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Officially in service

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Mar.07, 2010

There. Done.

Not totally done. A few tweaks are still on the to-do list. But, for the most part, my transition to the new computer is finished.

Parts were easy, others weren’t. But we finally crossed the finish line late last week–most of the stuff I had to do has now been done. The big stuff.

The computer is quite nice. Windows 7 and I are getting along quite well. I like it much better than Vista, which I had on my laptop–which is now running 7, too.

As most of you know, one of the big problems in switching to a new computer is copying over programs, bookmarks and files.

Over the years, I have been fairly careful about keeping my computer installation discs and DVDs. Some are downloaded files that I simply keep in a downloads folder–the hard drive is large enough that I don’t have to throw them out.

As for utilities, I discovered a fast, easy and practically painfree way to add them. It’s a service called Ninite.com. All you have to do is go to Ninite, select the utilities you want, check a few boxes here and there and let the computer and the internet do the rest. Cool! It worked very well, including some of the open source programs, other freeware and all the way up to Microsoft’s utility programs. Even I could get it to run, so it should be a snap for the rest of you!

But as for the files I wanted to transfer, that was trickier. A few years ago, I added an external hard drive, and that is where I moved all my MP3s and other audio files. I made that the home for my iTunes folder. When I hooked up the external drive to the new computer, all the MP3s were right there.

My bookmarks were just as easy. I use Firefox, and I use the Firefox add-on, XMarks. It copies my bookmarks and passwords to the net, up in a cloud somewhere, ready for me to pull back down for the new computer. Just sign in, and there were all my bookmarks and logins.

You see, I don’t like to work hard or spend a lot of time doing the mundane stuff. That’s because I’ve got too little free time for my liking. So when I can to relax, I don’t want to be bothered with stuff.

But I had to be bothered with stuff about my treasured photo files. They were among the files, downloads and documents I wanted to transfer from the old computer’s hard disk. I had planned to move the photo files to the external drive. One of these days. You know, when I don’t want to relax. At any rate, it never got done. I really meant to do it, you know.

I ordered the new computer, but it took some time for it to be built and shipped over here. While that was going on, the old computer, through some sixth cyber sense, seemed to realize it was about to be replaced. I never called it HAL, but it seemed to take on that attitude. All of a sudden, I started getting many blue screens or freeze-ups. It was slow before, but now it was like a crippled turtle. Fact is, some programs had not been working for a while. I always kept the virus software up to date, and I used System Restore, but it didn’t get the job done.

It got to the point where I finally unplugged it and only used the laptop downstairs for about a week, until the new one arrived and was installed. But what about my files? The Easy Transfer program in Windows 7 doesn’t work if the old computer doesn’t work.

I turned to our office computer guy. I called him, explained my situation, and he brought over a device to which I could attach the old hard drive, with the files moved via a USB cable to my office desktop. My plan was to copy them onto recordable DVDs, and I brought three of them to the office that day. However, I batted 0 for 3–all three of the DVDs failed at some point in the transfer process. So I went to a drugstore in town, invested in an 8-gig thumbdrive, transferred the files to the thumbdrive and took them home on that (two trips).

That did the trick.

Now I am personalizing the computer, including some Google gadgets that I also use on the laptop. The favorite is a clock that looks sort of like my cat, Charlie. Ever see the Kit-Cat Klock? Sort of like that. The cat’s eyes and tail swing from side to side as time marches on–except late at night, when the cat’s eyelids close.

The gadgets look like this …

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As you see, I also have a little desktop photo gadget, which I have set (of course) to the folder where my many and various pictures reside–good, bad and ugly.

****
I keep waiting for things to calm down and get more orderly in my life. Maybe that’s just around the corner.

Against my better will, I got way too involved in basketball coverage again this winter, and then our Olympian’s story was something different. Plus, I really enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics–and yes, we finally got to see some hockey (curling, though, was a different matter entirely).

The high school basketball seasons are now over. Both my girls teams lost at the district tournament last week. The boys district tournament takes place this week, and we’ll see how long that goes.

My wife and I got a chance to see some good movies lately. We finally watched “Whip It” last week (after buying the DVD), and it was as good as they said. Enjoyed that film a lot.

