FREECYCLE REVISITED

Audiobooks, I love them.  Much as I love reading, the eyes get tired easily.  I already spend a lot of time staring at computer/smartphone/tablet screen, I should use the eyes less whenever possible.  Listening to audiobooks is the answer.  I can do it while driving (it makes the driving less annoying, I hate driving), while walking, or even while sweeping the floor.  But not while running.  I rely on audiobooks, in the form of CDs, from public libraries but use a portable DVD player to listen to them.  I suppose I can try carrying the DVD player in a backpack but I prefer to run with as few things as possible.  It's too bulky anyway, even for walking.  I finally decided that I should get a real CD player.  I am sure I can buy one cheap, but why not give freecycling another try.  Surely someone out there only listen to music and such on iPod etc and has a CD player sitting around collecting dust.  I revisited my last post about freecycling (http://www.qaptainqwerty.com/2006/11/going-in-circles-with-freecycle.html ) and it was back in 2006.  Wow, about 6 years ago!

While I recalled that I belonged to two freecycling groups, I thought there is some rule about people should go to the group for their borough only, so I went to the Brooklyn group.  It slowly came back to me, one of the reason I didn't like the freecycle groups.  It's a lot of info to sift through!  One wrong click and you are back to the beginning, slowly paging through the many pages.  It's all Yahoo's fault.  Or maybe the posters' fault.  Messages should be bunched together if they are related.  So that Offer, Promised, Taken etc go together.  The way things are, you need to eyeball the messages a lot.  Or maybe I'm missing something.  At least I have Message Delivery set to Web Only, so that I have to specifically go to the groups to see the messages.  Having every single message sent to a mailbox will inundate the mailbox in no time as there is just too much activities.  Access the Message Delivery setting by clicking Edit Membership while logged in groups.yahoo.com

I didn't see any offer for a CD player and since I haven't visited the site for a while, I decided to offer something before I post a request.  Nobody responded to my offer of some replacement brush for a Colgate electric toothbrush that I bought by mistake at a Pathmark store-closing sale.  I did come across an offer for some running magazines.  I know someone who can use a recent copy of Runners' World!  I made the contact and it all worked out.  I have the magazine and gave the donor a running-themed sonobe.  Actually, it's her husband who runs, but I wrote a thank-you note on the sonobe addressing both of them.

I wandered over to the NYC group for freecycle and saw that people all over the city use it, including Brooklynites.  Before long, I found an offer for a CD player, as well as an offer for a reader of memory cards.  I also found two requests for things that I can offer, namely for an audiocassette player and a wireless router.  Two takes and two gives, I think I'm balanced.  As long as I don't take more than I give, I should be fine, right?