before I shut down this magic window for the first set of "heavy" storms they say are incoming.
AVG seems to like my old Gateway just fine. I turned off it's automatic updates so I can tell it to check when I want to; I can leave SETI running and come back and wiggle the mouse a day later, SETI drops instantly and I can click on my browser to open and IT DOES! No waiting 20 minutes while Norton checks everything it thinks it should, etc..
I've been here a bit over a half hour now, checking e-mail, printing a Border's coupon, reading "For Better or for Worse" etc., and no lag, no lock-up and haven't had to reboot or give up and walk away!
On Saturday I went to the first wedding I've attended in 32 years (since my own) where I wasn't the photographer. A couple I stock for at work invited me, and seemed genuinely pleased to have me there. I slipped out during the reception to meet Dottie here and then we drove to Lawrence for my younger nephew's high school musical variety show. It was such a treat, and there are some very talented kids there. One will be leaving for Julliard after graduation, and several probably should be!
Dottie worked today, I slept in a bit, then as it was drizzling I actually sat and played a video game until it was time to meet her at Sears for an afterhours sale. Dillon's birthday is coming up, as are both sons, and with the extra savings plus some BOGO offers we did very well!
We stopped by a local barbecue place to pick up dinner, then watched ".45" with Milla Jovovich and "Rough Magic" with Bridget Fonda and Russell Crowe. The first one was my pick, and Dottie didn't care much for it(too much skin, a lesbian sub-plot) but I liked it. Hers was good as well, though the dialog was a bit "slow" for the "Thin Man" feel they were going for...
She slipped off to bed and I did dishes then watched my old game shows, now I'm slipping off to the shower and then bed.
I sure love my "split" keyboard! It's nice having my desktop back!
May the week be kind!
alan
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Thursday once again...
It seems I've finally reclaimed my desktop! After my old Norton expired in June I installed the 2nd copy of the multiple license I bought for the laptop on it. I had to install it 4 or 5 times to get it to work right, then everytime I tried to do something it decided it needed to update. I was getting out the laptop more and more because this one would just "bog down" and I'd finally have to reboot it to use it for another half hour.
Last week I read something about AVG, a freeware anti-virus, and said something about trying it while I was at John's on Easter. He said to try turning off the Norton auto-update feature, so I got around to that last night when I got home. The computer still did the same thing, but when I rebooted it I got an error code from Norton (the same one as in my initial installations) and my old Gateway is back to it's old self.
So over the weekend I'm going to try removing Norton and installing AVG to see how that plays out.
I do love having my split keyboard back, though, after feeling like I was trying to knock my elbows together on the straight one on my laptop!
For those who asked, there is a channel called "The Gameshow Network" that runs the original "What's My Line" at 2AM central and "I've Got a Secret" at 2:30am. They used to have a way you could watch online, but I'm not sure if they still do or not...I don't have a lot of time to explore their revamped website right now.
"What's My Line" is in episodes from the early 50's right now; "I've Got a Secret" is in the early 60's episodes.
I heard Carl Reiner in an interview a year or so ago talk about watching these just to see all his old friends...
Time to nuke a chicken pot pie and get ready for work!
May you each have a wonderful Friday and may the weekend be kind!
alan
Last week I read something about AVG, a freeware anti-virus, and said something about trying it while I was at John's on Easter. He said to try turning off the Norton auto-update feature, so I got around to that last night when I got home. The computer still did the same thing, but when I rebooted it I got an error code from Norton (the same one as in my initial installations) and my old Gateway is back to it's old self.
So over the weekend I'm going to try removing Norton and installing AVG to see how that plays out.
I do love having my split keyboard back, though, after feeling like I was trying to knock my elbows together on the straight one on my laptop!
For those who asked, there is a channel called "The Gameshow Network" that runs the original "What's My Line" at 2AM central and "I've Got a Secret" at 2:30am. They used to have a way you could watch online, but I'm not sure if they still do or not...I don't have a lot of time to explore their revamped website right now.
"What's My Line" is in episodes from the early 50's right now; "I've Got a Secret" is in the early 60's episodes.
I heard Carl Reiner in an interview a year or so ago talk about watching these just to see all his old friends...
Time to nuke a chicken pot pie and get ready for work!
May you each have a wonderful Friday and may the weekend be kind!
alan
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The Easter Bunny found us...
inside at John and Noel's house Sunday afternoon. It was in the mid 40's outside, spitting snow, and the wind was doing it's best to rattle windows, so the eggs were hidden inside this year and then madness pursued!
As it did for most of the weekend!
Dottie came to work Thursday evening, sititng through the attrition presentation with me. Neither of us noticed anything to "put us off" and I found out they are only photocopying the birth and marriage certificates, so I don't have to worry about them keeping our original marriage certificate from San Diego in 1976. (I would order another before I surrendered it!) At this point it appears that at the end of June my 30 years at GM will come to an end and I will be looking for something less stressful and less frequent!
Dottie worked Friday, and I was off for Good Friday and supposed to shop, but having survived the week in spite of everything, the stomach part of "the bug" kept me home. She got off a bit early that day and shopped for the weekend; I owe her for that!
John came by late that afternoon to borrow shovels as he was still working on landscaping and said that he would be home on Saturday if I felt better, so we spent Saturday afternoon there and finally got his bath vent fan in and wired so he can get his ceiling tiles up.
I learned electrical wiring "the hard way", and having drawn my diagram weeks beforehand, laying things out for a minimum of effort, etc., I was more than a bit disappointed the first time we flipped the switch and nothing happened! After a few minutes to regroup and popping the outlet I used to "feed" the electricity to the fan and switch I found that in running my mouth as I worked I had hooked both wires to the same side of the outlet; after I moved one it worked fine.
By the time we cleaned things up, vacummed up the insulation from the attic and such, and left for home it was midnight. I was in bed by 2; I found out later Dottie sat up 'til almost 5 washing the clothes we had worn and watching "The Crow".
Sunday was a blast, and Bill and Laura both came as well; we don't see them often with her in school and him working two jobs until last week. He is substituting enough he gave up the grocery business and is almost ready to go take the last classes he needs to finish his Masters, having taken the last two semesters off to save instead of taking out more loans.
My sister and her family came by as well on the way from Mitch's Mom's and the nursing home where our Mom is. She is still in her sling, but back to work on a reduced schedule and finally starting to feel better after her rotater surgery.
We came home after the grandkids went to bed and watched "I Am Legend". Good movie, scary in that I can see it happening...
After Dottie went to bed I watched my "Lost Films of Roscoe Arbuckle" disc, finding one I had seen in a nicer restoration ("Coney Island", and wouldn't I love to have seen it in it's heyday!) and a bunch I hadn't, all a treat! This is the 2nd of those I've watched, and have 2 more in queue.
Today I spent looking for a pair of Dockers to go with a sweater I had already found as I have a wedding to attend this next Saturday, along with a high school variety show that my younger nephew is in. I could never the pair I had here, so finally I went to Sears as that's where the bride registered and took care of both errands at once. I met Dottie at the nursing home and we "fixed" Mom's DVD/VCR recorder and reframed some pictures for her, then went to look at shelter houses for the family party for the boys birthdays, as I need to go "rent" it in the next few days. We're shooting for April 19th, splitting the boys birthdays (the 16th and 30th). Since Mom's and Jordan's parties were put off after my sister's surgery, we'll be doing theirs as well.
So after that I fixed dinner while she showered, then we caught up with the Monday comedies that taped while we were doing other things, then "5th Grader" from last Thursday and "Men in Trees" from last week. She went to bed, I took the burner plates off the stove to soak and now it's time for me to go clean them up!
I hope the weekend was kind to each of you, and that that work week is as well!
As I write this, "I've Got a Secret" is on and Garry Moore is introducing the celebrity guest. Making his singing debut is Woody Allen...with a poodle!
:o)
alan
As it did for most of the weekend!
Dottie came to work Thursday evening, sititng through the attrition presentation with me. Neither of us noticed anything to "put us off" and I found out they are only photocopying the birth and marriage certificates, so I don't have to worry about them keeping our original marriage certificate from San Diego in 1976. (I would order another before I surrendered it!) At this point it appears that at the end of June my 30 years at GM will come to an end and I will be looking for something less stressful and less frequent!
Dottie worked Friday, and I was off for Good Friday and supposed to shop, but having survived the week in spite of everything, the stomach part of "the bug" kept me home. She got off a bit early that day and shopped for the weekend; I owe her for that!
John came by late that afternoon to borrow shovels as he was still working on landscaping and said that he would be home on Saturday if I felt better, so we spent Saturday afternoon there and finally got his bath vent fan in and wired so he can get his ceiling tiles up.
I learned electrical wiring "the hard way", and having drawn my diagram weeks beforehand, laying things out for a minimum of effort, etc., I was more than a bit disappointed the first time we flipped the switch and nothing happened! After a few minutes to regroup and popping the outlet I used to "feed" the electricity to the fan and switch I found that in running my mouth as I worked I had hooked both wires to the same side of the outlet; after I moved one it worked fine.
By the time we cleaned things up, vacummed up the insulation from the attic and such, and left for home it was midnight. I was in bed by 2; I found out later Dottie sat up 'til almost 5 washing the clothes we had worn and watching "The Crow".
Sunday was a blast, and Bill and Laura both came as well; we don't see them often with her in school and him working two jobs until last week. He is substituting enough he gave up the grocery business and is almost ready to go take the last classes he needs to finish his Masters, having taken the last two semesters off to save instead of taking out more loans.
My sister and her family came by as well on the way from Mitch's Mom's and the nursing home where our Mom is. She is still in her sling, but back to work on a reduced schedule and finally starting to feel better after her rotater surgery.
We came home after the grandkids went to bed and watched "I Am Legend". Good movie, scary in that I can see it happening...
After Dottie went to bed I watched my "Lost Films of Roscoe Arbuckle" disc, finding one I had seen in a nicer restoration ("Coney Island", and wouldn't I love to have seen it in it's heyday!) and a bunch I hadn't, all a treat! This is the 2nd of those I've watched, and have 2 more in queue.
Today I spent looking for a pair of Dockers to go with a sweater I had already found as I have a wedding to attend this next Saturday, along with a high school variety show that my younger nephew is in. I could never the pair I had here, so finally I went to Sears as that's where the bride registered and took care of both errands at once. I met Dottie at the nursing home and we "fixed" Mom's DVD/VCR recorder and reframed some pictures for her, then went to look at shelter houses for the family party for the boys birthdays, as I need to go "rent" it in the next few days. We're shooting for April 19th, splitting the boys birthdays (the 16th and 30th). Since Mom's and Jordan's parties were put off after my sister's surgery, we'll be doing theirs as well.
So after that I fixed dinner while she showered, then we caught up with the Monday comedies that taped while we were doing other things, then "5th Grader" from last Thursday and "Men in Trees" from last week. She went to bed, I took the burner plates off the stove to soak and now it's time for me to go clean them up!
I hope the weekend was kind to each of you, and that that work week is as well!
As I write this, "I've Got a Secret" is on and Garry Moore is introducing the celebrity guest. Making his singing debut is Woody Allen...with a poodle!
:o)
alan
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Life is strange!
Tonight is the "big roll out" of the attrition program for us. We got a packet of papers earlier in the week to look through; there were some things in it I hadn't expected.
I've been there almost 30 years, they've never had a problem paying me, or granting benefits to my wife.
Yet among the retirement requirements are certified copies of my birth certificate and our marriage certificate!
I didn't have one of the former, so FedEx woke me up with it earlier. We have one original copy of the 2nd, but if they plan on keeping it they're not getting that one, so I may be ordering another!
After almost a year of working 10 hour days and a lot of 6 day weeks, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is nice. Hopefully it's not a train, like so many other times throughout my life!
Still fighting the head cold that is thinking of settling into my chest, but looking very much forward to this holiday weekend!
May it be kind to each of you...
alan
I've been there almost 30 years, they've never had a problem paying me, or granting benefits to my wife.
Yet among the retirement requirements are certified copies of my birth certificate and our marriage certificate!
I didn't have one of the former, so FedEx woke me up with it earlier. We have one original copy of the 2nd, but if they plan on keeping it they're not getting that one, so I may be ordering another!
After almost a year of working 10 hour days and a lot of 6 day weeks, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is nice. Hopefully it's not a train, like so many other times throughout my life!
Still fighting the head cold that is thinking of settling into my chest, but looking very much forward to this holiday weekend!
May it be kind to each of you...
alan
Monday, March 17, 2008
Buggy whipped...
as in either the one that's going around my work or Dottie's has come home to find me...sniffles, eyes gunked shut when I sleep...hopefully I can get through this 4 day work week and then have 4 to get over it!
The hole in the back of my right leg is down to around 1/4", the two largest under my right arm just a bit smaller. This was the only clothing-free weekend I've ever been allowed in our 32 years together; keeping zinc oxide on the wounds and not irritating them seems to have helped.
The cat however, finds the odor of zinc oxide very attractive!
Sorry for such a short entry; I dozed until 3, it's shower time and then off to work again.
I will not miss 10 hour days!
I will not miss 10 hour days!
I will not miss 10 hour days!
May the week be kind...
alan
The hole in the back of my right leg is down to around 1/4", the two largest under my right arm just a bit smaller. This was the only clothing-free weekend I've ever been allowed in our 32 years together; keeping zinc oxide on the wounds and not irritating them seems to have helped.
The cat however, finds the odor of zinc oxide very attractive!
Sorry for such a short entry; I dozed until 3, it's shower time and then off to work again.
I will not miss 10 hour days!
I will not miss 10 hour days!
I will not miss 10 hour days!
May the week be kind...
alan
Thursday, March 13, 2008
It only took a few minutes...
last night before I wished I'd taken another day or two off! It was 70 something yesterday; I knew the day would start out a bit warm at work, and be cool before 3:30AM arrived.
My neck is already healed, my underarms look like I have a series of cigarette burns on both sides, but they weren't tender immediately. By the time I walked in the backs of my legs were doing a Fred Sanford impersonation, hollering "Big Dummy"!
I get up and down from my forklift almost every order I deliver all night long, to either open or close something, or cut part of a box away. As the night cooled, being down was OK, as was being up, but getting in and out of the "saddle" was a neat trick.
After coming home and showering and dosing all of my little craters with Neosporin instead of Dottie's beloved zinc oxide, things feel a bit better today. I'm about to go dose them all again, then get ready to go play this "silly game" again.
"Diary of a Lost Girl" just showed up in the mail for the weekend for me; Dottie got "Doom".
________________________________________________
Just a thought...watching the hullaballoo over Mr. Spitzer's self destruction I heard a lot of Republicans calling for his resignation and impeachment, right along with the Democrats.
As long as Larry Craig is a Republican, I don't think they have the right; when Mr. Craig is no longer a Republican or a Senator we can talk, but not until!
________________________________________________
I realize my "two cents" won't even get you a gumball at the mall anymore, but sometimes the short attention span of the media really gets to me!
May the rest of the week be kind, and the weekend wonderful!
alan
My neck is already healed, my underarms look like I have a series of cigarette burns on both sides, but they weren't tender immediately. By the time I walked in the backs of my legs were doing a Fred Sanford impersonation, hollering "Big Dummy"!
I get up and down from my forklift almost every order I deliver all night long, to either open or close something, or cut part of a box away. As the night cooled, being down was OK, as was being up, but getting in and out of the "saddle" was a neat trick.
After coming home and showering and dosing all of my little craters with Neosporin instead of Dottie's beloved zinc oxide, things feel a bit better today. I'm about to go dose them all again, then get ready to go play this "silly game" again.
"Diary of a Lost Girl" just showed up in the mail for the weekend for me; Dottie got "Doom".
________________________________________________
Just a thought...watching the hullaballoo over Mr. Spitzer's self destruction I heard a lot of Republicans calling for his resignation and impeachment, right along with the Democrats.
As long as Larry Craig is a Republican, I don't think they have the right; when Mr. Craig is no longer a Republican or a Senator we can talk, but not until!
________________________________________________
I realize my "two cents" won't even get you a gumball at the mall anymore, but sometimes the short attention span of the media really gets to me!
May the rest of the week be kind, and the weekend wonderful!
alan
Monday, March 10, 2008
It wasn't skin cancer!
Several years ago a dry patch of skin showed up on one leg; nothing new, and last time when it was the other leg, the dermatologist told me to use the same Aveeno she told my wife to use when she didn't have an active psoriasis outbreak going on. This one showed up on the other leg, had been ok 'til the last few months when it
started changing shape and color. I needed to go get some "skin tags" removed (I had one that got "strangulated" once and that was miserable, so with a dozen under my arms, around my neck, and a few on the back of my legs it was time) and had her check my leg as well. It had been itching madly, which was a good sign I was told, but really wanted to hear it from a professional. She also checked my face, hands and arms as I'm a fair complected and freckled and that's not a good combination. She was telling me that especially with my skin that it's not a matter of "if" but "when" if I live long enough. I didn't tell her I fish...of course I buy tear-free waterproof SPF 50 and start with my bald head when I put it on, but someday it will no doubt catch up with me. My Dad's youngest brother died from it...
Eczema was her diagnosis of my leg!
So, tagless and with a few sample tubes I am home and about to relax for two evenings, as I really didn't want to go to work and sit on the ones on the back of my legs for 10 hours a night! She snipped and cauterized them, and I could if I had to, but I don't so I'm not, lol!
Watched "Sicko" last night...fell very much in love with Tony Benn! I had heard snippets of him a few times over the years, but was really impressed with both his interviews in the film and the "making of" stuff after. Tonight we'll finish the making of stuff on that and I have the first disc of some silent comedies to watch (without Dottie she's already informed me...). A few of them are Keystones I have on tape, but I'm hoping as the cost has come down on restoration that these have been worked on some!