This afternoon, I watched the first two periods of the Red Wings vs. Blackhawks hockey game–then my wife and I went to the local theater to see “Avatar,” which had just arrived. They had been promising “Avatar” for over a month–the “Coming Soon” poster near the theater entrance–but instead they had been showing this or that film that I couldn’t care less about. Imagine my disappointment, expecting to read “Avatar” on the theater marquee … and seeing “Alvin Squeakquel” instead.

David, our son, had been talking about wanting to see it (“Avatar,” that is), but he told us he wanted to wait until it got here instead of going to the bigger theater in Iron Mountain–which meant he had to wait. So guess what happened? My wife called him Satuday morning to tell him that “Avatar” had finally arrived in town … and he said he had gone to see it the night before. Sigh!

But we still wanted to see it, and we did this afternoon. Very interesting film. I’m sure most of you who were interested in seeing the film already have, so there is no need to recap the story.

By the way, this is interesting. The film was released in mid December. It got to my town in early March. And it gets released on DVD in late April.

Also, I’m sure many of you have had a chance to see the 3-D version. Not in our little theater, and the Iron Mountain theater also had only the 2-D version. 3-D must have been amazing to see … but we never had a prayer of getting that.

****
There’s other news, but it can wait a little while. The big news development is the weather. The thaw has arrived! We got to 50F (10C) on Saturday, and we were close to 50 after the movie today. The mild weather is supposed to stay around, and the big meltdown is on. Mud and slush season is officially under way.

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A short but glorious run

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Feb.16, 2010

Just a short update this time. Our home town boy, Nick, did OK for himself at the Olympics in Vancouver … for a while.

There were two qualification runs, which cut the field from 35 racers to 32 and also which seeded the runners for the races that followed–just four racers go at a time.

Nick was 11th in the first run, and everyone here at the office got all excited when he was 1st in the second run … but only three racers had gone at that time. Still, he wound up 6th in the second run and wound up the 7th seed overall.

Ah, but then the races started. He was in the seventh heat. The Detroit News writer said he got off to a bad start. But then he caught up to the other three racers. Then he moved in front! Then he got “squirrely,” went off the course and crashed!

That ended his Olympics. He finished in 20th place.

The qualifications took place during the early afternoon, as we worked on finishing up the paper. Most of the people in the office were seriously obsessing about it, following the results as they come over on the internet. (We don’t have a TV in the office.)

Everybody had gone for the day by the time the medal round started and Nick crashed. NBC had no video of that during its prime-time program. (Not that I was home–I was away, covering a girls basketball game.) I later saw a picture of him on all fours in the snow.

Tough break, but that’s how it goes in sports. He wasn’t hurt (aside from his pride), and when he gets back home, I’m sure he will get the royal welcome once again.

I like watching the Winter Olympics events–most of them, at least–and was especially looking forward to the ice hockey, both men and women. And also the curling, both men and women. As things turned out, though, I will get to see very little of it.

Most of the hockey and curling is being carried on MSNBC and CNBC in the States, and our cable system here doesn’t carry either channel. It’s a local co-op and doesn’t have deep pockets for programming and technology.

What’s worse, the USA Network does have some Olympic coverage, and we do get USA. But it seems you have to pay extra to get Olympics coverage on USA–without it, you only get to see marathons of some of USA’s top shows, like Monk and House, Law and Order and NCIS.

Good shows, yes. But I wanted to see the Olympics. And I don’t get to see it. And I’m definitely less than happy about it.

By pure good fortune, the snowboardcross competition was carried on the main NBC network–and yes, we do get that. So the folks at home got to see Nick in action during the afternoon. But NBC picked up its “live on tape” coverage in prime-time with the quarterfinals, and Nick didn’t get that far.

Know how much we pay for cable TV here? We get about 60 channels for $37 per month. And that’s the main rate–not some “teaser” rate that jumps up after six or 12 months. My guess is that you are paying a bit more than that.

But then, you will get to see the Olympic hockey and curling coverage live on CNBC and MSNBC. We can only read about it later.

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Snow in a suitcase?

