 Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans, cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Wednesday, January 08, 2020
Rhythm Found and Lost
And then came 2020 (whose song should be "I Can See Clearly Now") and Bill and Caran's New Year's Eve party, and the Tournament of Roses Parade now being ruined by performances at the beginning and end, and they actually stopped the flippin' parade in the middle to have another musical performance—are you kidding me? And then came cleaning the house for the party, and then The Party, which was a blast.
And so came Twelfth Night, and so came Epiphany, and Monday night, with the usual regret, I pulled all the plugs on the lights—except for the Christmas tree, which we shall enjoy at night until I take it down, and the airplane tree, which is in the spot opposite the door to the garage that provides James light "downrange" (so to speak) when he leaves for work in the morning. So when I got up Tuesday, where to start? Upstairs? Downstairs? In my lady's chamber? I ended up doing a little bit of everything: herding things in corners out to where they will be found when I pack up (for instance, the red wire tree in the master bath or the gingerbread decorations on either side of the kitchen window), taking down all the indoor door wreaths and candoliers in the windows, packing up the couple of Christmas pillows and a throw and most of the Christmas stuffed animals. What I definitely wanted to get accomplished was taking down the airplane tree and putting back the usual light source there: the lighted autumn-leaf tree we bought at Cracker Barrel in Knoxville on our way to vacation in Pennsylvania in 2009 (so it was 10 years old in November). Got not only that done, but took down the library tree and packed up everything downstairs. I took the opportunity to put a few things into the donation box: some candles I've never lit and don't intend to, three of a set of nine small ceramic houses, as only six fit under the library tree and there's no real room for them. I got almost all the boxes upstairs to start packing that stuff up, but fell victim to the allure of designing a new web page. Thought it was high time to do that tribute to Kate Seredy I'd always intended to do; I'd already screencapped some of her art, but had not assembled all of it, or put together a biography and a bibliography, so I spent around three hours working on that throughout the day, then had to lay off since it was time to cook dinner: made steak and buttered potatoes. Today would be different. But trouble was brewing: James came home Tuesday night complaining about a pain in his right lower back. It had come on him suddenly around five o'clock, and, had it been ten years ago, he would have just suspected he turned wrong. However, since the pain was near one of his kidneys, we were now more suspicious. He had to forego his Ambien to take a pain pill and then says he didn't sleep most of the night for the pain. By the time five a.m. came he was groaning audibly and said we might need to go to Urgent Care after breakfast. Needless to say, that was enough to keep me awake until first light, not to mention wreaking havoc on my digestion. James called in sick and we decided to eat breakfast first, because once you get to Urgent Care, you could starve to death or eat the dreadful pre-made ham and cheese sandwiches they keep back there. Kaiser keeps advertising these Express Clinics at each of their facilities, so I wondered if we just couldn't go to the one at Cumberland. So we went there first, thinking all they could do was tell us to go to Urgent Care at Town Center. I went in to see if the Express Clinic was actually open, as it wasn't last week, nor was it today (so why keep promoting it, guys????), but they had available appointments, and James could either go to a strange doctor at 9:20 or see his own doctor at two. We chose to come back at two; James swigged another pain pill and planted himself in his computer chair with a heating pad, and I frankly fell asleep on the sofa for over an hour. Then we both had something for lunch and went back for his appointment. The doctor thinks James might have spinal stenosis (he has all the symptoms, including the pain lessening when he leans forward) in his compressed discs, and is arranging for an MRI. Oddly, we had an appointment arranged with the doctor for tomorrow after we got back from Southwood to see James' urologist, so he let us roll tomorrow's appointment into today: James needed four prescriptions renewed, asked what to do about a minor problem, and got a "prescription" to see if we can afford to get him a new power chair (he is apparently allowed one every five to six years, and he is going to have to replace both motors on the old chair anyway, which will run about $600). I just realized he forgot to ask for a referral to the podiatrist so he can get new orthopedic shoes; his are two years old and pretty scuffed up. Ah, well, we remembered most of it. We got home in time for me to take down the net and bush lights outside, pack up the outside decorations, banner, wreath, and mailbox cover (since it's supposed to rain like crazy starting Friday), and put up the winter banner and wreath, and then come inside for supper, which was leftover egg rolls from the party and not very appetizing. I am irritated with myself for getting so nerved up I couldn't do anything during the time we were at home this morning and just lost my rhythm. (I did take the decorations down in the hall bath—but that takes like ten minutes, tops—except for the snowman soap dispenser which will get put up once it's empty.) But I could have managed more today with a lack of sleep and a dicky digestive system. Really enjoying the Jeopardy "Greatest of All Time" tournament! The questions are really challenging and it's always fun watching these three guys play, they are so good. Man, is anyone else staring when the date pops up on a screen or a paper somewhere "January 2020"? I mean, it's 2020. When I was a kid, that was supposed to be the super future. We were supposed to have cured cancer, defeated racism, had flying cars, and Picturephones. Of all that only the last has come true via Skype and Facetime, and really, who cares? Labels: chores, Christmas, decorations, Epiphany, health, sickness, television, website  » Monday, January 02, 2017
The Party's Over
Well, this was it. The last of eighteen days of freedom. Most were wonderful to okay. One was scary. Two were depressing.