I got up way too early for me, so before Dottie comes home I'm going to take a nap...
I'm smiling just thinking of it!
May the week be kind!
alan
started changing shape and color. I needed to go get some "skin tags" removed (I had one that got "strangulated" once and that was miserable, so with a dozen under my arms, around my neck, and a few on the back of my legs it was time) and had her check my leg as well. It had been itching madly, which was a good sign I was told, but really wanted to hear it from a professional. She also checked my face, hands and arms as I'm a fair complected and freckled and that's not a good combination. She was telling me that especially with my skin that it's not a matter of "if" but "when" if I live long enough. I didn't tell her I fish...of course I buy tear-free waterproof SPF 50 and start with my bald head when I put it on, but someday it will no doubt catch up with me. My Dad's youngest brother died from it...
Eczema was her diagnosis of my leg!
So, tagless and with a few sample tubes I am home and about to relax for two evenings, as I really didn't want to go to work and sit on the ones on the back of my legs for 10 hours a night! She snipped and cauterized them, and I could if I had to, but I don't so I'm not, lol!
Watched "Sicko" last night...fell very much in love with Tony Benn! I had heard snippets of him a few times over the years, but was really impressed with both his interviews in the film and the "making of" stuff after. Tonight we'll finish the making of stuff on that and I have the first disc of some silent comedies to watch (without Dottie she's already informed me...). A few of them are Keystones I have on tape, but I'm hoping as the cost has come down on restoration that these have been worked on some!
I got up way too early for me, so before Dottie comes home I'm going to take a nap...
I'm smiling just thinking of it!
May the week be kind!
alan
Friday, March 07, 2008
3:30 Friday afternoon...
and I just got up (blush)! I got up for an hour this morning to pay bills online and made it up "on the other end"...
Tuesday I got up on 4 hours sleep and we went and got our taxes figured; a refund, but not as large as I had hoped. We got some good information on why (Dottie needs to increase her witholding as we won't have mine to cover hers next year) and other odds and ends. I came home expecting to spend 15 minutes changing that shut-off valve I spoke of, but that turned into a 5 hour ordeal with 3 trips to Lowe's (none over $3, I should be grateful, but so much for a nap)!
Tried to fry pork chops for dinner that night and used a different skillet than normal, and burnt one (mine, of course) and fixed stuffing to go with them. My choice of movies for the evening ended up displeasing Dottie as well, so all in all it was a lovely day off!
But oh how that movie is stuck in my head! A while back I heard some mention of Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" in an intervies, and that "Cabaret" was based on them. I had bought the movie out of a close-out bin a year or two ago after I heard a Joel Grey interview. Not allowed to see it at the time (I was 16 and Dad said I couldn't see MASH the year before or that one that year, and I wasn't smart enough to just go on my own...) but only hear the music, it was so much more than I expected! I will be acquring his works!
Scenes have been playing in my head all week, and I catch myself singing the songs as well...
I can totally understand how that movie garnered it's 8 Oscars, beating "The Godfather"! That Liza could pull that role off so totally at 25 is stunning!
Gotta get ready for work, but didn't want to disappear for the weekend without wishing you all a wonderful one, and hoping that it will be kind!
alan
Tuesday I got up on 4 hours sleep and we went and got our taxes figured; a refund, but not as large as I had hoped. We got some good information on why (Dottie needs to increase her witholding as we won't have mine to cover hers next year) and other odds and ends. I came home expecting to spend 15 minutes changing that shut-off valve I spoke of, but that turned into a 5 hour ordeal with 3 trips to Lowe's (none over $3, I should be grateful, but so much for a nap)!
Tried to fry pork chops for dinner that night and used a different skillet than normal, and burnt one (mine, of course) and fixed stuffing to go with them. My choice of movies for the evening ended up displeasing Dottie as well, so all in all it was a lovely day off!
But oh how that movie is stuck in my head! A while back I heard some mention of Christopher Isherwood's "Berlin Stories" in an intervies, and that "Cabaret" was based on them. I had bought the movie out of a close-out bin a year or two ago after I heard a Joel Grey interview. Not allowed to see it at the time (I was 16 and Dad said I couldn't see MASH the year before or that one that year, and I wasn't smart enough to just go on my own...) but only hear the music, it was so much more than I expected! I will be acquring his works!
Scenes have been playing in my head all week, and I catch myself singing the songs as well...
I can totally understand how that movie garnered it's 8 Oscars, beating "The Godfather"! That Liza could pull that role off so totally at 25 is stunning!
Gotta get ready for work, but didn't want to disappear for the weekend without wishing you all a wonderful one, and hoping that it will be kind!
alan
Monday, March 03, 2008
As Sunday turns to Monday...
It's almost 2:30; I cleared "Prix de Beaute" just before 2 and programmed recorders for tonight, then sat down here for the first time since early yesterday. An e-mail to my sister (nursing home and Mom stuff and finally got here.
I'm grateful that "What's My Line" and "I've Got a Secret" are back on and "What's My Line" has started over again with the 1952 episodes. "Bull" Halsey was the "Mystery Guest" just now...with Steve Allen questioning him. I don't remember the rest of the episode, but I remember Halsey from when I taped them all and watched them several years ago. I'd love to be able to edit some of those mystery guest spots and post them on You Tube!
Garry Moore just opened "I've Got a Secret" by saying that Bill Cullen's new show "The Price is Right" had just started that Monday on another network. He then turned to Cullen and said "isn't that what ABC stands for; anoter network"? Very few people realize that Bob Barker wasn't the original host of that, nor was it his braichild, it was Cullen's. It started on NBC in 1956 and moved to ABC in '63!
_________________________________________________________
John had other things to do until late yesterday afternoon, so we put off his bathroom fan until earlier in the day today. When I got there today he was trying to
finish putting his gutters back together and Noel was trying to grade and get mulch back into a "flowerbox" next to their house so the water would drain away. They didn't think it would take too long, and we figured out there was a piece John needed for the venting of the bath fan, so we made a Lowe's run (I had things to pick up for my own things here). When we got back the 6 bags of topsoil they had bought for fill along with 3 bags of mulch weren't enough; John pulled that back up and she and I went back and bought 20 more bags of topsoil and 4 more bags of mulch. All 26 bags of fill (a dollar each) and only the original 3 bags of mulch are back in there and it's graded to the sidewalk now. We finished as the rain began. I also transplanted some little shrubs for her that had been in the box originally.
The rain began about 5:30; now we're almost down to freezing and it's supposed to turn to snow shortly.
Mentally I didn't do too well through the last 13 out of 14 day cycle even with a Tuesday off the first week, so I put in for another the day after tomorrow. I also got out H&R Block appointment (10am) for that day, so I'll be up early, though I think a nap is probably in order that afternoon! Then I'm going to change the shut-off ahead of our hot water tank and see if I can get a bit more pressure to that side of our supply lines without having to replace them. (Very hard water here, and the old galvanized pipe tends to "lime" in.)
Just to Ryssee knows it wasn't her comment, the pressure has been dropping for the last year or so; I replaced the tank in 2001, but found out from a pipefitter at work there was a better choice for the shutoff I put in than the one I made, one less prone to catching chunks of stuff and lime...
I will miss being able to go pick the brain of someone wiser than I at work when I'm gone!
If that goes like I hope it does and the weather is kind, we have a Red Lobster card the kids got us that we haven't used; if it isn't we'll have dinner and a movie at home.
So, once again, the week begins in a a whirl!
May it be kind to each of you!
alan
I'm grateful that "What's My Line" and "I've Got a Secret" are back on and "What's My Line" has started over again with the 1952 episodes. "Bull" Halsey was the "Mystery Guest" just now...with Steve Allen questioning him. I don't remember the rest of the episode, but I remember Halsey from when I taped them all and watched them several years ago. I'd love to be able to edit some of those mystery guest spots and post them on You Tube!
Garry Moore just opened "I've Got a Secret" by saying that Bill Cullen's new show "The Price is Right" had just started that Monday on another network. He then turned to Cullen and said "isn't that what ABC stands for; anoter network"? Very few people realize that Bob Barker wasn't the original host of that, nor was it his braichild, it was Cullen's. It started on NBC in 1956 and moved to ABC in '63!
_________________________________________________________
John had other things to do until late yesterday afternoon, so we put off his bathroom fan until earlier in the day today. When I got there today he was trying to
finish putting his gutters back together and Noel was trying to grade and get mulch back into a "flowerbox" next to their house so the water would drain away. They didn't think it would take too long, and we figured out there was a piece John needed for the venting of the bath fan, so we made a Lowe's run (I had things to pick up for my own things here). When we got back the 6 bags of topsoil they had bought for fill along with 3 bags of mulch weren't enough; John pulled that back up and she and I went back and bought 20 more bags of topsoil and 4 more bags of mulch. All 26 bags of fill (a dollar each) and only the original 3 bags of mulch are back in there and it's graded to the sidewalk now. We finished as the rain began. I also transplanted some little shrubs for her that had been in the box originally.
The rain began about 5:30; now we're almost down to freezing and it's supposed to turn to snow shortly.
Mentally I didn't do too well through the last 13 out of 14 day cycle even with a Tuesday off the first week, so I put in for another the day after tomorrow. I also got out H&R Block appointment (10am) for that day, so I'll be up early, though I think a nap is probably in order that afternoon! Then I'm going to change the shut-off ahead of our hot water tank and see if I can get a bit more pressure to that side of our supply lines without having to replace them. (Very hard water here, and the old galvanized pipe tends to "lime" in.)
Just to Ryssee knows it wasn't her comment, the pressure has been dropping for the last year or so; I replaced the tank in 2001, but found out from a pipefitter at work there was a better choice for the shutoff I put in than the one I made, one less prone to catching chunks of stuff and lime...
I will miss being able to go pick the brain of someone wiser than I at work when I'm gone!
If that goes like I hope it does and the weather is kind, we have a Red Lobster card the kids got us that we haven't used; if it isn't we'll have dinner and a movie at home.
So, once again, the week begins in a a whirl!
May it be kind to each of you!
alan
Thursday, February 28, 2008
$388 later...
the sewer line is clear. After my post the other day it "acted funny"; when Dottie came home later that evening things didn't work at all. John came and tried to clear it the same way I had on Sunday to no avail. Dottie called the plumbing company that worked on John's line (a real pain) and asked for first call.
She stayed home yesterday so I could sleep, not knowing what time they would show up. Their plumber arrived at 2; I got up a bit short on sleep, but there wasn't really anything I could do to help. He had to pull the commode for access to the line; it went back down at 4:25, but wouldn't flush. He had pulled two huge balls of tree roots when he removed his auger from the line, and the tub seemed to be draining fine. After I left he pulled the commmode again and figured out even more had dropped off in the "sweep" that comes off the "stack" to the toilet base, clogging it. So finally, at 5:30 things were "right" again. Since I don't want to do anything to "rock the boat" at work right now, I'm very glad Dottie stayed home!
Two years ago I was driving an $800 car I had bought 8 years earlier...that number really hurt, but when you can't fix things yourself...
My brother-in-law called during all of that to say that my sister's shoulder surgery was done and they were taking her home. I'm going to call her in just a minute to see how she's doing...
Dottie is off tomorrow, so with the weekend peeking over the horizon, I'll see you all then!
May it be wonderful!
alan
She stayed home yesterday so I could sleep, not knowing what time they would show up. Their plumber arrived at 2; I got up a bit short on sleep, but there wasn't really anything I could do to help. He had to pull the commode for access to the line; it went back down at 4:25, but wouldn't flush. He had pulled two huge balls of tree roots when he removed his auger from the line, and the tub seemed to be draining fine. After I left he pulled the commmode again and figured out even more had dropped off in the "sweep" that comes off the "stack" to the toilet base, clogging it. So finally, at 5:30 things were "right" again. Since I don't want to do anything to "rock the boat" at work right now, I'm very glad Dottie stayed home!
Two years ago I was driving an $800 car I had bought 8 years earlier...that number really hurt, but when you can't fix things yourself...
My brother-in-law called during all of that to say that my sister's shoulder surgery was done and they were taking her home. I'm going to call her in just a minute to see how she's doing...
Dottie is off tomorrow, so with the weekend peeking over the horizon, I'll see you all then!
May it be wonderful!
alan
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
I'm not tired...lol!
To bed around 6; clock set for 2. At 2 pop a caffeine tab and reset it for 2:30. At 2:30 turn on tea kettle and reset clock for 2:42.
Get up at 2:42, turn off clock, turn off kettle just as it starts to whistle. Get latte mug from cabinet, put in 2 heaping spoons of Hill's French Vanilla, open fridge, pour mug full of milk...
Start over!
Trying to drive slower, leave earlier, and in general be more careful these last few months to make sure I get through them with no mishaps, especially something that might cause me to "lose time". When I got off at 3:30 this morning, we'd had freezing rain and a bit of snow, it was in the 20's and the wind was blowing at around 30. I wrapped up in my Cabela's parka with the hood up and covering my cheeks as I have way too many crowns over "live" teeth in my upper jaw and they hurt when they get cold, and as I walked out across the parking lot, I wiped out on black ice and caught myself in a push-up position...
My right wrist is a bit tender, and I slept in a "brace" for the first time in several years last night, but it could have been so much worse. My younger sister did something similar a few months ago, and is having to have shoulder surgery tomorrow because of it!
My one-day-weekend was spent on the roof playing with the "Drain Kings" again as the sewer line is still "not happy" with things; sometime in the next few weeks I'm going to have to pay someone to auger it and hope I don't have to dig it up. While I had the ladders out I pulled all the ice and leftover leaves from the gutters and cleared the downspouts because there was supposed to be a lot more rain yesterday than we ended up with.
My movie ("Prix de Beaute") didn't arrive for the weekend so we watched a few episodes of "Welcome to the Captain" (pretty funny, and Raquel looks awfully good for 68!) and Dottie's movie, "Pursuit of Happyness". Makes all of my whining seem minor...
Still waiting for a benefits call to answer more of my questions about retirement, and for the official "roll out" of the program to make sure there aren't any details that scare me off.
When one of us dies someone usually hangs copies of the obit on the front door so those who want to can attend the services. In the last month there have been several who waited to retire until they could draw Social Security, one who waited until he could draw the "full" amount. He retired last December...
I don't want that to be me!
May the week be kind...
alan
Get up at 2:42, turn off clock, turn off kettle just as it starts to whistle. Get latte mug from cabinet, put in 2 heaping spoons of Hill's French Vanilla, open fridge, pour mug full of milk...
Start over!
Trying to drive slower, leave earlier, and in general be more careful these last few months to make sure I get through them with no mishaps, especially something that might cause me to "lose time". When I got off at 3:30 this morning, we'd had freezing rain and a bit of snow, it was in the 20's and the wind was blowing at around 30. I wrapped up in my Cabela's parka with the hood up and covering my cheeks as I have way too many crowns over "live" teeth in my upper jaw and they hurt when they get cold, and as I walked out across the parking lot, I wiped out on black ice and caught myself in a push-up position...
My right wrist is a bit tender, and I slept in a "brace" for the first time in several years last night, but it could have been so much worse. My younger sister did something similar a few months ago, and is having to have shoulder surgery tomorrow because of it!
My one-day-weekend was spent on the roof playing with the "Drain Kings" again as the sewer line is still "not happy" with things; sometime in the next few weeks I'm going to have to pay someone to auger it and hope I don't have to dig it up. While I had the ladders out I pulled all the ice and leftover leaves from the gutters and cleared the downspouts because there was supposed to be a lot more rain yesterday than we ended up with.
My movie ("Prix de Beaute") didn't arrive for the weekend so we watched a few episodes of "Welcome to the Captain" (pretty funny, and Raquel looks awfully good for 68!) and Dottie's movie, "Pursuit of Happyness". Makes all of my whining seem minor...
Still waiting for a benefits call to answer more of my questions about retirement, and for the official "roll out" of the program to make sure there aren't any details that scare me off.
When one of us dies someone usually hangs copies of the obit on the front door so those who want to can attend the services. In the last month there have been several who waited to retire until they could draw Social Security, one who waited until he could draw the "full" amount. He retired last December...
I don't want that to be me!
May the week be kind...
alan
Friday, February 22, 2008
Too many hours, too little life...
Once again far more time has slipped away than I would like here...
Something I won't miss when I can put an end to these 10 hour days and 6 day weeks!
I printed calendars last night and added up hours; with what I know of our schedule as long as nothing happens, I'll be +19 hours at the end of shift on June 14. I still have to wait and see if there are any odd details in the buyout when we actually get the package, but things are looking better. Since I had never dreamt of being able to do this so young, I never took any of the "retirement classes", though I had planned on it this next time around. I've checked on some things (once I'm actually drawing retirement if something happens Dottie gets to keep drawing it, though they cut the amount by 2/3. If I die while still working she has to wait until 62! Either way the amount ends up the same...) and have more questions for the benefits rep when I get to see her.
When I hired in I was 22, our oldest was 5 months old and Dottie was pregnant with our youngest. This year the boys turn 29 and 30 and I'm a grandfather 3 times by the youngest...it doesn't seem possible sometimes! I look in the mirror at my eyes slowly retreating behind saggy hoods, and at my silver hair and wonder how I got here.
I work tomorrow and Dottie is keeping the grandkids overnight so John and Noel can have an anniversary date. By the time I get up on Sunday most of my weekend will be gone, and I won't be here again until after Dottie goes to bed on Sunday night.
May you all have wonderful weekends!
alan
Something I won't miss when I can put an end to these 10 hour days and 6 day weeks!