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Feb.10, 2010

To follow up my last post, our snowboarder left town for Vancouver and the Olympics on Monday night.

He was escorted by the local fire trucks halfway across the county. There was a switchover from the West Side departments to the East Side departments at the precise place where their coverage area begins. The East Side departments escorted him south to the state line, where Wisconsin officials took over for a 15-mile segment where U.S. 2 crosses into Wisconsin before crossing back into Michigan–where, of course, Michigan officials again took over.

Even with (despite?) all the official escorts, he managed to get out of town all right. By the way, I promised a picture from the school assembly last week, and here he is …

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Wish him well. Nick is a nice kid. His snowboardcross event takes place on Monday, Feb. 15.

Maybe he should have packed some snow in his suitcase: The reports from Vancouver is that they are transporting snow to the snowboard course by truck and even helicopter because mild temperatures have melted a lot of it away. I even heard they are burying some dry ice under the new snow to keep it from melting too quickly. The Olympics, of course, start this weekend.

I just checked Vancouver’s weather forecast. It says highs in the 50s and lows in the 40s … with rain. If it gets a little warmer, the Olympians could go out and enjoy Wreck Beach.

Then again, there hasn’t been that much snow around here lately, either. We have snow, don’t get me wrong, but the layer of fluffy white insulation hasn’t increased very much for over a month. On New Year’s Day, we got 2 inches. Since then, no more than 1 1/2 inches on any day. December was a good month for snow around here. January, not so much. The snow is still here. We had some temperatures that reached into the 40s in January (as high as 44), but it was still cloudy on those days, so the snow layer mainly just compacted.

Over where N lives, they have a lot more than we do …

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This week, I dared to hope we would get some warmer weather that could prompt some serious melting, now that the sun is getting a little higher in the sky. No way. Not this week. Highs in the 20s all week, with lows close to zero. It’s February, you know, and most of us are getting a little weary of winter.

We live right along the highway passing through town. One day in mid January, I unexpectedly found that the end of the front sidewalk, where it meets the highway–an area I had shoveled out just the day before–was plugged tight with freshly plowed snow.

Believe me, it was densely packed and hard to shovel. I muttered as I grabbed the shovel again and re-opened the end of the sidewalk–by hand, of course. Fortunately, I have a big aluminum shovel, which handles the heavy work well.

After midnight that night, I heard a racket outside; after a few minutes I got up to investigate. Here is what I saw…

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The state highway department had just cut into all the snow it plowed up alongside the highway the night before, arranging it into “windrows” on the roadway itself. I was now watching the third step–the big windrow of snow was being blown into a large dump truck, which rolled with in tandem with the snow blower.

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An empty dump truck followed–when the first truck was full, it moved off and the next truck took its place. Very slowly, the blower and dump trucks made their way up the highway, removing the snow that had been plowed up along the highway the night before.

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And suddenly, visibility at intersections was greatly improved, and pedestrians didn’t have to walk on the side of the road any more. The snow gets so deep and heavy that few homeowners shovel the walks that run parallel to the highway–they just clear paths to the highway for the mailman and any delivery trucks that don’t use the alley behind the house.

Of course … some critters have this winter thing all figured out …

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Local boy makes good

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Feb.08, 2010

All of a sudden, in the dead of winter, our old town is having a great time.

Imagine! A rock star in our midst!

OK, he’s not a rock star, but few people expected to have an athlete from out little area going to the Winter Olympics. I mean, what were the odds? There are just 3,000 residents in our city. Just 13,000 people in the entire county. And that population is definitely not going up.

But we have an Olympian who will be competing at Vancouver later this month. The town is all abuzz. A lot of excitement. Many businesses have posted signs wishing him luck. They have put up a banner across the highway entering town, complete with the Olympic rings and the Vancouver Olympics logo. Our paper (of course) put together a special section to try to capitalize–getting local businesses to buy ads wishing him good luck and congratulations.

These have been the final days before he leaves for Vancouver, and it’s been crazy for a little, tiny town in the middle of the woods where nothing ever seems to happen. Early last week, our guy was on NBC’s “Today” show, in New York, modeling the outfits the U.S. Olympians will be wearing during the opening ceremonies.

