Looking for a little more light this season
By LINDA D. COLE and INGRID L. KOHLER
Published December 10, 2005
December, and the days keep growing shorter. Some folks enjoy the earlier darkness; others miss the long evenings of summer. But still others, like Patty Hausen, dread long, dark nights for health reasons.
Patty has SAD, seasonal affective disorder, and the gloomy days of winter - even in a place called the Sunshine State - can throw people with this disability into a deep depression. Patty's doctor says that she needs a bright light therapy unit to treat her SAD; these units dispense concentrated light that can reduce the kind of depression Patty has.
Because that depression interferes with her ability to keep working, she can't afford a new unit, so Patty hopes someone may have one no longer in use that may counteract her symptoms to the point that she can get back on her feet. Contact her at pattyhowz@mindspring.com Josephine Zucco is looking for a 1946 album of the Broadway hit Show Boat. This record is relatively significant to Josephine's family because her mother's half-sister, Colette Lyons, was a member of the cast. She was the gal who sang Life Upon the Wicked Stage. Josephine loved listening to the album when she was a child, so she was disappointed when, after asking her mother about it, she learned it had been given to a cousin.
Josephine wants to listen to the record again, and she's hoping that someone with a copy would consider either parting with it or letting her copy it. Please call 727 398-6151 or e-mail jzucco1@tampabay.rr.com
While Connie and her family were watching their 27-inch RCA color TV, purchased in 2001, the danged thing fell silent. The picture is great, the color is perfect, the sound is gone. Because the set isn't digital, having it repaired would have probably cost as much as replacing it, which the family has already done.
Two groups may be interested in having this silent TV, the family reasoned: the hearing-impaired (the set has a close-caption feature that has never been used) or people who know enough about TVs to repair it themselves. Whichever, the set comes with all of its original booklets and is free to anyone who carts it away from its current St. Petersburg home. Please call (727) 520-9193.
Do you write a lot? You may be interested in a shoe box filled with advertising pens and pencils collected by Naomi Levet of Elfers. Also up for grabs are old catalogs from Coca-Cola, Disney and Anheuser Busch. Please call (727) 845-0247.
Maryon Bataille of Spring Hill offers her assortment of soaps, maps and pens from many states. If you'd like to have them, please call (727) 868-7573.
When Kevin and Karen got rid of their turntable because they could no longer find a needle for it, they must have forgotten that one day nostalgia would set in and they would want to listen to those records and albums they loved in their teens. That day is here, and they are appealing for a record player that retired when the CD appeared to have conquered the world. Please call 727 518-0766. And while we're on the topics of music and time, Theresa Hale of Spring Hill needs suggestions about ways to dispose of LPs, 45 rpm records and reel-to-reel tapes that she has owned for 50 years. You can pass your ideas along to her by phone, (352) 686-7615, or e-mail theretiredlady@bellsouth.net
Doris West owns a piece of medical equipment that needs repairs, but here's a hitch: Only a specialized electrician can make them. The item is an Oxygen Concentrator, companion500-Nelcor Puritan Bennett-120 volts, 4.3 amps. If you are a person who can make these repairs or you know where they can be made, please call (727) 841-9520.
Richard Silvani of Largo likewise has a request about a piece of equipment; he needs tips on where it may be purchased. It's a piece of fitness equipment called a Universal Skyhook (Universal may be the manufacturer's name, Richard surmises). The 24-inch formed metal device has a hook at the top, a bar with handgrips at the bottom, and foam-padded ankle inserts in the middle.
The contraption is meant to be hooked over a high bar; the user grabs the hand rests and swings his feet up to place them in the ankle inserts. That user then can enjoy hanging upside down in the interest of good health. If you know where Richard can buy this Skyhook, please call him at (727) 593-2556.
- Send requests to Reader Exchange, Floridian, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg 33731 or e-mail cole@sptimes.com Requests will be accepted only by mail or e-mail. This is an exchange column, so we will not run items that are for sale. Readers must agree to publication of phone numbers, including area code.
ON THE WEB: An interactive version of Reader Exchange is available at itsyourtimes.com.