I printed calendars last night and added up hours; with what I know of our schedule as long as nothing happens, I'll be +19 hours at the end of shift on June 14. I still have to wait and see if there are any odd details in the buyout when we actually get the package, but things are looking better. Since I had never dreamt of being able to do this so young, I never took any of the "retirement classes", though I had planned on it this next time around. I've checked on some things (once I'm actually drawing retirement if something happens Dottie gets to keep drawing it, though they cut the amount by 2/3. If I die while still working she has to wait until 62! Either way the amount ends up the same...) and have more questions for the benefits rep when I get to see her.
When I hired in I was 22, our oldest was 5 months old and Dottie was pregnant with our youngest. This year the boys turn 29 and 30 and I'm a grandfather 3 times by the youngest...it doesn't seem possible sometimes! I look in the mirror at my eyes slowly retreating behind saggy hoods, and at my silver hair and wonder how I got here.
I work tomorrow and Dottie is keeping the grandkids overnight so John and Noel can have an anniversary date. By the time I get up on Sunday most of my weekend will be gone, and I won't be here again until after Dottie goes to bed on Sunday night.
May you all have wonderful weekends!
alan
Monday, February 18, 2008
Perhaps a glimmer of hope...
Rumors are flying wild of course, and everyone is waiting for the "roll-out" information on "the attrition program" before we really know anything.
I called today for a summary of my hours; they said I need 764 from today to have credit for my 30. I had 330 on my check for the 2nd week of February! I need to check and see if vacation days count at 8 hours, etc., and figure out where to go from there.
I might just manage to take their money and run after all!
__________________________________________________________
Years ago I said something to Dottie about putting up a webpage of some of my poetry; she told me in no uncertain terms I was never to do that because somehow we could end up in trouble. At the time people were speaking of handicapped access for "the net" and related lawsuits, identity theft was just becoming a common story in the news, and my wife the technophobe wouldn't even let me have my check direct deposited to our bank account.
As my hours at work increased and I changed jobs to one that is "non-stop" rather than one that "cycles" I lost the time I used to jot down my musings; the poetry grew less, and I started this blog. Perhaps the ensuing years have mellowed her concerning these issues, perhaps not. She is finally, for the first time ever, starting to surf the net on her own a bit. In time perhaps I will tell her; we'll see...
________________________________________________________________
I spent yesterday at John's helping him with plumbing and electrical issues as he gets his house ready to sell; this is a six-day week for me, so the last of what involves me down there is going to have to wait until the weekend after this next one (putting a vent fan in the bathroom). My Mom's birthday is next week, and my sister is going to have to have rotater surgery that week as well, so sometime this weekend we have to try to pull off a party for Mom either Saturday before I go to work or on Sunday.
This is leading up to more apologies on my part for not being around more...
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
I called today for a summary of my hours; they said I need 764 from today to have credit for my 30. I had 330 on my check for the 2nd week of February! I need to check and see if vacation days count at 8 hours, etc., and figure out where to go from there.
I might just manage to take their money and run after all!
__________________________________________________________
Years ago I said something to Dottie about putting up a webpage of some of my poetry; she told me in no uncertain terms I was never to do that because somehow we could end up in trouble. At the time people were speaking of handicapped access for "the net" and related lawsuits, identity theft was just becoming a common story in the news, and my wife the technophobe wouldn't even let me have my check direct deposited to our bank account.
As my hours at work increased and I changed jobs to one that is "non-stop" rather than one that "cycles" I lost the time I used to jot down my musings; the poetry grew less, and I started this blog. Perhaps the ensuing years have mellowed her concerning these issues, perhaps not. She is finally, for the first time ever, starting to surf the net on her own a bit. In time perhaps I will tell her; we'll see...
________________________________________________________________
I spent yesterday at John's helping him with plumbing and electrical issues as he gets his house ready to sell; this is a six-day week for me, so the last of what involves me down there is going to have to wait until the weekend after this next one (putting a vent fan in the bathroom). My Mom's birthday is next week, and my sister is going to have to have rotater surgery that week as well, so sometime this weekend we have to try to pull off a party for Mom either Saturday before I go to work or on Sunday.
This is leading up to more apologies on my part for not being around more...
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Thursday, February 14, 2008
I saw the light!
and then the train hit me...
For about 30 hours I sincerely believed I was going to be lucky enough to collect $45,000 of GM's money, pay off 4 credit cards with what I would clear, and retire from there and move on to something new, something less stressful, something that didn't involve 10 hour days or the 31 Saturdays they expect us to work this next year if we go back to 9 hour days...
Border's was looking real good there for a while!
But what I read when I got to work tonight was different than what the janitors gave me to read last night, and I am going to miss the "cut". By about one month...
New header...
____________________________________
Pardon my soapbox!
I've intended to write this for a while, but had little time to research it thoroughly. A while back I heard a former Navy JAG lawyer say we had executed Japanese officers for waterboarding during the war crimes trials after WW2. I assumed they had waterboarded POW's...I assumed wrong!
It seems that some Aussie's slipped into Singapore's harbor and blew up a bunch of Japanese ships. The Japanese didn't believe that was possible, and decided that the civilian doctors and nurses who had stayed at one of the hospitals during the occupation must have been involved.
So they waterboarded them. Civilians.
They also used electric shock on them.
In the transcript I found of the trial (through Wikipedia, first by searching "waterboarding" and then following a link to the Singapore incident) the Japanese officers say things that sound a lot like what we hear coming from the White House and it's mouthpieces these days...
Somehow I don't think we can justify using any technique for interrogation that we've ever executed someone for! No matter how valuable the information might be! Yet this week Justice Scalia said that interrogation was different than punishment, and that depending on the information obtained could possibly be legal!!!
But let Vermont or California try to clean up greenhouse gasses...
Sorry about the soapbox...
________________________________
To all who don't mind, a Very Happy Valentine's Day! In another lifetime picking out a card for each of you would be a treat! But since Dottie doesn't know I blog, mailing them might get me in a bit of trouble, lol!
________________________________
Dottie is off on Friday, so I won't be around again until I get up on Saturday.
May the rest of the week be kind and may your weekends be wonderful!
alan
For about 30 hours I sincerely believed I was going to be lucky enough to collect $45,000 of GM's money, pay off 4 credit cards with what I would clear, and retire from there and move on to something new, something less stressful, something that didn't involve 10 hour days or the 31 Saturdays they expect us to work this next year if we go back to 9 hour days...
Border's was looking real good there for a while!
But what I read when I got to work tonight was different than what the janitors gave me to read last night, and I am going to miss the "cut". By about one month...
New header...
____________________________________
Pardon my soapbox!
I've intended to write this for a while, but had little time to research it thoroughly. A while back I heard a former Navy JAG lawyer say we had executed Japanese officers for waterboarding during the war crimes trials after WW2. I assumed they had waterboarded POW's...I assumed wrong!
It seems that some Aussie's slipped into Singapore's harbor and blew up a bunch of Japanese ships. The Japanese didn't believe that was possible, and decided that the civilian doctors and nurses who had stayed at one of the hospitals during the occupation must have been involved.
So they waterboarded them. Civilians.
They also used electric shock on them.
In the transcript I found of the trial (through Wikipedia, first by searching "waterboarding" and then following a link to the Singapore incident) the Japanese officers say things that sound a lot like what we hear coming from the White House and it's mouthpieces these days...
Somehow I don't think we can justify using any technique for interrogation that we've ever executed someone for! No matter how valuable the information might be! Yet this week Justice Scalia said that interrogation was different than punishment, and that depending on the information obtained could possibly be legal!!!
But let Vermont or California try to clean up greenhouse gasses...
Sorry about the soapbox...
________________________________
To all who don't mind, a Very Happy Valentine's Day! In another lifetime picking out a card for each of you would be a treat! But since Dottie doesn't know I blog, mailing them might get me in a bit of trouble, lol!
________________________________
Dottie is off on Friday, so I won't be around again until I get up on Saturday.
May the rest of the week be kind and may your weekends be wonderful!
alan
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Advanced lessons in cheating!
I had planned to come home tonight and write about the weekend; instead I'll put that off for a day or so...
One of the most useful things I've ever found to keep around the house is a roll of plastic sheeting. You can buy thinner stuff, and it will work fine for some things, but the heavier stuff is magic! You can find it at your favorite hardware store, your choice of indoor lumberyards, or the hardware section of Wal-Mart, where I've bought my last half dozen rolls.
For this winter I bought a 20'x25' roll of the heavier stuff; I said 6 mil thick, which it used to be, but it might be down to 4 these days, I don't have the wrapper anymore. The thin stuff will work for a month or so, but the heavy stuff will alst all winter as long as you don't get grease on it. I split it in half lengthwise, so it's two pieces that are 12.5'x20'.
I laid it over the roof of the truck trying to split it fairly evenly, then figured out how far to pull it over the hood to cover the wipers and cowl (the venting at the back edge of the hood where all your fresh air comes from). Poke a hole for the antenna of the truck; slip the excess between the bed and the back of the cab; then tuck it in at the front and rear edges of the door on one side making sure you keep it out of the lock. Pull it up a bit under the mirror, slip a rubber band over it; move to the other side and do the same. If the wind is blowing I'll slip an edge under the gas door just to keep the wind from getting under it.
For Dottie's car I had to trim 2 more feet off the 20' length and it will still reach the ground on both sides. On it we tuck it in at the front edge of the front door and the back edge of the rear door, and though I make sure to keep it out of the locks, I will slip a little back under the lower edge of the back door to keep the wind from getting under it. Rubber band the mirrors and it's good to go.
Today I pulled mine off and stuck it in the garage as it was only supposed to be flurries tonight. Had they sad freezing rain it would have been on the floorboard and I'd have covered it again when I got to work...
I've also used this stuff to cover a screen to make a storm window when a glass one got broken; I've fixed foundation leaks by digging down to the leak and laying a piece of it on the outside of the cement and backfilling the dirt. It's cheaper than buying drop cloths as you can reuse it.
Other cheats: everyone talks about putting sandtubes in a vehicle for traction, and I've done it for years. My last truck had a cover on it and plywood on the floor to soundproof it a bit so things didn't slide too badly. It also had a bench seat against the front of the bed, so they couldn't slide too far.
Last winter I had seven 60 pound tubes between the wheelwells of my Silverado, lying on the Line-X spray on bedliner, which is fairly good about keeping things stationary. Usually...
As I came off the end of the four lane into the industrial district where I work, going with a green light and somewhere around 50 mph, a "spotter" rig made an illegal left turn against the light across my lanes. I "anchored" the truck, and it stopped much faster than I'd have ever dreamed. The sand tubes, however, didn't! 420 pounds of frozen wet sand hit the front of the bed in unison like a 500 pound hammer and the truck jumped a couple of feet further than it would have otherwise.
I cleared the rig, but decided I didn't want to go through that again!
So this summer while I was working on the garage I picked up a couple of pieces of CCA and when it started getting cold this winter I took a handful of decking screws and the circular saw to them:
The CCA is taller than the tubes are, and I used the leftover pieces from the front box to make the "H" shaped piece that looks like a "T" behind the tubes; it's not fastened down, but makes it possible to go pick up sheets of things without having to unload the tubes first. Next summer I can lift the front one out until next winter.
5:30AM; I got off work at 3:30, home just before 4, by the time I had the trash out, my laundry in and got through the shower it was after 4:30. I ate a bowl of cereal, started the dishwasher and sat down here a few minutes before 5; now I should go off to bed, but I'm going to check in with one or two of you and put my clothes in the dryer, then I'll go...
May the week be kind!
alan
One of the most useful things I've ever found to keep around the house is a roll of plastic sheeting. You can buy thinner stuff, and it will work fine for some things, but the heavier stuff is magic! You can find it at your favorite hardware store, your choice of indoor lumberyards, or the hardware section of Wal-Mart, where I've bought my last half dozen rolls.
For this winter I bought a 20'x25' roll of the heavier stuff; I said 6 mil thick, which it used to be, but it might be down to 4 these days, I don't have the wrapper anymore. The thin stuff will work for a month or so, but the heavy stuff will alst all winter as long as you don't get grease on it. I split it in half lengthwise, so it's two pieces that are 12.5'x20'.
I laid it over the roof of the truck trying to split it fairly evenly, then figured out how far to pull it over the hood to cover the wipers and cowl (the venting at the back edge of the hood where all your fresh air comes from). Poke a hole for the antenna of the truck; slip the excess between the bed and the back of the cab; then tuck it in at the front and rear edges of the door on one side making sure you keep it out of the lock. Pull it up a bit under the mirror, slip a rubber band over it; move to the other side and do the same. If the wind is blowing I'll slip an edge under the gas door just to keep the wind from getting under it.
For Dottie's car I had to trim 2 more feet off the 20' length and it will still reach the ground on both sides. On it we tuck it in at the front edge of the front door and the back edge of the rear door, and though I make sure to keep it out of the locks, I will slip a little back under the lower edge of the back door to keep the wind from getting under it. Rubber band the mirrors and it's good to go.
Today I pulled mine off and stuck it in the garage as it was only supposed to be flurries tonight. Had they sad freezing rain it would have been on the floorboard and I'd have covered it again when I got to work...
I've also used this stuff to cover a screen to make a storm window when a glass one got broken; I've fixed foundation leaks by digging down to the leak and laying a piece of it on the outside of the cement and backfilling the dirt. It's cheaper than buying drop cloths as you can reuse it.
Other cheats: everyone talks about putting sandtubes in a vehicle for traction, and I've done it for years. My last truck had a cover on it and plywood on the floor to soundproof it a bit so things didn't slide too badly. It also had a bench seat against the front of the bed, so they couldn't slide too far.
Last winter I had seven 60 pound tubes between the wheelwells of my Silverado, lying on the Line-X spray on bedliner, which is fairly good about keeping things stationary. Usually...
As I came off the end of the four lane into the industrial district where I work, going with a green light and somewhere around 50 mph, a "spotter" rig made an illegal left turn against the light across my lanes. I "anchored" the truck, and it stopped much faster than I'd have ever dreamed. The sand tubes, however, didn't! 420 pounds of frozen wet sand hit the front of the bed in unison like a 500 pound hammer and the truck jumped a couple of feet further than it would have otherwise.
I cleared the rig, but decided I didn't want to go through that again!
So this summer while I was working on the garage I picked up a couple of pieces of CCA and when it started getting cold this winter I took a handful of decking screws and the circular saw to them:
The CCA is taller than the tubes are, and I used the leftover pieces from the front box to make the "H" shaped piece that looks like a "T" behind the tubes; it's not fastened down, but makes it possible to go pick up sheets of things without having to unload the tubes first. Next summer I can lift the front one out until next winter.
5:30AM; I got off work at 3:30, home just before 4, by the time I had the trash out, my laundry in and got through the shower it was after 4:30. I ate a bowl of cereal, started the dishwasher and sat down here a few minutes before 5; now I should go off to bed, but I'm going to check in with one or two of you and put my clothes in the dryer, then I'll go...
May the week be kind!
alan
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Mid-week...
Thankfully it will only be a 48 hour one instead of 50; I used a vacation day yesterday!
A bit of disappointment on Sunday because the Pats didn't finish undefeated; a bit of happiness for the Mannings, because brothers winning successive Superbowls will most likely never happen again!
Monday Dottie sprained her ankle walking into work carrying a crock pot and stuff to make "little smokies" for a party; she stepped on a rock she didn't see and rolled it sideways. She didn't fall, so she didn't screw up her replacement hip or replacement knee, but when I came home that night she was sleeping on the couch with ice on it and it was bigger than a large grapefruit.
She still wanted to go to a movie on Tuesday when I got up, so we saw Stallone end his "Rambo" series as poignantly as he did "Rocky" a few months ago. Very well done, and making a political statement for this era as well!
We got home before the weather started, and while she went in and iced her ankle I covered up her car. (We cheat and when they say ice we use 6 mil plastic sheeting to lay over the glass, doors and wipers. If you tuck it in to the door jambs without getting it in the locks, it's a lot better than the scraping and such!) My truck I had covered when I came home the night before (actually had covered hers as well in case it started early...)
While I did pet chores and started dinner it was early enough I got her to call her sister Deb in Vermont, as by the time Dottie comes home and gets through the shower Deb is usually heading for bed. They talked until dinner was ready, then I popped in a movie out of a Jimmy Stewart box set I got for my birthday (one of those gifts we buy ourselves and tag from my Mom so she still feels a part of things). "You Gotta Stay Happy", from 1948. I had seen it before I went in the service and had watched for it to pop up somewhere so I could tape it, but had never caught it. Dottie really enjoyed it, as did I.
I was running laundry to get it caught up as well, so she had no excuse to run up and down the steps on her ankle other than to wash her uniform each night. It seems to be doing well, the swelling is staying down; I think she's lucky she had a day off the day after she did it!
So until the weekend, that's where things stand. Hopefully we'll get the treadmill put together over the weekend so I can figure out exactly how I need to drop the wiring to it, and will have it running by next week.
Since they took away our 2nd week of downtime in July already (they want every Malibu we can build) I have an extra 40 hours vacation that I usually lose then, so taking a few more Tuesdays off shouldn't bother me though I hate to start using days so early in the year. I put in for the 19th as well because we work Saturday that week, and I'd really rather work 5 than 6 especially if they still have to pay me for them!
May the rest of the week be kind!
alan
A bit of disappointment on Sunday because the Pats didn't finish undefeated; a bit of happiness for the Mannings, because brothers winning successive Superbowls will most likely never happen again!
Monday Dottie sprained her ankle walking into work carrying a crock pot and stuff to make "little smokies" for a party; she stepped on a rock she didn't see and rolled it sideways. She didn't fall, so she didn't screw up her replacement hip or replacement knee, but when I came home that night she was sleeping on the couch with ice on it and it was bigger than a large grapefruit.