On Thursday night, back here, they held a benefit dinner for him and his family (as a fund-raiser so his family can go, too). They were jam-packed, and parking was impossible to find. Over 450 people attended, I’m told.

Friday afternoon, they held a pep rally for him at the local high school. I covered that and got some pictures. It was very loud. The band played, all the kids from all the grades filled the gym, they showed a video of his snowboardcross races, and he spoke. The two sides of the gym engaged in a shouting contest, trying to find out which side could yell louder:

South side: “Go!” North side: “Nick!” South side: “Go!” North side: “Nick!”

Then, later on, it was …

South side: “U.P.!” North side: “Power!” South side: “U.P.!” North side: “Power!”

And later still, it was …

South side: “U.S.A.” North side: “U.S.A.!” South side: “U.S.A.” North side: “U.S.A.!”

After it ended, he was getting request after request for autographs … while trying to collect his 5-year-old son for the ride home from school. He promised to visit all the classrooms and answer all the questions after returning from Vancouver.

On Friday night, there was another fund-raiser at a bar just across the state line in Wisconsin (which is only 10 miles away from us). Finally, Saturday night, there was a short parade through town. He was at the front of one of the fire trucks–the procession consisted mainly of fire trucks passing down the main street at a walking pace, making enough noise to wake the dead. A slow procession, but also short. Within 15 minutes, I was on my way home.

I have known him for a long time. He’s about 29 … I covered him when he was playing football and wrestling at high school. Then he got into snowboarding, and he has done quite well at it. I have interviewed him several times about it. In recent years, our talks focused increasingly on his dream to make the Olympic team going to Vancouver. I did a feature last summer, about his training regimen and how he is getting ready.

Then, the qualification races. I did articles about each one (from my little desk back here). In Switzerland, he finished third place, and that visit to the podium made all the difference. It was nip and tuck at the end, and it all came down to the final qualifying event, held in Quebec late in January.

Two days later, he was back home, and I got to talk to him during an elementary school basketball tournament at the high school. He talked about all his emotions and all the tension while waiting at the bottom of the hill–another racer had forced a crash during his qualification run, and he was eliminated. So his Olympic hopes came down to whether another racer would finish in second place in the finals, which would bump him off the team.

The other racer came in third. He made it!

It’s all been very exciting (and a bit exhausting for me). Normally in mid-winter, my life is all about a never-ending series of high school basketball games–some good, some bad, some dreadful. I can take only so much basketball, but I have to take a lot of it. This is a little extra work … but it’s fun, too. This last week was very, very hectic, but I think I got everything done that I had to.

I hope so. I’ll find out for real on Monday, when we put the paper together.

****

In other news …

Winter is moving along. Now that we have reached the second week of February, it’s time to start anticipating the first real thaw. Just checked this week’s forecast: No thaw this week.

While other parts of the country are getting pummeled with snowstorms and heavy rains, the weather has been quiet here. Very little snow for the last month. Of course, the stuff we received earlier hasn’t melted.

After getting postponed three times (since late November), we finally visited S and her husband last week. The usual regimen: We went to Golden Corral for dinner and then to the motel pool to relax in the whirlpool. Ah, that was nice. She gave me some Christmas cookies and treats she had made for me (for the late December visit that was postponed by a snowstorm). They were put in the freezer, and they still taste good.

I visited N a few weeks ago. It’s hard to get away for mid-winter visits, though, because of all the nights I spend at basketball games. After the season ends (in March), it should get easier. She lives in an area that normally gets lots of lake-effect snow, but the weather behaved that day.

My wife and I are looking forward to the end of basketball, too. There is a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Milwaukee museum, and she wants to see it–the exhibit continues into summer. Other summer plans are still in the incubator. Nothing planned yet with B.

I ordered my new computer. It will be a Windows 7 desktop. It was supposed to come this week, but now Dell is telling me I have to wait another week. Well, OK. It should be worth the wait. Meanwhile, I have been working to get rid of old files, such as old mail files or old downloaded programs. I get an extra week to do that.

The newest news: I found a new theme that I actually think looks cool. So how cool is that, anyway?

