 in the pm when the Mr. and Mrs. were chatting and the Mrs. mentioned to the Mr. about the earlier drop-off at the DI, the Mr. got very panicked and ran ashen-faced down the stairs to witness for himself that indeed, the DI bags had gone ………….to the DI. Unfortunately, the Mr. had slipped the new projector into one of those very bags to keep it protected from getting dusty. Also unfortunately, the Mrs. was not aware of this product placement.
Not good.
After a frantic late night/ after-hours phone call to the DI, an early morning run to the dock to go through all of the items that had come in during the last day, conversation and searching with Manager Tom, our name and number and picture of our sweet/ not meant to be donated item left with the manager, more phone calls, a subsequent floor and backroom search later in the day with the Manager Frank and Manager Joe, a call to the Humanitarian Center, where surplus items are sent sometimes…
we came up with nothing.
Our new projector is no longer with us. We have come to the acceptance phase. It is somewhere, somewhere in the fine company of its very own remote. But not in the company of its power cord, because that we do still have, whew! So whether it found its way out onto the DI floor, or whether it didn’t make it past the loading dock, or whether it ends up in some exotic locale such as Turkey or Somalia with Sandy Parks and Rec Basketball t-shirts, little red crutches, and baby blankets, or whether it has been compressed into a cube of clothing (think Wall-E style) –I don’t think it is coming back.
We can’t lose hope, though—Desi Jr. could totally show up with it this week and that would be so groovy…