She still wanted to go to a movie on Tuesday when I got up, so we saw Stallone end his "Rambo" series as poignantly as he did "Rocky" a few months ago. Very well done, and making a political statement for this era as well!
We got home before the weather started, and while she went in and iced her ankle I covered up her car. (We cheat and when they say ice we use 6 mil plastic sheeting to lay over the glass, doors and wipers. If you tuck it in to the door jambs without getting it in the locks, it's a lot better than the scraping and such!) My truck I had covered when I came home the night before (actually had covered hers as well in case it started early...)
While I did pet chores and started dinner it was early enough I got her to call her sister Deb in Vermont, as by the time Dottie comes home and gets through the shower Deb is usually heading for bed. They talked until dinner was ready, then I popped in a movie out of a Jimmy Stewart box set I got for my birthday (one of those gifts we buy ourselves and tag from my Mom so she still feels a part of things). "You Gotta Stay Happy", from 1948. I had seen it before I went in the service and had watched for it to pop up somewhere so I could tape it, but had never caught it. Dottie really enjoyed it, as did I.
I was running laundry to get it caught up as well, so she had no excuse to run up and down the steps on her ankle other than to wash her uniform each night. It seems to be doing well, the swelling is staying down; I think she's lucky she had a day off the day after she did it!
So until the weekend, that's where things stand. Hopefully we'll get the treadmill put together over the weekend so I can figure out exactly how I need to drop the wiring to it, and will have it running by next week.
Since they took away our 2nd week of downtime in July already (they want every Malibu we can build) I have an extra 40 hours vacation that I usually lose then, so taking a few more Tuesdays off shouldn't bother me though I hate to start using days so early in the year. I put in for the 19th as well because we work Saturday that week, and I'd really rather work 5 than 6 especially if they still have to pay me for them!
May the rest of the week be kind!
alan
Saturday, February 02, 2008
"Procrastination is...
the thief of time-
So all the wise I'll say...
One stitch in time
Will save nine-
Tomorrow's not today!
And if you put on-
Someone's bound to lose"
From Nat Cole's "St. Louis Blues" soundtrack...very appropriate for me today! An album of Dad's I practically wore out learning the words to all of the W. C. Handy songs on it...
Woke up "slow", just before 1, lingered here with a latte for a while, then called John to see if he wanted me to help him replace the packing nut in the main water shutoff to his house as it's dripping. He said he'd rather wait until tomorrow as they are trying to finish painting their kitchen cabinets so they can use them again.
Slipped off to Harbor Freight, bought he and I both a new tubing cutter as he had blown mine up the other week, bought him a voltmeter, and myself a set of "strap" wrenches (Dottie has designs on one for opening things in the kitchen, the other is for plumbing fixtures I don't want to scar up). With coupons and sale prices, $11 and change, total.
Home a bit after 4, ate a bit of something while I played "Xenosaga 2" for a few minutes, then came in here before I wander downstairs to rearrange some things to start making room for the treadmill.
I had planned to get so much more done by this point in the day...
Perhaps tomorrow!
:o)
alan
So all the wise I'll say...
One stitch in time
Will save nine-
Tomorrow's not today!
And if you put on-
Someone's bound to lose"
From Nat Cole's "St. Louis Blues" soundtrack...very appropriate for me today! An album of Dad's I practically wore out learning the words to all of the W. C. Handy songs on it...
Woke up "slow", just before 1, lingered here with a latte for a while, then called John to see if he wanted me to help him replace the packing nut in the main water shutoff to his house as it's dripping. He said he'd rather wait until tomorrow as they are trying to finish painting their kitchen cabinets so they can use them again.
Slipped off to Harbor Freight, bought he and I both a new tubing cutter as he had blown mine up the other week, bought him a voltmeter, and myself a set of "strap" wrenches (Dottie has designs on one for opening things in the kitchen, the other is for plumbing fixtures I don't want to scar up). With coupons and sale prices, $11 and change, total.
Home a bit after 4, ate a bit of something while I played "Xenosaga 2" for a few minutes, then came in here before I wander downstairs to rearrange some things to start making room for the treadmill.
I had planned to get so much more done by this point in the day...
Perhaps tomorrow!
:o)
alan
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Plans...
First off, the family vacation to Table Rock has been delayed a year because John and Noel are hoping to move this summer. Works for us because we'll put our tax return check towards some of the "interest free" things that weren't going to be if we used it for the vacation. When I was checking on some of the places we used to stay I was shocked to find them selling off the little 400 square foot cabins at one of them...for $135,000!
Dottie has cousins in Texas we haven't seen in 10 years, since Grandma Lila moved into the nuring home in Tulsa, as we would make a day trip to Dallas to see them and give Grandma a break midweek when we did our summer visits to her. Perhaps I'll stop by Marietta and Nocona on the way down or back and visit some of the family plots as well...
I haven't had a lot of time to rearrange the basement yet. Since Dottie works this weekend I figure I will work on that, and if I'm lucky by Sunday night have things to where I can get her to help me put the treadmill together when she comes home. Some of you have mentioned boredom; the ones at the Fitness Center at work were in sight of 4 monitors, each on a different channel, and you could pull the audio of your choice to your headphones. I don't plan anything that fancy, but have several unused TV's sitting down there, and dropping a cable from the coax side of my cable converter to it wouldn't take but a piece of cable and two ends. I also have an old VCR sitting idle, as well as a couple of old stereos. I have enough old movies and old cassettes running around to amuse myself for eternity...
The treadmill actually has an iPod docking station built in, but I haven't sprung for one of those...yet! I would love to have had one in the truck when I made that run to Wyoming as it's only AM-FM! Someday!
Later, as the basement clears out a bit more I'm going to add a weight bench, but for now I just need to start losing some of me again! (Besides my mind!)
Dottie's off on Friday, so hopefully I'll be visting over the weekend!
May your Friday be wonderful and your weekend warm and kind!
alan
Dottie has cousins in Texas we haven't seen in 10 years, since Grandma Lila moved into the nuring home in Tulsa, as we would make a day trip to Dallas to see them and give Grandma a break midweek when we did our summer visits to her. Perhaps I'll stop by Marietta and Nocona on the way down or back and visit some of the family plots as well...
I haven't had a lot of time to rearrange the basement yet. Since Dottie works this weekend I figure I will work on that, and if I'm lucky by Sunday night have things to where I can get her to help me put the treadmill together when she comes home. Some of you have mentioned boredom; the ones at the Fitness Center at work were in sight of 4 monitors, each on a different channel, and you could pull the audio of your choice to your headphones. I don't plan anything that fancy, but have several unused TV's sitting down there, and dropping a cable from the coax side of my cable converter to it wouldn't take but a piece of cable and two ends. I also have an old VCR sitting idle, as well as a couple of old stereos. I have enough old movies and old cassettes running around to amuse myself for eternity...
The treadmill actually has an iPod docking station built in, but I haven't sprung for one of those...yet! I would love to have had one in the truck when I made that run to Wyoming as it's only AM-FM! Someday!
Later, as the basement clears out a bit more I'm going to add a weight bench, but for now I just need to start losing some of me again! (Besides my mind!)
Dottie's off on Friday, so hopefully I'll be visting over the weekend!
May your Friday be wonderful and your weekend warm and kind!
alan
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
...and "pffft" it was gone!
I can't figure out how I'd write the sound that Archie Campbell used to make when he sang that...
Whoopee cushion, anyone?
I ended up with 3 hours sleep before I had to get up for the party on Saturday morning. John and Noel are trying to get their house ready to move, and my brother-in-law was going to help them trim some things and make some new cabinet doors that afternoon, so my sister took Dillon for the night and we took Caleb and the birthday girl. I had planned to have uploaded a memory card from her party by now, but haven't had time, sorry!
I had an e-mail from Sears Friday night about a 3 hour sale that day, and since they changed the hours on the Fitness Center at work there is no way I can get there now, so we took the kids and went and I bought a treadmill. We came home, unloaded it, and that was it, I was done...I slept for 16 of the next 19 hours...
Sunday I got up at noon and it was 60, so while Dottie took Caleb and Talia to the nursing home to see my Mom, I returned the dolly we rented to move the treadmill and ran my truck through the car wash and cleaned it up. I had hand washed it the last warm spell a couple of weeks ago, so it came out clean.
I never got to Dottie's Malibu that time as she had it at work, and the car wash wasn't going to make it white again, so when they came home I handwashed it, changed her wiper blades and Rain-X'd both of them as it's supposed to turn back to winter in about the next 6 hours or so. Monday it was 63, right now it's 56, by noon it's supposed to be snowing and tonight it's supposed to be 11...
I got home at 4 tonight, and after starting laundry and running through the shower, I wrote a family e-mail. We had talked of trying to do a family vacation this summer with all 4 families, but not sure it's going to pan out, and I have to apply for whatever I'm going to ask for in February if I'm going to get it.
So now it's coming up on 5:30, and I need to put clothes in the dryer and wander off to bed!
One down, 4 to go...
May the week be kind!
alan
Whoopee cushion, anyone?
I ended up with 3 hours sleep before I had to get up for the party on Saturday morning. John and Noel are trying to get their house ready to move, and my brother-in-law was going to help them trim some things and make some new cabinet doors that afternoon, so my sister took Dillon for the night and we took Caleb and the birthday girl. I had planned to have uploaded a memory card from her party by now, but haven't had time, sorry!
I had an e-mail from Sears Friday night about a 3 hour sale that day, and since they changed the hours on the Fitness Center at work there is no way I can get there now, so we took the kids and went and I bought a treadmill. We came home, unloaded it, and that was it, I was done...I slept for 16 of the next 19 hours...
Sunday I got up at noon and it was 60, so while Dottie took Caleb and Talia to the nursing home to see my Mom, I returned the dolly we rented to move the treadmill and ran my truck through the car wash and cleaned it up. I had hand washed it the last warm spell a couple of weeks ago, so it came out clean.
I never got to Dottie's Malibu that time as she had it at work, and the car wash wasn't going to make it white again, so when they came home I handwashed it, changed her wiper blades and Rain-X'd both of them as it's supposed to turn back to winter in about the next 6 hours or so. Monday it was 63, right now it's 56, by noon it's supposed to be snowing and tonight it's supposed to be 11...
I got home at 4 tonight, and after starting laundry and running through the shower, I wrote a family e-mail. We had talked of trying to do a family vacation this summer with all 4 families, but not sure it's going to pan out, and I have to apply for whatever I'm going to ask for in February if I'm going to get it.
So now it's coming up on 5:30, and I need to put clothes in the dryer and wander off to bed!
One down, 4 to go...
May the week be kind!
alan
Friday, January 25, 2008
Much too far behind...
in visiting all of you; my conscience bothers me terribly, but I can't go without sleep like I used to, so an hour a day is about all I can muster after my 10 hour work days; I hope you forgive me!
Tomorrow night I'll be trying to get immediately to bed as Talia's birthday party is at 10 on Saturday morning. Dottie is off this weekend, and since they just scheduled more work Saturdays for me I plan on enjoying every minute we are together. I haven't dared peek yet to see if we are working the same ones or not...
Hopefully the warm air "they" are saying we'll have this weekend will really get here, as I could use a thaw about now!
I used to think that I wanted to retire and go be a librarian in Alaska...not so anymore!
TGIF! May it and the weekend bring you much joy!
alan
Tomorrow night I'll be trying to get immediately to bed as Talia's birthday party is at 10 on Saturday morning. Dottie is off this weekend, and since they just scheduled more work Saturdays for me I plan on enjoying every minute we are together. I haven't dared peek yet to see if we are working the same ones or not...
Hopefully the warm air "they" are saying we'll have this weekend will really get here, as I could use a thaw about now!
I used to think that I wanted to retire and go be a librarian in Alaska...not so anymore!
TGIF! May it and the weekend bring you much joy!
alan
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
A real weekend!
Sometimes a small blessing becomes a huge one! That vacation day on Friday, even though Dottie was sick, along with the 3 day weekend I had finally made us both feel like we had a real weekend for the first time since before Thanksgiving.
Had a bit of a panic attack as I shopped on Saturday; Costco didn't have the "palm sized" portabella caps Laura had asked for, only some smaller "baby bellas". I bought them anyway, then when I got to Sam's they had the large ones, so the small ones and steaks became dinner when I got home and fired the grill up, though it was only in the teens. Laura's dinner on Sunday (grilled salmon and portabellas) came off well; no left overs. Saturday's leftovers were dinner on Monday night.
I posted on Sunday about having a stereo again; it's been getting a workout when I have the house to myself...right now it's Count Basie and Joe Williams from '55...a very good year!
When I was at Costco on Saturday they had a DVD I'd been waiting to find there again for over a year. In 2006, just before Christmas they had a concert DVD of Louis Armstrong from 1959. I didn't buy it because I thought I'd wait 'til the holidays and all the other shopping were over; of course, they hadn't had it again since then. Saturday it went in the cart, and I'd have skipped other things if I had to, lol!
Dottie was off yesterday. We slept late, since I had to go back to work last night, then after some "us" time, she started dinner and I put that concert in the DVD player. I didn't get to watch all of it, but what I did was a treat.
I came home after my 10 hour day without the usual tension and anxieties; I can only attribute that to the peace of a real weekend; hopefully these next 3 days go as nicely!
"America", my silent movie for the weekend was a bit of a let-down; I understand why it's seldom seen, though seeing Lionel Barrymore youthful, before the arthritis put him on crutches or in a wheelchair (Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life") was a treat.
Next up for me is "Faust", Murnau's silent from 1926...next up for Dottie is "Blood Diamond" after John mails back "3:10 to Yuma" which we lent him after we watched it.
Of course, it's not like I don't have several thousand stacked up around here if one of those doesn't arrive, lol...
Off to get ready for work...it's supposed to be 4 when I come home tonight with the wind in the 20's. Glad I'm driving something that makes heat before I get to the driveway these days! I look back at all my years of driving "junk" and wonder how I ever survived not only the driving but the repairing!
Hopefully I'll get some bloghopping done this evening when I get home and catch up with all of you! I tried last night, but my desktop decided it needed to update every program back to the Stone Age and I was lucky to get my e-mail out of it. I should really upgrade the RAM in it, but could almost buy a new tower for what that's worth...
May the week be kind!
alan
Had a bit of a panic attack as I shopped on Saturday; Costco didn't have the "palm sized" portabella caps Laura had asked for, only some smaller "baby bellas". I bought them anyway, then when I got to Sam's they had the large ones, so the small ones and steaks became dinner when I got home and fired the grill up, though it was only in the teens. Laura's dinner on Sunday (grilled salmon and portabellas) came off well; no left overs. Saturday's leftovers were dinner on Monday night.
I posted on Sunday about having a stereo again; it's been getting a workout when I have the house to myself...right now it's Count Basie and Joe Williams from '55...a very good year!
When I was at Costco on Saturday they had a DVD I'd been waiting to find there again for over a year. In 2006, just before Christmas they had a concert DVD of Louis Armstrong from 1959. I didn't buy it because I thought I'd wait 'til the holidays and all the other shopping were over; of course, they hadn't had it again since then. Saturday it went in the cart, and I'd have skipped other things if I had to, lol!
Dottie was off yesterday. We slept late, since I had to go back to work last night, then after some "us" time, she started dinner and I put that concert in the DVD player. I didn't get to watch all of it, but what I did was a treat.
I came home after my 10 hour day without the usual tension and anxieties; I can only attribute that to the peace of a real weekend; hopefully these next 3 days go as nicely!
"America", my silent movie for the weekend was a bit of a let-down; I understand why it's seldom seen, though seeing Lionel Barrymore youthful, before the arthritis put him on crutches or in a wheelchair (Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life") was a treat.
Next up for me is "Faust", Murnau's silent from 1926...next up for Dottie is "Blood Diamond" after John mails back "3:10 to Yuma" which we lent him after we watched it.
Of course, it's not like I don't have several thousand stacked up around here if one of those doesn't arrive, lol...
Off to get ready for work...it's supposed to be 4 when I come home tonight with the wind in the 20's. Glad I'm driving something that makes heat before I get to the driveway these days! I look back at all my years of driving "junk" and wonder how I ever survived not only the driving but the repairing!
Hopefully I'll get some bloghopping done this evening when I get home and catch up with all of you! I tried last night, but my desktop decided it needed to update every program back to the Stone Age and I was lucky to get my e-mail out of it. I should really upgrade the RAM in it, but could almost buy a new tower for what that's worth...
May the week be kind!
alan
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Merrily dancing away my afternoon...
now that I've managed to re-wire things so I can fire
the "big" DVD player through Dad's stereo to play
CD's. Louis is swinging away for the first time; the
first of the two discs has the W.C. Handy tracks I
dearly love with a much better digital remastering;
they are some of the best "late" Armstrong I had ever
heard, and with this remaster they are each bringing
tears to my eyes. They have added tracks from the same
concert series to to fill it out, and I'm looking
forward to them.
The 2nd has "Fats" Waller songs in the same manner as
the Handy's I love on the first one. I've never heard
them; I'm not sure they've been released since the
original '78's.
Thank you so very very much!
Cranking it up a bit more while I head for the
shower...hope I don't break my neck dancing in the
shower!
Love,
Dad
(A copy of the "thank you" I just sent my youngest and his wife for the Louis Armstrong "All Stars" live double disc set they gave me during the holidays...)
I've vacuumed, have one shopping trip to make before I start dinner...having a GREAT weekend, I hope each of you are as well!
alan
the "big" DVD player through Dad's stereo to play
CD's. Louis is swinging away for the first time; the
first of the two discs has the W.C. Handy tracks I
dearly love with a much better digital remastering;
they are some of the best "late" Armstrong I had ever
heard, and with this remaster they are each bringing
tears to my eyes. They have added tracks from the same
concert series to to fill it out, and I'm looking
forward to them.