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My 2010 to-do list

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Jan.06, 2010

It’s now 2010, and the holidays are over. We are officially in January. No question about it. Just look at your friendly neighborhood thermometer if you have any doubts.

This isn’t about resolutions. This is about plans. A to-do list. It’s getting filled up. Only thing is, where do I start?

In no particular order …

–It’s time for me to get another desktop computer. I made the decision a few months ago, but I opted to hold off on deciding the specs for it until after the hectic holidays. The hectic holidays are now history.

I think I got my present computer in early 2006–it’s a Windows XP machine. In the last few months, it has been developing more and more problems. When you turn it on, it takes 15 to 20 minutes before you can actually use it. That’s been the case for a while. It’s slow. Lately, it has had problems installing new software–the pop-up box claims that the downloaded file is corrupt. But the same file works on my other machines. Lots of old programs clutter up its hard drive and its registry–even those I got rid of long ago.

My older son has already put in a claim for the machine–wants to experiment, turning it into a server. I have two external hard drives, where the photo and music files are stored, so transferring that stuff shouldn’t be much of a challenge. As for everything else … it’s not going to take overnight.

First things first. I need to decide what specs I want, and then look to see what I can get for what price. My old one is a Dell. The one before that was an HP. Both developed problems as they got older. Computers seem to do that.

Not sure which brand I will get this time, but it will be a Windows 7 machine. That much is certain. I am nowhere near cool enough to even think of getting an Apple.

–Another thing is the big back-up. At times last year, I worked on copying all my old blog posts from efx2blogs.com. I hadn’t done that for a long time–just did a batch of them earlier today.

That has to be a priority item because hardly anyone is using efx2blogs.com, and when the current domain registry ends in March, I think it may go bye-bye forever. Keith, who used to run the place there, surfaced last spring just long enough to renew the registry and then disappeared again. Flyingdutchman.com.

I have 338 entries there (so they say), and I am copying them to my Blogger blog, one at a time. I still have 10 pages of listings to go. Once I finish copying them all to Blogger, I can import them over here. The photo links won’t work, but I don’t expect people to look at them anyway. Just for the archives. I spent a lot of time writing those posts, and I don’t want that “creativity” to be lost.

–My other big project is over here, at efx3. I don’t like that purple theme I now have, and I need to find a new one, a brighter one, one that can accommodate photos the width I like to post.

Once I look through all the efx3 themes–haven’t had a lot of time for that lately–and choose one I like, I’ll ask Welshpixie to make a few modifications to make it look the way I want (such as changing to the Georgia font and making the main display area wide enough). I tried doing that myself in the past, but it took a lot of time and was amateur work at best. Let’s call in the professionals and get the job done right.

Once it’s done, things will be much brighter and cheery over here. That cheery outlook then will help inspire me to write more and play around with more pictures from my many adventures. And misadventures.

Because I like to write over here … even if I haven’t done much of it in recent months. I also enjoy reading and commenting on others’ posts. Another thing I haven’t done a lot. Now is a good time to get back to that, too.

So I’m not going away. In fact, I’m coming back. That’s another item in my 2010 to-do list.

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“60″ in the rear-view mirror

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Dec.31, 2009

My wife and I had a nice holiday season with my son visiting from Detroit. He had a laptop nearby 24/7 because of his job–monitoring computers elsewhere. No problems on his watch.

We had a good time and watched a bunch of movies. “The Blues Brothers.” “Anvil”–he said I’d like it, and he was right. “Public Enemies” from 2009 and “Girl Shy” by Harold Lloyd from the 1920s.

When his younger brother came over, it became a Pinky and the Brain festival. The megalomaniacal mouse is unforgettable. As the snows fell and the winds blew it around, Brain keeps trying to take over the world. My older son said he’d have a lot better chance at success if his schemes weren’t so grandiose. But that wouldn’t be the Brain, would it?

I also passed a personal milestone. This one was marked with a two-digit number: 60. I drove past that little “60″ sign a week ago. Not that the world is any different on the other side. It’s almost identical. And I haven’t changed, either. I’m trying to take care of myself. For the most part, I’m doing OK.

Starting Friday, I will also be entering my eighth different decade. True, I was only in the 1940s for eight days. But it counts.