Today was...rainy. But we needed the rain. I was inside warm and dry (except during dog walks) where James was teleworking. Slept until almost nine, had the usual breakfast and dog walk, and settled in to do my annual chore: updating the copyrights on my web pages. Between my web software and Firefox's FTP software, this didn't take too long. Keep looking at my web page, which is now so dated, and I've never done web pages for Snowy and Tucker. I keep promising myself to do something, and then when I have time, I have no inspiration. So...just waiting. Cleaned up a few things in my craft room, tossed some stuff away, but most of the day I was recording off the BBC and reading Facebook and Christmas magazines and listening to Christmas music. We had the Christmas tree on, and James' work was very slow. In the morning we watched the Tournament of Roses Parade on HGTV with no commercials. The usual colorful show: beautiful floats, bands, horses. Several cavalry troops. Farmer's Insurance did a float based on one of their commercials (the swimming dogs). Netflix's float featured the Little Prince. The National Hockey League had a float to celebrate their 100th anniversary. There was a neat Monkey King float that made me want to watch Alakazam the Great again. The Trader Joe's float had a steampunk "driver." Was going to watch this year's outdoor hockey game, but it wasn't snowing, so, no fun. We got mail today; my winter flag arrived, covered with snowflakes and nice and blue. Beef bits and Yukon Gold potatoes for supper, and I'm now watching The American St. Nick, about an American soldier who played St. Nicholas in a Luxembourg town in December 1944. Labels: holiday, New Year, television, weather, website » Saturday, January 16, 2016
Marketing and Computing, With a Western Sojourn
 OMG! The shelf in the closet fell down again!Well, no. I was awakened at 2:30 by an almighty thump that sounded like the shelf had indeed yanked out from the studs and crashed down. Instead, James had started up to use the bathroom, got his foot tangled in the blankets, and slid right off the bed onto the floor. He pulled a couple of muscles and has a small raw patch on his face where he hit the corner of his nighttable, but was otherwise okay. He was stiff, this morning, though, when we got up to go to the Farmer's Market. Tucker was almost out of bedtime cookies and we hadn't been in a while. The winter market doesn't start until ten, so we were only a little late and were lucky enough to find someone pulling out of a parking space of the lot on Powder Springs Road, since the car in front of us had nabbed the last handicapped space. This way we didn't have to go to the lot behind Johnnie McCracken's Pub. We took Tucker with us and, as always, and after not having gone for a long time, he was frantically distracted by all the scents and the other dogs. A big leggy Labrador cross begged him to play and he also had a nice long sniff session with a basset hound. We just got some little scones for dessert and the dog biscuits, but had the fun of walking around, since it was a beautiful day for it, sunny, upper 40s. Sadly, Pine Street Market's sample bacon was all gone when we got there. James brought Tucker and I home and then went off to his club meeting. I went to Publix and picked up some twofers and found some lamb and bought a paper since it's a holiday weekend and there won't be coupons (or actually only one coupon booklet) and the double paper isn't worth it otherwise. I also checked out the new (well, it was new when I intended to check it out) thrift store on South Cobb Drive, but it was 98 percent clothing. Boring. Checked out the books. The used furniture was mostly junk. I would never have donated stuff in that condition. Came home and spent about two hours updating the copyright dates on my domains and also worked on a problem: I had some images on the Earthlink site that simply would not show up. One, the header on my "Birdwatching" page had vanished completely, including from my computer; I was able to find it again by using "The Wayback Machine" web archive site. I couldn't figure out what was going on with the rest of them until I noticed in Paint Shop Pro that all the missing files were named with uppercase only letters, but the links on the webpages were lowercase. Apparently while this never bothered Earthlink's web storage space before, something has changed. When I renamed them in lower case letters and uploaded them, they all worked fine. Also brought a few more things downstairs, finished Susan Branch's The Fairy Tale Girl, let Tucker out on the deck to enjoy himself as he likes, checking out the yard for cats and watching for bunnies, resorted some books—it was odd, I kept busy but didn't really do much. Had some soup very late. When James came home we went to the West Cobb Diner for supper. It was very crowded and he actually fell asleep waiting for the waitress to call our names. Brought a nice bit of turkey and dressing home for a lunch. We had some coupons for Barnes & Noble, but none of my series have any new books and he didn't find anything either. I think I am going to order a book I want online instead, since none of the stores have it in stock. I did get the new EW, with the nice Benedict Cumberbatch-as-Doctor Strange photos (now there was a match made in heaven), a "Vintage Style," and the "Blue Ridge Country" 2016 travel guide. Spent the rest of the evening watching the first three episodes of the series Longmire, which Louis Robinson is always talking about. Robert Taylor plays a modern-day sheriff in a small Wyoming town, Katee Sackhoff (from the Battlestar Galactica reboot) as a transplanted deputy, and Lou Diamond Phillips as his Native American buddy from way back. Excellent so far! Labels: books, errands, magazines, shopping, television, website » Friday, April 17, 2015
Websites = Timesink