The 2nd has "Fats" Waller songs in the same manner as
the Handy's I love on the first one. I've never heard
them; I'm not sure they've been released since the
original '78's.
Thank you so very very much!
Cranking it up a bit more while I head for the
shower...hope I don't break my neck dancing in the
shower!
Love,
Dad
(A copy of the "thank you" I just sent my youngest and his wife for the Louis Armstrong "All Stars" live double disc set they gave me during the holidays...)
I've vacuumed, have one shopping trip to make before I start dinner...having a GREAT weekend, I hope each of you are as well!
alan
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Things are getting better...
all the time!
I was pretty tired the other night when I wrote my last, so in my rambling I made it sound as though my Scorpio wife was having her birthday this weekend. It's Laura's birthday dinner, though her birthday isn't 'til later in the month. With the hours she works, and her last semester of school starting this next week, she wanted to do it now and I can't blame her!
Things are much brighter for me at the moment because someone cancelled a vacation day for yesterday so I "inherited" it and thus got a decent nights sleep, got to spend the day with Dottie, spent a couple of hours playing "Xenosaga 2" after she went to bed, and still got a good night's sleep.
Dottie on the other hand has managed to re-catch that cold we both spent two weeks fighting off...something to do with lack of sleep I bet, but can't convince her. So she's still asleep right now as I drink my "morning" latte.
We watched the Russell Crowe's "3:10 to Yuma" last night; very good and well done. Much better than I'd have believed from the press when it came out, and some very good features in the bonus stuff as well.
Last weekend Dottie fell asleep on one of "my" movies, the original "Topper" with Cary Grant from 1937. It wasn't that she didn't like it (it is sometimes) but just that it was way past her bedtime. Last night we picked up where she fell asleep and even though I was watching it for the 2nd time in 5 days, I still laughed as did she.
Ever since I read "The Parade's Gone By" and learned a bit about how "effects" were done before "CG" I've been amazed at how good some really were. "Topper" is a prime example!
Off to run the weekly shopping errands...
May this lovely weekend be kind to you all!
alan
P.S. It was -2F. at 5AM this morning...very glad I was already home! :o)
I was pretty tired the other night when I wrote my last, so in my rambling I made it sound as though my Scorpio wife was having her birthday this weekend. It's Laura's birthday dinner, though her birthday isn't 'til later in the month. With the hours she works, and her last semester of school starting this next week, she wanted to do it now and I can't blame her!
Things are much brighter for me at the moment because someone cancelled a vacation day for yesterday so I "inherited" it and thus got a decent nights sleep, got to spend the day with Dottie, spent a couple of hours playing "Xenosaga 2" after she went to bed, and still got a good night's sleep.
Dottie on the other hand has managed to re-catch that cold we both spent two weeks fighting off...something to do with lack of sleep I bet, but can't convince her. So she's still asleep right now as I drink my "morning" latte.
We watched the Russell Crowe's "3:10 to Yuma" last night; very good and well done. Much better than I'd have believed from the press when it came out, and some very good features in the bonus stuff as well.
Last weekend Dottie fell asleep on one of "my" movies, the original "Topper" with Cary Grant from 1937. It wasn't that she didn't like it (it is sometimes) but just that it was way past her bedtime. Last night we picked up where she fell asleep and even though I was watching it for the 2nd time in 5 days, I still laughed as did she.
Ever since I read "The Parade's Gone By" and learned a bit about how "effects" were done before "CG" I've been amazed at how good some really were. "Topper" is a prime example!
Off to run the weekly shopping errands...
May this lovely weekend be kind to you all!
alan
P.S. It was -2F. at 5AM this morning...very glad I was already home! :o)
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Two more days...
and I get 3 off finally! That Dottie is off Friday and Tuesday this week, after her being off last weekend and me working Saturday doesn't make me the happiest camper, but at least I'll see her when we're both awake!
Got home at 4 this morning; shoveled snow 'til 5; started laundry and then played "beat the rinse cycle" because I really didn't want to be any colder than I was when I came in...
NetFlix says I'll have a new copy of "America" for the weekend (I mentioned in my last post that the one they sent last week was cracked when it arrived); Dottie already got her copy of the new "3:10 to Yuma". Laura and Bill are coming for her birthday dinner on Sunday evening, so I'll be grilling salmon and portabellas...it's nice to think about having time to actually do something like that!
When Dottie picked things up during the holidays the magazines I was carrying to work to read while I eat or if the line breaks down were filed away somewhere I haven't found yet, so I pulled Amy Tan's "Saving Fish from Drowning" off the shelf. I'm probably strange, but I feel very guilty if I tear a book up or get it dirty, etc., while I'm reading it. I don't dogear corners, or make little marks, or write in the margins...I just can't.
Very good read so far; a bit more than halfway through it and finding it very nice to read something longer again for the first time in a while! The only serious reading I'd done in the last year were some manga...
A bit after 6am, time to put my clothes in the dryer and get some sleep!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you, and may the weekend bring joy and peace!
alan
Got home at 4 this morning; shoveled snow 'til 5; started laundry and then played "beat the rinse cycle" because I really didn't want to be any colder than I was when I came in...
NetFlix says I'll have a new copy of "America" for the weekend (I mentioned in my last post that the one they sent last week was cracked when it arrived); Dottie already got her copy of the new "3:10 to Yuma". Laura and Bill are coming for her birthday dinner on Sunday evening, so I'll be grilling salmon and portabellas...it's nice to think about having time to actually do something like that!
When Dottie picked things up during the holidays the magazines I was carrying to work to read while I eat or if the line breaks down were filed away somewhere I haven't found yet, so I pulled Amy Tan's "Saving Fish from Drowning" off the shelf. I'm probably strange, but I feel very guilty if I tear a book up or get it dirty, etc., while I'm reading it. I don't dogear corners, or make little marks, or write in the margins...I just can't.
Very good read so far; a bit more than halfway through it and finding it very nice to read something longer again for the first time in a while! The only serious reading I'd done in the last year were some manga...
A bit after 6am, time to put my clothes in the dryer and get some sleep!
May the rest of the week be kind to each of you, and may the weekend bring joy and peace!
alan
Monday, January 14, 2008
Old friends...dear friends...
Once a long time ago it seems now, I wrote a post raving about the old game shows that were running on GSN's "Black and White Overnight" slot in the wee hours. Shortly after, of course, they pulled them in favor of other things.
Two of them are finally back; "What's My Line" and "I've Got A Secret". I've caught a few episodes these last couple of weeks, and though I taped them the last time through and watched each one, it's still a treat to have them back. I wish I didn't get home an hour after they are done each night! It's no wonder that John Daly, the host of the first one, became the first announcer on the "Voice of America" radio broadcasts.
Garry Moore, the host of the second one, has to have been one of the gentlest souls to grace the airwaves. A different era, when one didn't have to be cruel or rude to "get ahead" or get the ratings...
His closing for each episode has been an inspiration to me:
"Please be kind to each other!"
Knowing that each of you that I find here will do that without exhortation from me, I have paraphrased him a bit and asked that the day, or the week, or the weekend ahead be kind to each of you.
So after my 6 day work week, and my one day off; after waking to a house full of grandkids who spent the night and watching "Evan Almighty" with them (10 thumbs up); after finding my Netflix movie ("America" from 1924) to be actually broken; after running laundry (5 loads today) and doing dishes while Dottie, Bill and Laura caught up on "Stargate: Atlantis" before we watched the pilot movie for "Heroes"; I shall ask once again, before I wander off to the shower, and then to bed to begin the week anew tomorrow, that...
May the week be kind to each of you!
I am grateful to each of you for your examples in how to live and survive this world; the words of wisdom and kindness that always find their way here; for showing me so many ways to become someone better in this life! Thank you each for being you!
alan
Two of them are finally back; "What's My Line" and "I've Got A Secret". I've caught a few episodes these last couple of weeks, and though I taped them the last time through and watched each one, it's still a treat to have them back. I wish I didn't get home an hour after they are done each night! It's no wonder that John Daly, the host of the first one, became the first announcer on the "Voice of America" radio broadcasts.
Garry Moore, the host of the second one, has to have been one of the gentlest souls to grace the airwaves. A different era, when one didn't have to be cruel or rude to "get ahead" or get the ratings...
His closing for each episode has been an inspiration to me:
"Please be kind to each other!"
Knowing that each of you that I find here will do that without exhortation from me, I have paraphrased him a bit and asked that the day, or the week, or the weekend ahead be kind to each of you.
So after my 6 day work week, and my one day off; after waking to a house full of grandkids who spent the night and watching "Evan Almighty" with them (10 thumbs up); after finding my Netflix movie ("America" from 1924) to be actually broken; after running laundry (5 loads today) and doing dishes while Dottie, Bill and Laura caught up on "Stargate: Atlantis" before we watched the pilot movie for "Heroes"; I shall ask once again, before I wander off to the shower, and then to bed to begin the week anew tomorrow, that...
May the week be kind to each of you!
I am grateful to each of you for your examples in how to live and survive this world; the words of wisdom and kindness that always find their way here; for showing me so many ways to become someone better in this life! Thank you each for being you!
alan
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
"I fall in love too easily...
I fall in love too hard!"
Another old song title; another exactly perfect as well!
Early 1980's, I had been married about 5 years, had two small boys at home, was either working overtime or laid off; feast or famine as it would be until almost the the turn of the millenium.
There was a little theatre that ran things some might consider obscure and I caught up with one one weekend, having read something about it in a newspaper. I hadn't planned to fall in love, but I did. His name was Harold...
He was a country boy, dressed a bit plainly, a bit wide eyed, yet his enthusiasm and sense of humor made him very special. That he had a couple of fingers missing from an accident didn't bother me even though he worked to keep it hidden from everyone.
The theatre was called "Matinee at the Bijou" and it was a PBS show that specialized in silent film. My ticket was the first VCR we had. The following weeks introduced me to Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks (Senior), Lillian and Dorothy Gish, along with Harold Lloyd (pictured above from "Safety Last").
I started reading as well, and kept seeing this name "Kevin Brownlow" pop up in credits. I found a book by him "The Parade's Gone By" and read even more about this marvelous medium. I started searching out titles I hadn't seen, and found the two top movies on my all time list, though I couldn't rate them as one and two, they are co-equals.
One is "Intolerance" from 1916; the other is "Napoleon" from 1927. "Napoleon" was directed by Abel Gance, and developed techniques that have only been caught up to in the last 20 years or so. Restored by Kevin Brownlow, and scored by Carmine Coppola (Francis Ford's father) it was theatrically released here in the late 80's. I have watched it a dozen times now, and still find it as stunning as I did the first.
Abel Gance directed many other movies, though they don't run on TCM all that often. One of our local "arthouses" used to have a rental desk, but that was closed when they moved to a new theatre, and I have a long list of things I would love to watch, but would like to watch before I buy.
So when John and Noel gave us a two months NetFlix membership for Christmas, the first thing that went on my list was Abel Gance's "Lucrezia Borgia" from 1935. After Dottie went to bed on Saturday night, I had only planned on watching the two short silent movies that were on it. Then I made the mistake of deciding just to peek at the feature to see how good the print was...
I couldn't turn it off.
I will be looking for more of Mr. Gance...
I'd have done NetFlix long ago if I had a card that didn't have a balance on it so I wasn't paying interest on rentals...somehow that just doesn't seem "right".
I am impressed with their catalog and service! I have about a dozen silent movies in queue right now, lol.
Thus my reference to "cinemaphilia" in my last post...
May the rest of the week be kind!
alan
Another old song title; another exactly perfect as well!
Early 1980's, I had been married about 5 years, had two small boys at home, was either working overtime or laid off; feast or famine as it would be until almost the the turn of the millenium.
There was a little theatre that ran things some might consider obscure and I caught up with one one weekend, having read something about it in a newspaper. I hadn't planned to fall in love, but I did. His name was Harold...
He was a country boy, dressed a bit plainly, a bit wide eyed, yet his enthusiasm and sense of humor made him very special. That he had a couple of fingers missing from an accident didn't bother me even though he worked to keep it hidden from everyone.
The theatre was called "Matinee at the Bijou" and it was a PBS show that specialized in silent film. My ticket was the first VCR we had. The following weeks introduced me to Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks (Senior), Lillian and Dorothy Gish, along with Harold Lloyd (pictured above from "Safety Last").
I started reading as well, and kept seeing this name "Kevin Brownlow" pop up in credits. I found a book by him "The Parade's Gone By" and read even more about this marvelous medium. I started searching out titles I hadn't seen, and found the two top movies on my all time list, though I couldn't rate them as one and two, they are co-equals.
One is "Intolerance" from 1916; the other is "Napoleon" from 1927. "Napoleon" was directed by Abel Gance, and developed techniques that have only been caught up to in the last 20 years or so. Restored by Kevin Brownlow, and scored by Carmine Coppola (Francis Ford's father) it was theatrically released here in the late 80's. I have watched it a dozen times now, and still find it as stunning as I did the first.
Abel Gance directed many other movies, though they don't run on TCM all that often. One of our local "arthouses" used to have a rental desk, but that was closed when they moved to a new theatre, and I have a long list of things I would love to watch, but would like to watch before I buy.
So when John and Noel gave us a two months NetFlix membership for Christmas, the first thing that went on my list was Abel Gance's "Lucrezia Borgia" from 1935. After Dottie went to bed on Saturday night, I had only planned on watching the two short silent movies that were on it. Then I made the mistake of deciding just to peek at the feature to see how good the print was...
I couldn't turn it off.
I will be looking for more of Mr. Gance...
I'd have done NetFlix long ago if I had a card that didn't have a balance on it so I wasn't paying interest on rentals...somehow that just doesn't seem "right".
I am impressed with their catalog and service! I have about a dozen silent movies in queue right now, lol.
Thus my reference to "cinemaphilia" in my last post...
May the rest of the week be kind!
alan
Sunday, January 06, 2008
"What a Difference...
a day makes"!
Somehow I can hear Etta James singing that in the back of my empty head...
Yesterday I awoke with thoughts of pulling my teeth with Channel-lock pliers to get rid of the pain the sinus pressure was causing in them. After a latte and a shower, I went to the clinic (yes, I have health care, but my office visits are over $100, unpaid, and I can go see a nurse practioner at Walgreens for $59) and got an antibiotic prescription. I got it filled, took my first dose, and got home just before Dottie got off work. I had been using Afrin nasal spray for 3 days to try and "dry things up" enough to survive work and relieve the pressure some, and rotating doses of Tylenol, ibuprofen and aspirin, 4 at a time, to try and kill the pain.
I quit using the nasal spray last night, and after it wore off switched to a Mucinex with a sinus med in it. Today I awoke stuffy, and with a mild headache, but the pressure is gone, and though my teeth feel "loose" the pain is gone.
Through the years people have asked "Where would you go it you had a time machine"? Since I got all these crowns and this porcelain bridge, my answer without hestitation is "No where without taking antibiotics with me"!
Last night when I got home John called; his dishwasher, part of their Christmas from last year, had quit. It didn't seem to be getting water. When he tried to use the shutoff valve we had put in, he found a small leak in it's base (there was a concoction of soft copper and fittings I didn't really like at the time, but it was the quickest way to do it, and I had hoped they'd be moved before it came back to haunt me). So I saved the video game I started over the holidays (Xenosaga 2, one of last years presents) and dosed up the Afrin again, then figured out Dottie would be home in a minute or two. I called her, she was a block away, so I waited for her and we both went to John's.
A survey of things; a trip home for tools and PVC pipe, a trip to Lowe's for fittings, back to John's so we could make a first attempt; back to my house for Dad's pipe cutter when John blew mine up; finally at 9 we had water to the dishwasher again with no leaks.
When we put it in, the only supply line we could get had a check valve in it in case the line should ever rupture. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Hooked it up, and didn't have water. Popped the dishwasher end off, no water. Took it off, turned it around and I could blow through it. Put it on backwards and squirted water in the sink. Hooked it up and it worked fine!
That was a year and a couple of weeks ago. When John took the same line off the dishwasher this time, he couldn't get water through it. He took it off and could blow through it both ways. He turned it around, still no water. That was when he discovered the leak and called me...
So we replaced it with a line with no check valve, but sadly, the dishwasher still won't fill. When we gave up and came home at 10 last night, he was digging for the book and Noel was digging for the receipt as we bought it with a warranty.
Sadly, I hadn't eaten before I went to the clinic. When I got home at 5 I ate a half a peanut butter sandwich because I was planning on feeding Dottie and I after she got out of the shower.
I hadn't counted on her not getting her shower until 10:15!
Dinner was at 10:40. She still had to wash her uniform...
When the movie "Waitress" ran at my local "arthouse" I really wanted to see it. I was working a lot of overtime and Saturdays at the time and didn't get a chance to.
There have been arthouse movies I wanted to see that Dottie didn't, and Noel and I have gone. She wanted to go to this one as well; when it came out on DVD she bought it and lent it to me during the holidays.
So I popped it in the DVD player, and was very glad I did!
Adrienne Shelly wrote and directed this wonderful piece of filmwork, starring Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion and others you will recognize. A brilliant piece of casting is someone I hadn't seen in a long while, Andy Griffith, who proves he "still has chops".
You might have caught a story in the news about Adrienne Shelly, as she was murdered as she was completing work on this lovely film.
My poor wife went to bed at 1:30 and had to be up at 7 to get ready for work...last week she did the same thing refusing to go to bed until we finished all 6 hours of "Tin Man".
This has already gotten too long; my next post I will venture into "cinemaphilia"...
It's 60 outside, I have a truck covered in road salt and scum; if the garden hose isn't frozen still, I'm going to try and clean it up before dark...
