It’s all about handling stuff

Published 9:11 am Wednesday, July 30, 2025

By Steve Stricker

Columnist

“Stuff.”  Gert – “No woman would put up with all your stuff.” Physical stuff, my treasures as I’ve recently written about.

Then there is other “stuff” like, “I can’t believe all the stuff life is throwing at me…! Or I post a lot of stuff on Facebook for many reasons, to vent, artistic expression, attention – y ‘y’all have a life, significant other, I don’t.   

My stuff has many moving and real parts.  1964 Land Rover IIA swivel ball assemblies been avoiding like the plague – have the parts, now need to make my how to do 1, 2, 3 list; have started this but using this monsoon season, heat, and now suddenly beau coup home, stereo stuff as an excuse not to move forward. AGH!!

Last week, my guest room toilet, which I use mostly as it’s outside my offic,e went belly up; first got the needed parts from ACE, then did the fix, but…. Then AT&T TV remote, shot, much stress, ordered new one; sitting on hard pew every day over an hour before Mass, causing a pinched nerve, ordered therapeutic cushion.

For a couple of months, my Sony stereo receiver began causing loud popping in my beautiful, solid wood Vietnam-purchased speakers, freaking me out. Called UbreakiFix, “Try replacing the speaker cables.”  So to ACE 16 gauge didn’t work, too big for one thing.  Meanwhil,e my right speaker wasn’t working.  In the process, got 14-gauge wires, + copper color and – silver.  Stil no sound; snugged wires – worked.  And successfully connected previous non-working smaller Sony speakers to AB – ahhhh, beloved sounds back.

Set up CD player, worked, Cassette player didn’t before, still didn’t So, disconnected, removed, needed something to set AR Turntable on.  To Walmart, neat metal legs wood seat bar stool – yes.  I discovered an old Sony cassette player that I placed in my garage when I purchased new stereo stuff, thought it worked. Then, looking over my cell phone photos, saw that I had not connected the Left speaker + – correctly – fixed. Duh.

But, to get to that old Sony cassette player had to move a ton of “stuff” out of the way in hot garage.  Then connected to new receiver, did not work and ate one of my cherished, Henry Mancini, tapes!  Agh!  I researched and discovered that my first Sony cassette player probably needed new belts.  Seemed I could fix but didn’t want to deal with – to UbreakiFix and they didn’t want to deal with it either; students coming back, not what they normally deal with…I got it; so ordered a belt kit and will try to fix it myself but will take hours and days and stress, agh!! I love being able to fix things, but it’s a curse as well.  Fo $125 on eBay I can buy an identical, reconditioned Sony cassette player….

Meanwhile, all rest of stereo system is working – new Sony receiver, beautiful furniture speakers (whew) just a lot of “stuff” to sort out. Meanwhile my great room is a frustrating mess!  But I have moved a lot of dust lately and found stuff I’d forgotten about.

As with all things – material stuff, other stuff, it’s all about how we handle it; don’t let the house get junky nor let me get overwhelmed with all that other stuff from church, medical, family, relationships, et al.  Church gets extremely touchy as that is where my safety is. Daily Mass and over an hour before is my bunker from the evil one; like in Vietnam which kept me safe from constant rockets and mortars and every five days all night on our perimeter.

Speaking of which, the church, prayer, daily Mass, the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit protects me from evil, and in my home, the Trinity – Me, Vietnam combat veteran (July 1969-July1970), Smith, and Wesson do the same…AMEN!  Fight back – don’t ever give up!