I came home from a social engagement early last night and decided to bust out some vinyl and listen to it. I only listen to vinyl when I'm in my man cave area and even then I don't listen to it all the time. I am always on the lookout for cheap, weird, unusual vinyl records. I will often buy something even if I don't immediately like the record when I see that somebody has taken notes or written on the cover. When I see this I generally know two things: 1. that the record belonged to someone that really liked it and 2. that this person is probably deceased. Those are pretty safe assumptions to make given that only someone that geniunely liked the record would take the time to make notes on it and after going to all that work it's unlikely they would give the record up if they were still alive. I feel like picking up these well loved records is my way of respecting a fellow music lover that has passed on.
Last night I listened to The Norman Luboff Choir singing the Songs of The West. The record used to belong to a man that lives in a town not too far away from my own. I knew this because he had stamped his name, address, and profession (accountant) on both sides of the record. I googled him and found out that he had passed away only last year. The funeral home had one of those "In Memoriam" websites. Right away I saw his picture and his story. He went to church, he played piano, organ, and violin, he served in WWII, seemed like an awesome guy. Now I, a total stranger, have one of his records. One, based on the notes, it seems he really liked. I may be getting to romantic about vinyl records here but it seemed like somebody in his family should know that a person is actually appreciating their lost loved ones vinyl. There was a spot for messages on the website and I thought it would be a real act of kindness to leave one. Somebody had apparently purchased the majority of his records before me because they had already left the same exact message I was going to leave. I left one anyway just to let any nieces or nephews know that even if not by a blood relative their great uncle's vinyl was being cared for.
That wasn't really my kindness act of the day but I thought it was neat.
Today it snowed! Not a ton but maybe two or three inches. I had been thinking about shoveling snow for my neighbors as a good anonymous kindness attack whenever there was enough to shovel. Today was the day. After getting home from work I put my boots, gloves, and hat on and set to work. I shoveled my own drive way first. Then went to my next door neighbor's and started shoveling. I purposefully picked this neighbor because he just recently moved in to that house and I hadn't had the right opportunity to introduce myself yet. I wasn't trying to get recognized but I figured if I did meet him it would be under good circumstances. I was almost completely done shoveling his driveway I saw him looking out his front door with a confused expression. I waved and introduced myself and just told him I was doing my good deed for the day. He introduced himself and thanked me. I know it wasn't really anonymous anymore but I may have never introduced myself to him if I hadn't done it so it was a pretty good kindness attack anyway.
I had planned to do other neighbors driveways but I started to feel a little self conscious. There probably wasn't anybody actually watching what I was doing but I started to notice that a lot more people were home than when I had started shoveling. I don't know how much every one of my neighbors actually want me on their property. I should have kept going anyway but I didn't. At least I made one guy happy. He did seem geniunely thankful and surprised.
Money spent so far: $19.87
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