May the Monday and the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
BTW, since I was a bit vague below, the lovely mantle is at my sister's house in Lawrence, where most of the "family" parties are since it's about 4 times the size of my little house, and has more than one bathroom, lol! The parties that aren't there are at John and Noel's because it's larger as well. The only one we have here is Independence Day, because fireworks are still legal here...
Somehow I can hear Etta James singing that in the back of my empty head...
Yesterday I awoke with thoughts of pulling my teeth with Channel-lock pliers to get rid of the pain the sinus pressure was causing in them. After a latte and a shower, I went to the clinic (yes, I have health care, but my office visits are over $100, unpaid, and I can go see a nurse practioner at Walgreens for $59) and got an antibiotic prescription. I got it filled, took my first dose, and got home just before Dottie got off work. I had been using Afrin nasal spray for 3 days to try and "dry things up" enough to survive work and relieve the pressure some, and rotating doses of Tylenol, ibuprofen and aspirin, 4 at a time, to try and kill the pain.
I quit using the nasal spray last night, and after it wore off switched to a Mucinex with a sinus med in it. Today I awoke stuffy, and with a mild headache, but the pressure is gone, and though my teeth feel "loose" the pain is gone.
Through the years people have asked "Where would you go it you had a time machine"? Since I got all these crowns and this porcelain bridge, my answer without hestitation is "No where without taking antibiotics with me"!
Last night when I got home John called; his dishwasher, part of their Christmas from last year, had quit. It didn't seem to be getting water. When he tried to use the shutoff valve we had put in, he found a small leak in it's base (there was a concoction of soft copper and fittings I didn't really like at the time, but it was the quickest way to do it, and I had hoped they'd be moved before it came back to haunt me). So I saved the video game I started over the holidays (Xenosaga 2, one of last years presents) and dosed up the Afrin again, then figured out Dottie would be home in a minute or two. I called her, she was a block away, so I waited for her and we both went to John's.
A survey of things; a trip home for tools and PVC pipe, a trip to Lowe's for fittings, back to John's so we could make a first attempt; back to my house for Dad's pipe cutter when John blew mine up; finally at 9 we had water to the dishwasher again with no leaks.
When we put it in, the only supply line we could get had a check valve in it in case the line should ever rupture. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Hooked it up, and didn't have water. Popped the dishwasher end off, no water. Took it off, turned it around and I could blow through it. Put it on backwards and squirted water in the sink. Hooked it up and it worked fine!
That was a year and a couple of weeks ago. When John took the same line off the dishwasher this time, he couldn't get water through it. He took it off and could blow through it both ways. He turned it around, still no water. That was when he discovered the leak and called me...
So we replaced it with a line with no check valve, but sadly, the dishwasher still won't fill. When we gave up and came home at 10 last night, he was digging for the book and Noel was digging for the receipt as we bought it with a warranty.
Sadly, I hadn't eaten before I went to the clinic. When I got home at 5 I ate a half a peanut butter sandwich because I was planning on feeding Dottie and I after she got out of the shower.
I hadn't counted on her not getting her shower until 10:15!
Dinner was at 10:40. She still had to wash her uniform...
When the movie "Waitress" ran at my local "arthouse" I really wanted to see it. I was working a lot of overtime and Saturdays at the time and didn't get a chance to.
There have been arthouse movies I wanted to see that Dottie didn't, and Noel and I have gone. She wanted to go to this one as well; when it came out on DVD she bought it and lent it to me during the holidays.
So I popped it in the DVD player, and was very glad I did!
Adrienne Shelly wrote and directed this wonderful piece of filmwork, starring Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion and others you will recognize. A brilliant piece of casting is someone I hadn't seen in a long while, Andy Griffith, who proves he "still has chops".
You might have caught a story in the news about Adrienne Shelly, as she was murdered as she was completing work on this lovely film.
My poor wife went to bed at 1:30 and had to be up at 7 to get ready for work...last week she did the same thing refusing to go to bed until we finished all 6 hours of "Tin Man".
This has already gotten too long; my next post I will venture into "cinemaphilia"...
It's 60 outside, I have a truck covered in road salt and scum; if the garden hose isn't frozen still, I'm going to try and clean it up before dark...
May the Monday and the rest of the week be kind to each of you!
alan
BTW, since I was a bit vague below, the lovely mantle is at my sister's house in Lawrence, where most of the "family" parties are since it's about 4 times the size of my little house, and has more than one bathroom, lol! The parties that aren't there are at John and Noel's because it's larger as well. The only one we have here is Independence Day, because fireworks are still legal here...
Friday, January 04, 2008
Go, Granny, Go!
This is the photo I referred to in the post below...
The bug everyone was passing around through the holidays has finally come home to roost; Dottie stayed home sick today went to get some antibiotics. I'm fighting it and plan to do the same on Saturday as it's already trying to settle into my teeth.
Her regular day off is tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be around tomorrow night when I get home...
alan
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The grind...
begins anew in a few hours...though they said we'd only be working 8 hours these next 3 days, I'll believe it when I'm walking out the door! Next week we return to the long hours and get to work Saturday as well; of course, Dottie works this Saturday, so once again we are on opposite weekends...grrrrrrrrrrrr!
Friday we slipped out after tallying lists one last time, and saw "The Golden Compass" and the 2nd "National Treasure" movie; 4 thumbs up for them. Then we came home and while Dottie gathered things for Saturday's trip to my sister's I fixed dinner and we watched "The Lady Eve" with Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck from a Preston Sturges box set Dottie bought me last year. Not quite "Sullivan's Travels" but still an outstanding movie. If you only remember Stanwyck from "The Big Valley" checking out that one or "Ball of Fire" should be a treat!.
The family Christmas at my sister's went well. We were all still in recuperation mode after the trip to Wyoming the weekend before. Dottie and I picked up Mom from the nursing home and took her, but she decided that she didn't want to go twice in 3 days and backed out of the birthday/New Year's party for Monday. Since she's over 250now and Dottie has to take her each time she needs to go, it makes life a lot more enjoyable for her!
My desktop "has issues" this afternoon, or I would have included one photo from that first party...my Mom in her wheelchair playing "Guitar Hero"!
We kept the 3 grandkids overnight on Sunday. My last birthday gift from Dottie was a copy of "Tomb Raider: Anniversary" for PS2 (we gave a copy to my younger nephew for Christmas and after seeing it, since I don't usually play "action" games, we thought it might be one I actually could). The grandkids had taken turns on it the night before at Cindy's, and spent their time taking turns on it, watching Tom & Jerry cartoons, and playing their new Nintendo DS games while rotating throught the kitchen to help Dottie make a birthday cake and two toll pan cookies for the party on Monday.
Among my birthday gifts were an Armstrong double CD and a book by the historian who was called to catalog Armstrong's house after his wife's death and it's being given to a university. I remember a "Fresh Air" interview about it, and teared up a bit when I opened it. Cindy was a bit disappointed as the gift she was really looking forward to giving Dottie was delayed by the lovely weather we've all been having somewhere in it's travels. She found an original postcard of the Fairbanks scale works in St. Johnsbury, Vermont and bought it to frame for her.
I would have already listened to those discs, but when we replaced our DVD player in the living room last month it had one less set of jacks than the old one. I went to Radio Shack and bought a pair of "Y" cords, knowing I had old ones around here somewhere I can't find. When Dottie took them out of her purse and went to work the next morning it seems Frankie thought the gold tips were cute and absconded with one of them. I'm almost to the point of buying another after having looked high and low for it...I knew having a cat would be interesting, but there are some things I hadn't counted on!
Since Dottie had to work yesterday, on our trip home I left the radio off and she dozed a bit, or I'd have had one on in the car that night...I don't know how she goes to work on 5 and 6 hours sleep day after day; I know I can't do it!
Last night I had dinner ready when she got home and we watched "Tin Man", the Sci-Fi miniseries that ran last month. Quite a different take on Oz...though it won't replace the Judy Garland version, it's a treat in it's own right.
So, now, it's time to make another latte and start gathering things to return to "the grind"...
I hope the holidays brought some joy to each of you somewhere along the way, and that the New Year does the same! May the rest of the week be kind...
alan
Friday we slipped out after tallying lists one last time, and saw "The Golden Compass" and the 2nd "National Treasure" movie; 4 thumbs up for them. Then we came home and while Dottie gathered things for Saturday's trip to my sister's I fixed dinner and we watched "The Lady Eve" with Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck from a Preston Sturges box set Dottie bought me last year. Not quite "Sullivan's Travels" but still an outstanding movie. If you only remember Stanwyck from "The Big Valley" checking out that one or "Ball of Fire" should be a treat!.
The family Christmas at my sister's went well. We were all still in recuperation mode after the trip to Wyoming the weekend before. Dottie and I picked up Mom from the nursing home and took her, but she decided that she didn't want to go twice in 3 days and backed out of the birthday/New Year's party for Monday. Since she's over 250now and Dottie has to take her each time she needs to go, it makes life a lot more enjoyable for her!
My desktop "has issues" this afternoon, or I would have included one photo from that first party...my Mom in her wheelchair playing "Guitar Hero"!
We kept the 3 grandkids overnight on Sunday. My last birthday gift from Dottie was a copy of "Tomb Raider: Anniversary" for PS2 (we gave a copy to my younger nephew for Christmas and after seeing it, since I don't usually play "action" games, we thought it might be one I actually could). The grandkids had taken turns on it the night before at Cindy's, and spent their time taking turns on it, watching Tom & Jerry cartoons, and playing their new Nintendo DS games while rotating throught the kitchen to help Dottie make a birthday cake and two toll pan cookies for the party on Monday.
Among my birthday gifts were an Armstrong double CD and a book by the historian who was called to catalog Armstrong's house after his wife's death and it's being given to a university. I remember a "Fresh Air" interview about it, and teared up a bit when I opened it. Cindy was a bit disappointed as the gift she was really looking forward to giving Dottie was delayed by the lovely weather we've all been having somewhere in it's travels. She found an original postcard of the Fairbanks scale works in St. Johnsbury, Vermont and bought it to frame for her.
I would have already listened to those discs, but when we replaced our DVD player in the living room last month it had one less set of jacks than the old one. I went to Radio Shack and bought a pair of "Y" cords, knowing I had old ones around here somewhere I can't find. When Dottie took them out of her purse and went to work the next morning it seems Frankie thought the gold tips were cute and absconded with one of them. I'm almost to the point of buying another after having looked high and low for it...I knew having a cat would be interesting, but there are some things I hadn't counted on!
Since Dottie had to work yesterday, on our trip home I left the radio off and she dozed a bit, or I'd have had one on in the car that night...I don't know how she goes to work on 5 and 6 hours sleep day after day; I know I can't do it!
Last night I had dinner ready when she got home and we watched "Tin Man", the Sci-Fi miniseries that ran last month. Quite a different take on Oz...though it won't replace the Judy Garland version, it's a treat in it's own right.
So, now, it's time to make another latte and start gathering things to return to "the grind"...
I hope the holidays brought some joy to each of you somewhere along the way, and that the New Year does the same! May the rest of the week be kind...
alan
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
A Very Happy New Year!
To all! May 2008 bring you much happiness and dreams come true!
Very late, very tired; more later!
alan
Very late, very tired; more later!
alan
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Surviving Christmas...
is always a neat trick, but so far (knock on my wooden head) this year has been easier than some I remember!
We still ended up wrapping until 2AM, then since we were going to John and Noel's around noon for Christmas with them and the grandkids, we exchanged gifts when we were done wrapping everyone else's. She finally got her "Heroes: Season 1" set, and was delighted as it also has the "pilot" movie they never ran in it...
I on the other hand, was shocked!
I had told her a couple of times that I had thought of buying a Playstation 2 game to take to the family New Year's party next week, or the family Christmas party this Saturday. I couldn't bring myself to spend the money, though...
So imagine my shock when she hands me this big box...that rattles...
We've had some problems this year with things that rattle, whether it was the "Babylon 5" set I gave her for our anniversary, or the "Stargate: Atlantis" set she got for her birthday last month. That one took two returns to get one that didn't have a scratched disc in it!
As I pulled the paper off the box though, and opened it, the wireless guitar for "Guitar Hero" was just fine...as was the game. We spent 'til 4AM playing with it. The first two rounds she actually beat my score using the hand control...I went 0 for 360 in the first full song I tried! Seems that, not having read the instructions, I plugged the wireless reader into the "hand control 2" slot, so when she picked up the hand control, she started beating my first few efforts.
I took it to John's house yesterday; Bill and Laura came as well (having them both manage to get off work was a treat) and Bill, John and I took turns, then each grandchild took one turn. After that we 3 "boys" played for about 3 hours...
I was told to bring it to my sister's on Saturday for the family party. So it seems all the stories are true, it's quite the party game!
Today I finally gave up and backed my old Gateway up then updated it to SP2 and IE7. It took 12 hours of starts and restarts, but all seems well now. When Dottie got off work, she and I had to return 2 pair of Talia's jeans, and when we found the ones we needed, we found enough clothes to finish off her birthday shopping as well (coming up later next month). By the time we finished that and got home it was 10 when she got in the shower and I started dinner; we ate and finally caught up with "Battlestar Galactica: Razor" from a few weeks ago. Good movie, great series!
Tomorrow she works again, I have to wrap the gifts for the party on Saturday (along with tracking down one last one), and then Friday we are hoping the weather cooperates and we can slip off to a movie or two for the first time in a month, starting my birthday a day early as the family Christmas party is on Saturday, the actual day of my 52nd. If we survive that, we're planning to try to keep the grandkids Saturday night and Sunday so John and Noel can have a date night, then on Monday we'll have the November, December and January birthdays celebration at my sister's (there are 5 of us between Thanksgiving and the middle of January), along with New Years Eve.
I'm sorry to be slipping behind with all of your blogs this last week; the whirlwind shows no signs of slowing yet, but it will and I will catch up soon! You are all in my thoughts, and sometimes I swear I can hear a chuckle or two from some of you! In the meantime, I very much hope the week is being kind and that you all have wonderful and very Happy New Years!
alan
We still ended up wrapping until 2AM, then since we were going to John and Noel's around noon for Christmas with them and the grandkids, we exchanged gifts when we were done wrapping everyone else's. She finally got her "Heroes: Season 1" set, and was delighted as it also has the "pilot" movie they never ran in it...
I on the other hand, was shocked!
I had told her a couple of times that I had thought of buying a Playstation 2 game to take to the family New Year's party next week, or the family Christmas party this Saturday. I couldn't bring myself to spend the money, though...
So imagine my shock when she hands me this big box...that rattles...
We've had some problems this year with things that rattle, whether it was the "Babylon 5" set I gave her for our anniversary, or the "Stargate: Atlantis" set she got for her birthday last month. That one took two returns to get one that didn't have a scratched disc in it!
As I pulled the paper off the box though, and opened it, the wireless guitar for "Guitar Hero" was just fine...as was the game. We spent 'til 4AM playing with it. The first two rounds she actually beat my score using the hand control...I went 0 for 360 in the first full song I tried! Seems that, not having read the instructions, I plugged the wireless reader into the "hand control 2" slot, so when she picked up the hand control, she started beating my first few efforts.
I took it to John's house yesterday; Bill and Laura came as well (having them both manage to get off work was a treat) and Bill, John and I took turns, then each grandchild took one turn. After that we 3 "boys" played for about 3 hours...
I was told to bring it to my sister's on Saturday for the family party. So it seems all the stories are true, it's quite the party game!
Today I finally gave up and backed my old Gateway up then updated it to SP2 and IE7. It took 12 hours of starts and restarts, but all seems well now. When Dottie got off work, she and I had to return 2 pair of Talia's jeans, and when we found the ones we needed, we found enough clothes to finish off her birthday shopping as well (coming up later next month). By the time we finished that and got home it was 10 when she got in the shower and I started dinner; we ate and finally caught up with "Battlestar Galactica: Razor" from a few weeks ago. Good movie, great series!
Tomorrow she works again, I have to wrap the gifts for the party on Saturday (along with tracking down one last one), and then Friday we are hoping the weather cooperates and we can slip off to a movie or two for the first time in a month, starting my birthday a day early as the family Christmas party is on Saturday, the actual day of my 52nd. If we survive that, we're planning to try to keep the grandkids Saturday night and Sunday so John and Noel can have a date night, then on Monday we'll have the November, December and January birthdays celebration at my sister's (there are 5 of us between Thanksgiving and the middle of January), along with New Years Eve.
I'm sorry to be slipping behind with all of your blogs this last week; the whirlwind shows no signs of slowing yet, but it will and I will catch up soon! You are all in my thoughts, and sometimes I swear I can hear a chuckle or two from some of you! In the meantime, I very much hope the week is being kind and that you all have wonderful and very Happy New Years!
alan
Monday, December 24, 2007
There's No Place Like Home...
for the holidays, and we are!
Stopped on I-70 by a 30 car wreck on Saturday, after we lost the hour and a half for the detour that turned thousands of us around, we headed north into Nebraska and then across I-80; we came home the same way. All safe, all sound...
May your Christmases all be as bright as mine seems this moment!
alan
Stopped on I-70 by a 30 car wreck on Saturday, after we lost the hour and a half for the detour that turned thousands of us around, we headed north into Nebraska and then across I-80; we came home the same way. All safe, all sound...
May your Christmases all be as bright as mine seems this moment!
alan
Thursday, December 20, 2007
What fools these mortals be!
I've spent my little bits of free time this week gathering things for the road trip this weekend. Log chain, tow strap, come-a-long, 12V electric impact, space blankets, extra gloves...
The zipper in Dad's snowmobile suit disintigrated last winter, and I'm back in that size range again, so while Christmas shopping last week I found one that fit at Sears for almost half off. I dug out my "long underwear" and a couple pair of heavy socks, along with my old "felt pack" boots I've taped back together several times through the years, and once again taped them up.