Oh, I had so many plans for cleaning today!Well, I did manage to clean off most of the horizontal attractant; otherwise known as the dining room table. I put the oyster crackers in a glass jar, put up the rest of the stuff we bought at Buford and Trader Joe's, and put away James' fruit bars. Still don't have any place for the juice boxes I bought to take to 221B, but then we will use them in a few weeks for Timegate. Probably need to plan to take our lunch, at least, as the new hotel's restaurant is horribly expensive. Can't believe we finally got the restaurant to behave halfway decently at the old hotel after so many years and now the venue is changed! Did some tidying in the kitchen at least and reloaded the dishwasher and washed, and of course Tucker and I had our walk (and it started raining, as it has for the past week). I was entrapped quite willingly for most of the afternoon by my Doctor Simon Locke webpage; since RetroTV isn't showing the other three episodes, I might as well finish up what I intended to do when I completed the descriptions. On odd nights when Retro was coming in halfway decently, I pointed my camera at the screen—yes, a very old-fashioned method, camera copying! this is how I saw my first episodes of Blake's 7—and took short movies of what was playing on the television, clips of about one to two minutes. This is how I got the screen caps for the titles already on the page as well. Today I took the rest of the screen caps and distributed them liberally about the page (capped a couple more today and redid both the opening graphic and the actors' title photos in the cast section). Then I went through, rewrote a bit here and there, and proofread. All that was left was the upload. By this time spending so much time at the monitor was making the letters on the screen dance before my eyes, so I quit and made the bed and put some other junk away. James got out an hour early so that we were sure we'd get to the mechanic before they closed, and we picked up the truck, then had supper at Giovanni's. I love this place to death, but, man, where are they getting their spaghetti sauce? It tastes like someone tossed a sugar bowl in it. It was raining when we left and raining when we got there and raining when we headed home. A good night to sleep! Instead we watched the end of "The Visitation" on Doctor Who and later on Police Surgeon. Labels: food, television, weather, website » Thursday, April 02, 2009
Yet Another Rainy Day
In the middle of the night came a volley of thunder, preceded and followed by a volley of dog. :-) It remained rainy and squishy all day (squishy as in taking Willow into the back yard).
Felt like I worked all day but didn't accomplish anything, even though I got two orders done. Made minor cosmetic changes on the graphics on my nostalgia site. Watched Ellen and Annie Oakley, which runs on Channel 57 on Thursday afternoons. Another great series that I loved as a kid! Labels: television, website, work » Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Oh, Yeah...
» Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Birdie On Line
I have finally fixed up a web page for Schuyler.
I feel like a sloth about my web pages. So many of them need updating or, as in the case of Skye's page, construction, but when I get done with work, whether at the building or at home, I don't feel like sitting in front of the computer. The arthritis makes my neck hurt by the time I am done for the day and I spend most of my afternoons with a perpetual headache. I remember my mom going through this and now it's my turn. Labels: website » Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Thanksgiving Eve
Spent the work day setting up orders to do on Monday and sorted out a payment problem, the usual stuff.
Spent a much more enjoyable lunch hour updating my Addie Mills webpage, adding some new photos and re-scanning old ones so they'd look better. I already had the text corrected, so it was relatively simple to pop in the new images. Simple, but time consuming. It's been almighty warm for November, in the low 70s, for two days. They say rain is approaching again...we need every other day of good long soakers now, since Lake Lanier is at its lowest point since December of 1981—it is only 68 percent full—and Lake Allatoona is less that half full. . I see anyone watering their idiot lawn and you bet I will report them. The radar map says it is raining in northwest Georgia and some "green clouds" are south and west of us with a scattered line behind. Supposedly a larger storm is in store for Sunday. The wind picked up about late afternoon, looking promising, but it is quiet again now. I used the lull to go out and take photos of the Thanksgiving decorations. I have a pot of rice on to cook for soup and am in the middle of re-reading The Thanksgiving Treasure. Schuyler is asleep and Willow, of course, is patiently waiting for her daddy. All the Christmas music channels started on Monday, so I started out listening to the Holiday Music Channel on Dish, but abandoned it for Sirius' Classical Pops channel, which is playing carols, from uptempo versions of "Deck the Halls" to Bach's Oratorio. This way I am in no danger of hearing "The Christmas Shoes." :-) (They keep playing "The Hallelujah Chorus." Sigh. That's an Easter song, guys. The Christmas song from "The Messiah" is "For Unto Us a Child is Born.") We are about to finish the last quarter of the pumpkin tart from Trader Joe's. I hope these are available for the rest of the year at least, because it is delicious...nice and spicy; the ginger in the pumpkin has a bite! » Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Your Favorite Television Cliche
Or plotline, here at Television Tropes & Idioms. Quite a bit to check out here, or you can add your own.
Labels: television, website |
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