Passing that “60″ sign isn’t an achievement. To me, 60 is 59+1, just as 61 will be 60+1. But I notice that I am (ahem, yes) more aware of the ages of people in the obituaries and of others who aren’t feeling so well. I am. My back is in good shape, my legs are strong, I don’t have problems with my heart or lungs or stomach, I usually sleep well, my mind is strong, and I still enjoy sex. I am taking meds for high blood pressure. I weigh a little more than I would like (about 220), but I’m eating better and healthier than in the past–1% milk, whole grain breads, not as much caffeine or sugar. Never had to worry about quitting smoking.

So I think I’ll be around for a while yet. My hair is gray in only a few places, and I still have nearly all of it–and it still grows thickly. I also feel I have gotten wiser over time. Not as impatient as I used to be. Better able to accept things and people the way they are, not as I want them to be.

The key to that was learning to love myself the way I am, and then feeling free to love others they way they are. I grew in new ways–I learned about neopaganism and polyamory, met some wonderful new friends and new ways of living. I didn’t do this to reject my past. It’s adding to my life, not replacing other parts. I did it to discover new worlds and become a better, more happier human being. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

Really, these last few years have been wonderful for me. I don’t get as much free time as I want, and that really bothers me at times. But I am growing and becoming a better person.

So when I drove past that “60″ sign, it was a non-event. I am what I am. I enjoy life, and I am happy.

The event went virtually unnoticed at home. My wife made ravioli for supper that night, which my older son and I both enjoy. That was about it.

But I did get some gifts from B in that “treasure chest” she sent me. I finally opened it. What did I find inside?

I got a variety of Alaskan syrups, most of which I had never heard of before (“lingonberry”? “salmonberry”?). I got some Alaskan preserves, for sandwiches and such. She sent a few DVDs she had made herself from their recorder–a couple movies and documentaries. She sent me a Deepak Chopra book on CD (“Ageless Body, Timeless Mind”) about growing older and presumably better.

She also sent me “Santa Claus Blues.” This was a real surprise and the biggest treat.

“Santa Claus Blues” is a CD collection of Christmas-themed Big Band music put out by Canada’s Jass Records in the late ’80s or early ’90s. Jass released a series of very interesting CDs before the company disappeared, and I had the foresight to grab many of them when I saw them. Many were sex-inspired, some were drug-themed, and some had to do with holidays. All feature music and musicians from the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s.

Among their CDs was “Halloween Stomp,” which I copied and sent to B this fall. Halloween-style music from the ’30s and ’40s, plus short clips from cartoons of the era. Great fun to listen to. I may have mentioned to her that Jass had released a Christmas CD also, and I think I saw it one time, but I opted for the Halloween CD … and had been fruitlessly looking for it ever since.

She managed to find it. I’m impressed.

****
The holidays are not quite over. For New Year’s Eve, my wife and I will stay home and watch a couple movies and maybe enjoy a little wine. We’ll stay up till just after 11 p.m. (Central Time), to watch the merriment on Times Square, and then it’s off to bed for us. Yeah, we lead a wild life.

On Friday, my wife watches the Rose Parade, I watch a little of the the Holiday Classic hockey game from Boston, and then we get in the car and drive to visit her sisters and brothers for a couple days. We drive back Sunday. The weather is expected to be quite cold–subzero at night, not much above zero during the day.

Better make sure the Ipod is charged up.

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Special days and a treasure chest

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Dec.23, 2009

Good news, everybody: We’ve gotten above zero here today. We started this morning (two days before Christmas) at -12F (-24C), but even though I only see gray sunshine outside my window, the temperature has now climbed all the way to +23.

We will get warmer weather in time for Christmas, though. In fact, temperatures will rise into the 20s and close to 30. That’s thanks to a big Christmas snowstorm barreling this way.

At this point, we are on the cusp (love that word) of the heavy snow area. To the east of us, they will be getting a Christmas stocking full of snow, rain and freezing rain. To the west of us, mainly wet snow. We are close to the dividing line.

I am keeping a close eye on it today, because my son is driving north today from near Detroit. I talked to him just before he left to pass along good news: He and the storm are both racing this way, but he should win the race easily if he follows his normal schedule. No reason he can’t–the storm is coming from a different direction.