Conversation with youngest son, my co-driver this weekend.
"I have a snowmobile suit that will fit you, and a double layer knit hat, but no boots. My last pair was $18 at Wal-Mart."
"I've got my sneakers, Dad. I'm sure my feet will be just fine. They might get a little cold, but I'll be OK."
Spoken by someone who has never seen his feet bluish purple as I have!
So I slipped out to Wal-Mart yesterday afternoon; no $18 boots, but a set for $34 that are rated to -40F. I also packed most of the things mentioned in the beginning behind the seat, cleaned all the glass inside and out and Rain-X'd it as it's supposed to be rain/snow all the way to the Colorado line on Saturday. Friday and early on Saturday they are supposed to get 1-2 feet of snow, so hopefully by the time I'm climbing out of Denver heading north at midnight on Saturday they will have cleared everything!
Many years ago now I made the mistake of baking brownies to take in to each of the groups of people I stock for. The last time I did it it was 14 pans. Last year I took vacation, and had not planned to start doing this again.
A few months ago a guy who had been around back then actually transferred to one of the teams I stock for now, saying "Christmas is coming and I am really looking forward to some of those brownies"!
So last night I came home at 4AM and made 3 pans; right now three more are in the oven. When I come home tonight I have one more round, and that's it! I know someone's feelings are going to be hurt, but I just can't give up any more sleep and survive this weekend!
Tomorrow Dottie is off, Saturday I leave for Laramie; I'll hopefully be back early Monday morning. Dottie is working Christmas Eve so if everything works out I'll try to leave a short post on Monday just to say I'm home and everything is OK...
May Friday be kind; may this last shopping weekend find you with all the gifts you need and time to wrap them!
Happy Holidays to each and every one of you; I love you all very much!
alan
The zipper in Dad's snowmobile suit disintigrated last winter, and I'm back in that size range again, so while Christmas shopping last week I found one that fit at Sears for almost half off. I dug out my "long underwear" and a couple pair of heavy socks, along with my old "felt pack" boots I've taped back together several times through the years, and once again taped them up.
Conversation with youngest son, my co-driver this weekend.
"I have a snowmobile suit that will fit you, and a double layer knit hat, but no boots. My last pair was $18 at Wal-Mart."
"I've got my sneakers, Dad. I'm sure my feet will be just fine. They might get a little cold, but I'll be OK."
Spoken by someone who has never seen his feet bluish purple as I have!
So I slipped out to Wal-Mart yesterday afternoon; no $18 boots, but a set for $34 that are rated to -40F. I also packed most of the things mentioned in the beginning behind the seat, cleaned all the glass inside and out and Rain-X'd it as it's supposed to be rain/snow all the way to the Colorado line on Saturday. Friday and early on Saturday they are supposed to get 1-2 feet of snow, so hopefully by the time I'm climbing out of Denver heading north at midnight on Saturday they will have cleared everything!
Many years ago now I made the mistake of baking brownies to take in to each of the groups of people I stock for. The last time I did it it was 14 pans. Last year I took vacation, and had not planned to start doing this again.
A few months ago a guy who had been around back then actually transferred to one of the teams I stock for now, saying "Christmas is coming and I am really looking forward to some of those brownies"!
So last night I came home at 4AM and made 3 pans; right now three more are in the oven. When I come home tonight I have one more round, and that's it! I know someone's feelings are going to be hurt, but I just can't give up any more sleep and survive this weekend!
Tomorrow Dottie is off, Saturday I leave for Laramie; I'll hopefully be back early Monday morning. Dottie is working Christmas Eve so if everything works out I'll try to leave a short post on Monday just to say I'm home and everything is OK...
May Friday be kind; may this last shopping weekend find you with all the gifts you need and time to wrap them!
Happy Holidays to each and every one of you; I love you all very much!
alan
Friday, December 14, 2007
31 years ago today...
We had had the license for several weeks, but this was the only day she and her cousin, the Navy Chief Petty Officer who introduced us, were both going to have off before Christmas. (Opposite duty sections and his ship was "in and out" at that time, doing shakedown cruises.)
So we met at a San Diego judge's home in Chula Vista after he got home from work that evening. With a couple of the guys I shared a house with, her cousin, and the judge's mother looking on, we got married. I in jeans and a t-shirt, she in jeans and a blouse.
I'd have never dreamed she'd put up with me for this long!
Though she has to work today, I've taken the last of my vacation days for the year; she was off Tuesday and I started them then. When she comes home tonight the shopping will be done, and there will be shrimp, steak and fried mushrooms ready when she gets out of the shower.
Tomorrow we are taking Noel (my younger son's wife) antiquing for part of her birthday, which was Wednesday. When we get back we'll be fixing her "birthday dinner" of "porcupine meatballs".
Sunday will be back to Christmas shopping and trying to tally the lists and "even things out" if that's ever possible, lol!
Monday- back to my 10 hour days (Cracker Lilo sent me a link to a song I need to go check out when Dottie's not sleeping), then next Saturday (the 22nd) I leave to pick up Jordan's car in Laramie and to try and get home before Christmas, safely! My younger son John is making that run with me as Dottie has to work. I've bought chains and set aside some other things, and am planning to be "vewy vewy caweful"! (With my receding hairline past the point of receding anymore, I'm starting to look a bit like old Elmer Fudd!)
So I'll be in and out, but don't know how much bloghopping I'll get done!
So, in this ramp up to the holidays...
May your days be merry, and bright!
alan
So we met at a San Diego judge's home in Chula Vista after he got home from work that evening. With a couple of the guys I shared a house with, her cousin, and the judge's mother looking on, we got married. I in jeans and a t-shirt, she in jeans and a blouse.
I'd have never dreamed she'd put up with me for this long!
Though she has to work today, I've taken the last of my vacation days for the year; she was off Tuesday and I started them then. When she comes home tonight the shopping will be done, and there will be shrimp, steak and fried mushrooms ready when she gets out of the shower.
Tomorrow we are taking Noel (my younger son's wife) antiquing for part of her birthday, which was Wednesday. When we get back we'll be fixing her "birthday dinner" of "porcupine meatballs".
Sunday will be back to Christmas shopping and trying to tally the lists and "even things out" if that's ever possible, lol!
Monday- back to my 10 hour days (Cracker Lilo sent me a link to a song I need to go check out when Dottie's not sleeping), then next Saturday (the 22nd) I leave to pick up Jordan's car in Laramie and to try and get home before Christmas, safely! My younger son John is making that run with me as Dottie has to work. I've bought chains and set aside some other things, and am planning to be "vewy vewy caweful"! (With my receding hairline past the point of receding anymore, I'm starting to look a bit like old Elmer Fudd!)
So I'll be in and out, but don't know how much bloghopping I'll get done!
So, in this ramp up to the holidays...
May your days be merry, and bright!
alan
Sunday, December 09, 2007
A Christmas Story...
Once upon a time, there was a little boy...
He was born at the beginning of the last century, a poor little boy from a very poor family. His father abandoned them; at some point his Mom gave he and a sister to his grandparents to raise.
The little boy grew and, as little boys do, managed to end up the wrong place at the wrong time, and being the wrong color as well, in the South, early in the last century, was sent to a children's home. There he learned a craft, and mastering it like no one had before him, rapidly gained fame.
His fame took him north, and continued to grow. His amazing talent saw him raise his status in life beyond the wildest dreams he could have hoped for. It also cost him his first 3 marriages...
Constantly traveling, giving much of himself to those who came to see him, he married again in his early 40's. By this time he was known all over the world. They said there wasn't a country you could visit where the mention of him didn't bring a smile!
After the 2nd World War ended, they traveled together, and she decided that though they were constantly on the move, she would surprise him with a Christmas tree. When he came back to their hotel room, he was indeed surprised!
As was she! Because this grown man cried like a child! She watched him sob and sob and finally got him to explain why he was crying so...
He had never, ever, had a Christmas tree before! Not one that was "his"! In his entire life!
He was so enraptured by the tree she had set up for him that he insisted they take it with them, and she later said that for 6 months after, every time they moved, she set that Christmas tree up for him in their new hotel room!
The little boy's name?
Louis Armstrong!
I read that in the liner notes of the Louis Armstrong "Memorial Album" that RCA issued after his death; each year and with every tree I see, I think of it and him.
And I am grateful!
Thank you, Pops!
alan
He was born at the beginning of the last century, a poor little boy from a very poor family. His father abandoned them; at some point his Mom gave he and a sister to his grandparents to raise.
The little boy grew and, as little boys do, managed to end up the wrong place at the wrong time, and being the wrong color as well, in the South, early in the last century, was sent to a children's home. There he learned a craft, and mastering it like no one had before him, rapidly gained fame.
His fame took him north, and continued to grow. His amazing talent saw him raise his status in life beyond the wildest dreams he could have hoped for. It also cost him his first 3 marriages...
Constantly traveling, giving much of himself to those who came to see him, he married again in his early 40's. By this time he was known all over the world. They said there wasn't a country you could visit where the mention of him didn't bring a smile!
After the 2nd World War ended, they traveled together, and she decided that though they were constantly on the move, she would surprise him with a Christmas tree. When he came back to their hotel room, he was indeed surprised!
As was she! Because this grown man cried like a child! She watched him sob and sob and finally got him to explain why he was crying so...
He had never, ever, had a Christmas tree before! Not one that was "his"! In his entire life!
He was so enraptured by the tree she had set up for him that he insisted they take it with them, and she later said that for 6 months after, every time they moved, she set that Christmas tree up for him in their new hotel room!
The little boy's name?
Louis Armstrong!
I read that in the liner notes of the Louis Armstrong "Memorial Album" that RCA issued after his death; each year and with every tree I see, I think of it and him.
And I am grateful!
Thank you, Pops!
alan
Monday, December 03, 2007
Letters, I get letters...
I received this from my Senator last Friday. I had signed a petition that went to both of them, but the other one, the one who was running for President doesn't usually bother with my correspondence.
Perhaps I should content myself with the idea that they will allot some money (that will probably never be signed over, like so many other programs) and do some studies. I'm sorry, I'm not!
His letter:
"Dear...,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts regarding federal hate crimes. I appreciate your insight into this complex legal issue.
In April, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced S. 1105, the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This legislation imposes criminal penalties for willful bodily harm motived by race, religion, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. It also authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to provide assistance to state and local governments for the prosecution of crimes motivated by race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. S. 1105 was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee where it awaits consideration.
Recently, the Senate passed H.R. 1585, the National Defense Authorization Act. During consideration of this bill, Senator Kennedy introduced an amendment similar to S. 1105. I voted against the amendment. However, it was approved by the Senate. I had several concerns with this amendment. We must be cautious in giving preferential treatment to select classes of victims. Every American is entitled to equal justice regardless of personal characteristics.
However, I voted for an amendment offered by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to authorize $5 million in funding to assist states and local governments in prosecuting hate crimes. The amendment also requires a federal study of the prevalence of hate crimes. At this point the Senate bill will be referred to a conference committee where conferees will resolve the differences between the Senate and House versions of the Defense Authorization Act.
Again thank you for taking the time to contact me. If you would like more information on issues before the Senate, please visit my website at http://roberts.senate.gov. You may also sign up on my home page for a monthly electronic newsletter that will provide additional updates on my work for Kansas.
With every best wish,
Sincerely,
Pat Roberts"
My reply:
"Sir,
I am in my early 50's and have seen a bit of life. I am a Vietnam Era Navy veteran, and was aboard the USS Kittyhawk on the WestPac cruise after several sailors were murdered on board her during race riots. I grew up with my Dad using words that I shan't repeat here to describe people of other races and of other origins because he had grown up in southern Oklahoma and thought that he could and that no one had a right to tell him not to. This included his son, who had his teeth put through his lip for his trouble.
I remember the race riots here in Kansas City and being terrified that my Dad could be killed because one of the Milgram stores he was a supervisor over was in the affected neighborhood. I also remember pondering the irony of that possibility and the language he used to describe the people of that neighborhood!
I remember his Wallace campaign button from those years...
My point, Sir, is that had it not been for the Civil Rights Acts of the mid 1960's, a whole group of citizens would have continued to be treated as they had been for a hundred years before that. It took Federal law, not state or local, to make their abuse stop!
Two years ago, in Lawrence, Kansas on a KU football weekend two students walking down Mass. Avenue were beaten by some Nebraska fans because they thought they were gay. Because they thought they could do that, because they thought they "had the right". Had it happened in other cities in this state, I'm not sure it would have been pursued with the same vigor it was in Lawrence.
Recently, in Montana, a girl was followed and beaten in the same manner. It took letters to the editor of the local newspaper to get an investigation begun there.
There is no excuse for this in this day and time! Until there is a Federal law on the books that says "if you don't deal with this, we will" it will continue just like the crimes we look at as hideous from earlier days in our history!
This is the time, Sir!
Please re-think your position on this?
The child you save could be my grandchild! Or yours!
Sincerely,"
There were many other things I would love to have thrown in, but feared that were it any longer it wouldn't be read at all. As it is, I haven't heard anything back from his office, and usually I get an acknowledgement of receipt.
The last letter that arrived at my home from my other Senator, the one who usually doesn't bother, was addressed to "Ms." and my first name. Guess we know what the former presidential candidate feels about me!
I had planned to post this tonight, but have some shopping I need to slip out and do early tomorrow, so plan on coming home and getting to bed "early" tonight as I possibly can. I have a 40% off coupon for Borders that expires tomorrow, and there is a "Heroes" box set that has Dottie's name written on it if I can get there before work...
alan
Perhaps I should content myself with the idea that they will allot some money (that will probably never be signed over, like so many other programs) and do some studies. I'm sorry, I'm not!
His letter:
"Dear...,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts regarding federal hate crimes. I appreciate your insight into this complex legal issue.
In April, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) introduced S. 1105, the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. This legislation imposes criminal penalties for willful bodily harm motived by race, religion, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. It also authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to provide assistance to state and local governments for the prosecution of crimes motivated by race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. S. 1105 was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee where it awaits consideration.
Recently, the Senate passed H.R. 1585, the National Defense Authorization Act. During consideration of this bill, Senator Kennedy introduced an amendment similar to S. 1105. I voted against the amendment. However, it was approved by the Senate. I had several concerns with this amendment. We must be cautious in giving preferential treatment to select classes of victims. Every American is entitled to equal justice regardless of personal characteristics.
However, I voted for an amendment offered by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to authorize $5 million in funding to assist states and local governments in prosecuting hate crimes. The amendment also requires a federal study of the prevalence of hate crimes. At this point the Senate bill will be referred to a conference committee where conferees will resolve the differences between the Senate and House versions of the Defense Authorization Act.
Again thank you for taking the time to contact me. If you would like more information on issues before the Senate, please visit my website at http://roberts.senate.gov. You may also sign up on my home page for a monthly electronic newsletter that will provide additional updates on my work for Kansas.
With every best wish,
Sincerely,
Pat Roberts"
My reply:
"Sir,
I am in my early 50's and have seen a bit of life. I am a Vietnam Era Navy veteran, and was aboard the USS Kittyhawk on the WestPac cruise after several sailors were murdered on board her during race riots. I grew up with my Dad using words that I shan't repeat here to describe people of other races and of other origins because he had grown up in southern Oklahoma and thought that he could and that no one had a right to tell him not to. This included his son, who had his teeth put through his lip for his trouble.
I remember the race riots here in Kansas City and being terrified that my Dad could be killed because one of the Milgram stores he was a supervisor over was in the affected neighborhood. I also remember pondering the irony of that possibility and the language he used to describe the people of that neighborhood!
I remember his Wallace campaign button from those years...
My point, Sir, is that had it not been for the Civil Rights Acts of the mid 1960's, a whole group of citizens would have continued to be treated as they had been for a hundred years before that. It took Federal law, not state or local, to make their abuse stop!
Two years ago, in Lawrence, Kansas on a KU football weekend two students walking down Mass. Avenue were beaten by some Nebraska fans because they thought they were gay. Because they thought they could do that, because they thought they "had the right". Had it happened in other cities in this state, I'm not sure it would have been pursued with the same vigor it was in Lawrence.
Recently, in Montana, a girl was followed and beaten in the same manner. It took letters to the editor of the local newspaper to get an investigation begun there.
There is no excuse for this in this day and time! Until there is a Federal law on the books that says "if you don't deal with this, we will" it will continue just like the crimes we look at as hideous from earlier days in our history!
This is the time, Sir!
Please re-think your position on this?
The child you save could be my grandchild! Or yours!
Sincerely,"
There were many other things I would love to have thrown in, but feared that were it any longer it wouldn't be read at all. As it is, I haven't heard anything back from his office, and usually I get an acknowledgement of receipt.
The last letter that arrived at my home from my other Senator, the one who usually doesn't bother, was addressed to "Ms." and my first name. Guess we know what the former presidential candidate feels about me!
I had planned to post this tonight, but have some shopping I need to slip out and do early tomorrow, so plan on coming home and getting to bed "early" tonight as I possibly can. I have a 40% off coupon for Borders that expires tomorrow, and there is a "Heroes" box set that has Dottie's name written on it if I can get there before work...
alan
What a ride!
Mercifully, we only did 8 hours on Saturday night. I got home just before 2, instead of 4...
Dottie was still up, having let her hours slip closer to mine; now she's paying the price as she's trying to go to sleep at almost 2:30AM and she has to get up at 8. I always try to talk her out of it; sometimes I win, but usually I don't.
I slept 'til noon today, then after some coffee and muffins and re-writing some lists, we headed out to load Santa's sleigh. First was Lowe's though, as 4 of my sand tubes from last year had rotted so they're now in a barrel on the corner of the patio to sand my driveway and the street in front of the house on the bad nights, and 4 new ones replaced them along with the 3 I saved from last year in the bed of my truck, as they're talking about a major rain/snow/ice storm on Thursday night into Friday.
