I am still stuck at home. Given that I used to drive sometimes to ease severe stress, I am experiencing more stress than usual.

I was very good yesterday: I needed some items from the grocery and was sorely — very sorely — tempted to drive to the store. I didn’t. I ordered from Amazon Prime Now. I know that Amazon (and Amazon Prime Now) and Lyft are bad for workers. (I read the terms of payment for Instacart and was not impressed.) But I depend upon them to cope with my current situation. (One problem is that I am required to order more than $35 to get free shipping, so I tend to order more than I planned to. On the other hand, Whole Foods (which delivers through Amazon) had both baby mixed carrots and cotton candy grapes.)

I have bought an HDMI cable and can now hook my computer up to my television. I can watch Good Omens on television, and rent Avengers:Endgame and not have to watch it on my computer. Yay!

Just in time, too: my cable box has died. Last time that happened, I lost all the (many) shows I had DVRed.

Let’s see… I am not worried about the silents. They’re pretty much in the public domain, so on Halloween I can watch the original Nosferatu (I rewatched it last week and oh, wow is that creepy), and the original Phantom of the Opera, and the Swedish Phantom Carriage (and Haxon, for that matter), and the House on the Hill (the Vincent Price version) which is not a silent but is in the public domain (as is, famously, It’s a Wonderful Life). I can finish watching The Passion of Joan of Arc.

I’m not too concerned about the classics. TCM shows them often, so I expect to be able to re-record Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and All About Eve within a year. My Fair Lady and Gigi are more problematic — they show up rarely. My best hope there is if they are shown during TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar in February.

The miniseries are probably toast: The Name of the Rose, Fosse/Verdon and Ken Burn’s Country Music, although that last one will almost undoubtedly end up on Netflix. I will lose 52 episodes of Jeopardy! (I record them and watch them when I get around to it — don’t judge me), 130 odd episodes of Good Eats (not to mention about fifteen episodes of Good Eats: the Reload). Fortunately, American Gods, Sherlock, and the first two seasons of Downton Abbey are on my computer.

Woodstock, Spiderman: Homecoming, and Wonder Woman are gone. As is the 2019 Westminster Dog Show (I re-watch this often — don’t judge me). (No way in hell that wire fox terrier should have won.)

I have recorded other things, either to watch myself or to force the rest of my family to watch. (I think I have 12 Angry Men, for example.) Those don’t matter as much, although I really wish I could have gotten people to watch The Oxbow Incident. Members of my family seem reluctant to watch any movie which is either in black or white or has subtitles.

It’s a pain, but on the other hand it is good to occasionally clear things out. I am going to miss Woodstock, though.