After that, it gets dicey. With all the snow being forecast, we may move up a visit to see my mom at the nursing home. Instead of Christmas Day, I am thinking we will leave Thursday morning, Dec. 24, drive down there, make our visit and then head for home before road conditions get too dicey. My guess is that we will see some snow before we get back to our place (50 miles [80 km] away), but the heavy stuff won’t hit us until later. If we don’t dawdle too much, we should be OK. Once we get home, it can snow as much as it wants.

To explain–the storm is coming at us from the southwest, and the city with her nursing home is to the southeast. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the storm is coming at us as the crow flies–straight. We are driving as the road meanders. It is far from a direct route–sort of like the letter “L.”

****
It’s treasure chest time at home. My wife and I and the kids stopped giving each other gifts a few years ago. It’s complicated to explain … but it can be hard to come up with ideas for gifts that fit budgets, and all of us know how to order stuff for ourselves online.

(Notwithstanding that, however, I did get my wife a couple gifts for the holidays. That breaks the rules, I know. I’ll tell you what they are, if you can keep the secret for two days: I got her a copy of the old “Thorn Birds” miniseries on DVD, which she badly wanted to have, and I gave her a gift certificate from a local jewelry store. I noticed that she likes jewelry (particularly pretty necklaces) more and more.)

(Shhhh! That’s just between us.)

The treasure chest? It came from B in Alaska and arrived on Monday. It’s the exact size as the Priority Mail box that arrived at B’s house at about the same time. Mine is a combination birthday/Christmas box, to note the fact that those occasions fall on consecutive days.

We have agreed that we will both be opening our boxes today (Wednesday). I don’t know what is in my box, but I’ll tell you what is in hers:

–Two bags of Old Dutch Rip-L-Chips, a popular brand of potato chips in this area.

I will explain: At some point over a year ago, we got to talking about potato chips, and I told her the Old Dutch chips were the best. Then, when we met for the first (and only) time around the Fourth of July, going to that neopagan camp, I got some Old Dutch chips for a potluck dinner being held at the camp. Here’s what the other campers thought about the chips: They vanished very quickly. We didn’t get to have too many. So I bought another bag, and we munched them in the car as I drove her back to the airport in the Twin Cities, as our short visit was ending. Those chips didn’t last long, either.

I managed to get two bags of chips into the box. One bag, I said, is for her to share with her husband and son and guests during the holidays. The other is for her to hoard selfishly.

–One bag of Australian black licorice. Or “liquorice,” as it was spelled on the bag. She likes Australian licorice . I didn’t explore that when we were together–those were some really busy days, and it slipped through the cracks–but now she can have a treat.

–The first “Hellboy” movie on DVD. I like the Hellboy films, but B doesn’t care for stories about monsters or science fiction. I told her she would like Hellboy–for a monster, he’s got a lot of humanity, too, and a tragic side.And he works for the good guys.

You see, what happened is … I liked the movie so much I eventually bought the director’s cut for myself. So what do I do with the first copy I got? I know! I know!

–Some DVDs I burned for her. Recently, B saw an old Harold Lloyd comedy on TV (“Speedy”) and fell in love with him. I like Harold Lloyd, too, and over the years I had burned some Harold Lloyd films I recorded from TV onto DVDs–so I made copies of them and stuck them in the treasure chest, too.

The ones getting special attention are “Safety Last!” (the one in which Lloyd hangs from the hands of a clock on the side of a building–I’m sure you have all seen stills of that) and “Girl Shy” (in which a very shy man–guess who?–who even stutters when he tries to talk to a woman writes a book called “The Secret of Making Love.” Many comic misadventures ensue.)

None of the gifts are expensive–I joked to her that the postage cost more than the items inside. But the cost of Christmas gifts isn’t the important part. The items are important or meaningful to the two of us, and that’s really all that matters.

****
All that matters to us, as a family, is keeping track of one another and making the most of the time we get together. We are going to be watching some movies while Phil is here, we’ll have a semi-traditional ravioli supper some night and some pizzas by a local company that he is particularly fond of. (Once, he bought a whole case of them to take home. It was winter, so they probably survived the 10-hour drive.)