Then it was an electronic store for the first major round. We got all but one game on our list there, filled my truck on the way home and traded it for her car, then set out again. Picked up the other game we needed, hit a bookstore I had some coupons for, then off to clothes shop for the grandkids. In a bit over 5 hours we took care of almost everything.
Now Dottie will spend the next few evenings logging it all, adding it all up to try and make sure things are even between all the kids and grandkids, then there will be some juggling things as there are some birthdays coming early in the year if she's over, or picking up a few odds and ends to even things out. Hopefully (finger and toes crossed) there are only a few more forays into the holiday throng before it's all done!
Which is good because I'm scheduled for 6 days again this next week, and she has Friday off and then works the weekend.
I got a letter back from one of my state Senators about his views on the "Matthew Shepard Act" (Senate Bill S-1105). He didn't please me at all with it, and I had planned to post it tonight along with my reply, but that was when I thought my wife would be asleep 3 hours ago...I am going to write my reply tonight and will try and get it posted in the next few days.
Forgive my scarcity of late, life's been a bit of a whirl!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Dottie was still up, having let her hours slip closer to mine; now she's paying the price as she's trying to go to sleep at almost 2:30AM and she has to get up at 8. I always try to talk her out of it; sometimes I win, but usually I don't.
I slept 'til noon today, then after some coffee and muffins and re-writing some lists, we headed out to load Santa's sleigh. First was Lowe's though, as 4 of my sand tubes from last year had rotted so they're now in a barrel on the corner of the patio to sand my driveway and the street in front of the house on the bad nights, and 4 new ones replaced them along with the 3 I saved from last year in the bed of my truck, as they're talking about a major rain/snow/ice storm on Thursday night into Friday.
Then it was an electronic store for the first major round. We got all but one game on our list there, filled my truck on the way home and traded it for her car, then set out again. Picked up the other game we needed, hit a bookstore I had some coupons for, then off to clothes shop for the grandkids. In a bit over 5 hours we took care of almost everything.
Now Dottie will spend the next few evenings logging it all, adding it all up to try and make sure things are even between all the kids and grandkids, then there will be some juggling things as there are some birthdays coming early in the year if she's over, or picking up a few odds and ends to even things out. Hopefully (finger and toes crossed) there are only a few more forays into the holiday throng before it's all done!
Which is good because I'm scheduled for 6 days again this next week, and she has Friday off and then works the weekend.
I got a letter back from one of my state Senators about his views on the "Matthew Shepard Act" (Senate Bill S-1105). He didn't please me at all with it, and I had planned to post it tonight along with my reply, but that was when I thought my wife would be asleep 3 hours ago...I am going to write my reply tonight and will try and get it posted in the next few days.
Forgive my scarcity of late, life's been a bit of a whirl!
May the week be kind to each of you!
alan
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Bumpy...
these first few days back...trying to let my hours slip and keep all the other balls in the air, so to speak!
I figured out the other night that I have about 3 hours a day to have a life on these hours:
I try to get out the door to leave for work about 4:30 in the afternoon; if I'm lucky I'm back in front of the dresser at 4AM. There went 11.5 hours.
If (conservatively) I allot an hour a day to cooking, eating, packing my cooler and taking a shower, and a half hour to the other things that have to be done around the house each day I'm up to 13.
I try to get 8 hours sleep each night. Some nights that's harder than others (last night I woke up about once an hour for some reason...aches, pains...trips to the little boy's room...). If I don't, then I start screwing things up (like Monday night when I set a rack of "wrong" stock on the line). Now we're up to 21...
So that leaves 3...
I had planned to write something last night but I was cross-eyed. I'm not much better tonight, but I needed bibs for work tomorrow so they are in the wash right now. In a minute I'm going to slip off and watch one episode of "Ghost in the Shell"; that will be the first thing I've watched since Sunday.
All this fun and I get to do it for 6 days this week as well...hmmmmmm!
Lou Costello used to say "I must have been a baaaaaaaaaaaaad boy"!
Sometimes it feels that way!
Hopefully tomorrow night I will slip around and check in with some of you...right now I just want to lie down 'til the washing machine stops!
Thinking of you each...may the rest of your weeks be kind!
alan
I figured out the other night that I have about 3 hours a day to have a life on these hours:
I try to get out the door to leave for work about 4:30 in the afternoon; if I'm lucky I'm back in front of the dresser at 4AM. There went 11.5 hours.
If (conservatively) I allot an hour a day to cooking, eating, packing my cooler and taking a shower, and a half hour to the other things that have to be done around the house each day I'm up to 13.
I try to get 8 hours sleep each night. Some nights that's harder than others (last night I woke up about once an hour for some reason...aches, pains...trips to the little boy's room...). If I don't, then I start screwing things up (like Monday night when I set a rack of "wrong" stock on the line). Now we're up to 21...
So that leaves 3...
I had planned to write something last night but I was cross-eyed. I'm not much better tonight, but I needed bibs for work tomorrow so they are in the wash right now. In a minute I'm going to slip off and watch one episode of "Ghost in the Shell"; that will be the first thing I've watched since Sunday.
All this fun and I get to do it for 6 days this week as well...hmmmmmm!
Lou Costello used to say "I must have been a baaaaaaaaaaaaad boy"!
Sometimes it feels that way!
Hopefully tomorrow night I will slip around and check in with some of you...right now I just want to lie down 'til the washing machine stops!
Thinking of you each...may the rest of your weeks be kind!
alan
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Vacation winding down...
and as it does, I wonder how I find time to go to work!
Thanksgiving went well. I managed to distract Dottie while she was making pies Wednesday evening and she forgot to turn down the oven on one of the apples; that one ended up broken up into a corningware dish in our fridge so she could re-use the ceramic pie pan to make another...she thought for once that she would be done in time to get a "good night's sleep" and instead she ended up going to bed around 2. I was forgiven, though!
Yesterday we (Dottie, younger son, his wife, the 3 grandkids, his brother-in-law who lives with them now along with my sister and her family) all went to see "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium". I had read a piece in the USA Today about it 6 months or so ago, and knew I would be going to see it if no one else wanted to. 26 thumbs up...I will own that one when it comes out!
Last night I thawed our turkey and will be putting it in the oven shortly. A small one just for us, as Bill and Laura are both working this weekend so we won't be getting to have our own family after-dinner like we've done the past few years. By the time Dottie comes home all will be done except for making the gravy. My grandmother taught her, and it's one of the few things I just can't quite get right. Someday!
Meanwhile, I'm running laundry and watching the thermometer because if it breaks 40 there are some things outside I'd like to try and get done. Yesterday the caulk I had worked on Tuesday hadn't set up yet...have some wood it would be nice to get in prime tomorrow, as it's supposed to make it to 50 again. We'll see!
Monday I go back to work after my 10 days off; the feeling of dread has already tried to settle in. Back to the "rat race"...hopefully with others doing my job they've decided it really is too much for one person and taken something off!
(Not holding my breath on that! By way of explanation, they used to expect us to deliver 8 things per hours; as they put the radio monitors on our forklifts that has gone up but there are still only so many things you can do in one hour. Most anything takes at least 3 minutes by the time you deal with the empty container, the full container, and opening one or closing the other. Some take 4 or 5; some you have to take 2 containers and that puts you up to around 8 minutes. The last night I worked I delivered 12 in the first half hour. All things that would shut the line down if I didn't deliver them, the ones that weren't I skipped over. Partly because dayshift doesn't like to order, partly because too many of my parts come in 20 to 36 part containers. My team leader came and picked up 3 more off my screen, and I delivered 8 more after that...)
So, for the next few weeks, I'm back on ten hour days; the first two weeks of December are 6 day weeks as well; they want every Malibu we can build before the Christmas shut-down week. Dealers are still begging to get more than one or two; a good sign with it being the holidays because normally car sales "die" right now and stay "dead" until people start getting their tax checks. A good time of the year for it, with all the kids and grandkids to shop for, but backbreaking none the less.
Now my sights turn towards that Christmas shut-down week. I work on Friday night; Saturday morning I have to get up and head for Wyoming again to pick up the Galaxie that we trailered up there several months ago. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we'll be back late Sunday in time to rest up for the holiday! Dottie can't go this time, so my younger son is supposed to ride shotgun...I don't really want to try it by myself that time of year!
It's Dottie's lunchtime now, and time for me to go find my cellphone! I need to move laundry as well...then after she calls I'll start preparing dinner.
May the rest of the weekend be kind to you all!
alan
Thanksgiving went well. I managed to distract Dottie while she was making pies Wednesday evening and she forgot to turn down the oven on one of the apples; that one ended up broken up into a corningware dish in our fridge so she could re-use the ceramic pie pan to make another...she thought for once that she would be done in time to get a "good night's sleep" and instead she ended up going to bed around 2. I was forgiven, though!
Yesterday we (Dottie, younger son, his wife, the 3 grandkids, his brother-in-law who lives with them now along with my sister and her family) all went to see "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium". I had read a piece in the USA Today about it 6 months or so ago, and knew I would be going to see it if no one else wanted to. 26 thumbs up...I will own that one when it comes out!
Last night I thawed our turkey and will be putting it in the oven shortly. A small one just for us, as Bill and Laura are both working this weekend so we won't be getting to have our own family after-dinner like we've done the past few years. By the time Dottie comes home all will be done except for making the gravy. My grandmother taught her, and it's one of the few things I just can't quite get right. Someday!
Meanwhile, I'm running laundry and watching the thermometer because if it breaks 40 there are some things outside I'd like to try and get done. Yesterday the caulk I had worked on Tuesday hadn't set up yet...have some wood it would be nice to get in prime tomorrow, as it's supposed to make it to 50 again. We'll see!
Monday I go back to work after my 10 days off; the feeling of dread has already tried to settle in. Back to the "rat race"...hopefully with others doing my job they've decided it really is too much for one person and taken something off!
(Not holding my breath on that! By way of explanation, they used to expect us to deliver 8 things per hours; as they put the radio monitors on our forklifts that has gone up but there are still only so many things you can do in one hour. Most anything takes at least 3 minutes by the time you deal with the empty container, the full container, and opening one or closing the other. Some take 4 or 5; some you have to take 2 containers and that puts you up to around 8 minutes. The last night I worked I delivered 12 in the first half hour. All things that would shut the line down if I didn't deliver them, the ones that weren't I skipped over. Partly because dayshift doesn't like to order, partly because too many of my parts come in 20 to 36 part containers. My team leader came and picked up 3 more off my screen, and I delivered 8 more after that...)
So, for the next few weeks, I'm back on ten hour days; the first two weeks of December are 6 day weeks as well; they want every Malibu we can build before the Christmas shut-down week. Dealers are still begging to get more than one or two; a good sign with it being the holidays because normally car sales "die" right now and stay "dead" until people start getting their tax checks. A good time of the year for it, with all the kids and grandkids to shop for, but backbreaking none the less.
Now my sights turn towards that Christmas shut-down week. I work on Friday night; Saturday morning I have to get up and head for Wyoming again to pick up the Galaxie that we trailered up there several months ago. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we'll be back late Sunday in time to rest up for the holiday! Dottie can't go this time, so my younger son is supposed to ride shotgun...I don't really want to try it by myself that time of year!
It's Dottie's lunchtime now, and time for me to go find my cellphone! I need to move laundry as well...then after she calls I'll start preparing dinner.
May the rest of the weekend be kind to you all!
alan
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
If this doesn't...
make your foot tap and bring you a smile, you're dead!
Happy Thanksgiving to those who will be partaking tomorrow; may the week be kind to the rest of you!
Enjoy!
Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge (one of the most underated men to ever pick up a horn) with Gene Krupa's band...
alan
Happy Thanksgiving to those who will be partaking tomorrow; may the week be kind to the rest of you!
Enjoy!
Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge (one of the most underated men to ever pick up a horn) with Gene Krupa's band...
alan
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Guilty pleasures...
Before I get to those...
I had a few questions asked about my using Melatonin to go to sleep when I come home.
If you can imagine getting off work from a physical job and trying to go to sleep an hour after you get home, that's what going to bed at 5AM is like for me. It's the equivalent of going to bed at 6 or 6:30 for someone on a "normal" schedule.
Melatonin seems to work well for me and isn't "habit forming" like the other things I keep reading about. I don't take it, though, if I have less than 6 or 7 hours ahead of me to sleep and if I get less than 8 I wake up a bit "slow"; if I can get 8 or 9 hours, I'm just fine. I always try to get 8 when I'm working for fear of running someone over with a 16,000 pound forklift when they walk out in front of me oblivious to their surroundings.
I first read about melatonin in an "Alaska" magazine as one of the recommendations for dealing with the sun/lack of sun issues at certain times of the year. For me, it comes in especially handy when I try and flip my hours as I did last night, going to bed at midnight instead of 5AM and getting up at 8. Dottie refuses to take anything she doesn't "have" to, and if she lets her hours slip to mine she can't go to sleep the night before she has to go back to work. Plus right now, I need the daylight hours to try and finish my outside projects as the weather is due in Tuesday evening...freezing rain, etc..
It was also mentioned in some other things I've read. There's a lot of information on the net as well, if you are interested in it.
On to the promised "Guilty Pleasures"!
I mentioned something the other day in a comment about watching "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader". Whether it's realizing how much I've forgotten, being shocked at how much earlier things are learned now than they were "in my day" or pleasantly surprising myself with some of the questions I get right, each week that's one hour the two of us enjoy. Of course, many of the answers I get right, I didn't learn in school...
Of the new shows on TV, "Big Bang Theory" has been a treat as well! Well written, funny, and well cast! I will miss it when they run out of episodes due to the writer's strike. "Samantha Who" has been pretty good as well. There are some others we've recorded that we have yet to find time together to watch, so I know what we'll be doing when the new episodes of other things run out!
The "Big Band" channel on my Music Choice on our cable has been on way too much lately, and caused countless searches of the "Solid" database and Amazon and caused my Amazon list to grow by a few pages...
For a treat when the weather finally closes in I picked up the 2nd series of "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex". I got hooked on the first series several years ago, have seen all the movies, and bought the mangas as well. Something about the human/cyber connection intrigues me.
Last but not least, with all the time I've been spending outside these last few weeks, watching our 11-going-on-12 year old dog act more like a pup since her arthritis pain is being eased by the MSM/Glucosamine/Chondroitin combination our vet found has been a treat. Though she can't outrun Bill anymore, she can run my legs off if she wants to, and refuses to stay in the house if I'm outside doing anything. It's quite a change from a few months ago when she couldn't hardly use one leg, and had great difficulty getting up off the floor if she laid there too long! (Boy do I know that feeling!)
Speaking of outside, time to go check some wood putty and get back to work...
May the weekend be lovely and kind to you all!
alan
I had a few questions asked about my using Melatonin to go to sleep when I come home.
If you can imagine getting off work from a physical job and trying to go to sleep an hour after you get home, that's what going to bed at 5AM is like for me. It's the equivalent of going to bed at 6 or 6:30 for someone on a "normal" schedule.
Melatonin seems to work well for me and isn't "habit forming" like the other things I keep reading about. I don't take it, though, if I have less than 6 or 7 hours ahead of me to sleep and if I get less than 8 I wake up a bit "slow"; if I can get 8 or 9 hours, I'm just fine. I always try to get 8 when I'm working for fear of running someone over with a 16,000 pound forklift when they walk out in front of me oblivious to their surroundings.
I first read about melatonin in an "Alaska" magazine as one of the recommendations for dealing with the sun/lack of sun issues at certain times of the year. For me, it comes in especially handy when I try and flip my hours as I did last night, going to bed at midnight instead of 5AM and getting up at 8. Dottie refuses to take anything she doesn't "have" to, and if she lets her hours slip to mine she can't go to sleep the night before she has to go back to work. Plus right now, I need the daylight hours to try and finish my outside projects as the weather is due in Tuesday evening...freezing rain, etc..
It was also mentioned in some other things I've read. There's a lot of information on the net as well, if you are interested in it.
On to the promised "Guilty Pleasures"!
I mentioned something the other day in a comment about watching "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader". Whether it's realizing how much I've forgotten, being shocked at how much earlier things are learned now than they were "in my day" or pleasantly surprising myself with some of the questions I get right, each week that's one hour the two of us enjoy. Of course, many of the answers I get right, I didn't learn in school...
Of the new shows on TV, "Big Bang Theory" has been a treat as well! Well written, funny, and well cast! I will miss it when they run out of episodes due to the writer's strike. "Samantha Who" has been pretty good as well. There are some others we've recorded that we have yet to find time together to watch, so I know what we'll be doing when the new episodes of other things run out!
The "Big Band" channel on my Music Choice on our cable has been on way too much lately, and caused countless searches of the "Solid" database and Amazon and caused my Amazon list to grow by a few pages...
For a treat when the weather finally closes in I picked up the 2nd series of "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex". I got hooked on the first series several years ago, have seen all the movies, and bought the mangas as well. Something about the human/cyber connection intrigues me.
Last but not least, with all the time I've been spending outside these last few weeks, watching our 11-going-on-12 year old dog act more like a pup since her arthritis pain is being eased by the MSM/Glucosamine/Chondroitin combination our vet found has been a treat. Though she can't outrun Bill anymore, she can run my legs off if she wants to, and refuses to stay in the house if I'm outside doing anything. It's quite a change from a few months ago when she couldn't hardly use one leg, and had great difficulty getting up off the floor if she laid there too long! (Boy do I know that feeling!)
Speaking of outside, time to go check some wood putty and get back to work...
May the weekend be lovely and kind to you all!
alan
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