We will talk about this and that, he’ll visit my other son (who lives in town at his own apartment), and we’ll all get together to watch more films and DVDs. I’ve found some surprises for him, too, and he talked about some films he’d like to see. That means I’d better stop at the local video place (the only one in town) right after work today.

He arrives tonight (Wednesday) and will leave for home on Sunday. After that, who knows when we will next see him? Maybe this summer. It depends.

The only thing I’m sure of is that we will make the most of our limited time together, and I hope all of you will do the same over the holiday season. It’s good time.

After he leaves, my holidays will be busy: Early next week, I will try to visit S and her husband–maybe my wife will come along, maybe not. Over New Year’s, both of us will head to NW Wisconsin to see her brothers and sisters–a dinner and a family meeting. The week after that, I plan to visit N for another movie night.

Happy holidays to all my bloggy friends over here. I plan to visit much more often next year than I have for the last few months.

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The more things change …

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Dec.14, 2009

The last time I wrote (gee, time flies, doesn’t it?), I think I was a bit bummed out because I couldn’t drive down to visit my friend S and her husband. An unexpected trip to the state football finals in Detroit ended those plans.

The visit was rescheduled two weeks later–to last week. All the arrangements were made … and then had to be postponed again.

This time, football didn’t get in the way. Our big snowstorm did. By last Sunday, it had become apparent that Mother Nature wasn’t going to allow any trip on Tuesday, as planned. Lots of snow. Lots of wind. Not the kind of thing I want to mess around with, even to see friends.

Due to my schedule, which gets pretty busy in December, the next attempt won’t be until the week after Christmas. Come to think of it, I think we had to do this last year, too.

The snowstorm was the first big one of this winter. I think we wound up with about 10 inches, which blew all over the place, of course. I shoveled the front walk before going to work, shoveled the back walk after work that afternoon (and also liberated the car). The next morning, I did the front walk again–it has drifted over since this morning.

Then temperatures fell well below zero, to about -10F. A preview of January.

Tonight: more snow. Ahh–it’s December. What more can I say?

****
Things I have done since my last post:

–Visited N two weeks ago. This time, there was just a little bit of snow, easy to pilot the car through. We went to dinner and watched a couple movies, including W.C. Fields’ “The Bank Dick.” A good time was had by all.

–Our team reached the state finals again during Thanksgiving week but didn’t win the state title again. They have gone there six years in a row and won only once. Geez, that’s tough, isn’t it? Any other team, of course, would give its eye teeth for a chance to play in even one state championship game.

I drove down by myself and stayed at my son’s apartment, sleeping on his couch. Among our highlights was watching the Packers-Lions game on Thanksgiving (also at Ford Field, the site of the state high school finals the next day) on his TV at the apartment. We watched a couple movies (including the new incarnation of “Star Trek,” which was pretty darn good) and went out to Thanksgiving Day dinner at a place called the Moose Preserve.

That was cool! They had a number of Northwoodsy-type meals. My son selected the Road Kill Grill, which included venison, quail, wild rice casserole, corn and wild boar sausage!

I was thinking of getting that, too, but I eventually chose the Buffaloaf. Two thick slices of ground bison meat on white bread with thick buffalo gravy and mushrooms, plus some mashed potatoes. That was yummy. Next time I take my wife down here, that’s going to be one of our stops.

I went down to the game by myself Friday morning. Maybe should have checked my maps a little better the night before, but I did OK. After the game, I started the long trip home at about 12:30 p.m. (Central Time) and got home about 11:30 p.m. Unlike most trips downstate this time of year, there was no snow in the northern Lower Peninsula to worry about. The driver appreciated that.

–I am continuing to re-learn my German. Very slowly. I discovered that babelfish.yahoo.com can help with translations, but my friend doesn’t want me to do it that way. OK, then. I will do it the old fashioned way, and I will do it very slowly. I care very much about my spelling and syntax and punctuation and grammar, whether I am writing in English or German. I did invest in a Collins concise dictionary and a Living Language beginners-intermediate guide to German.

I will study them–but hey, I’ve got lots of other stuff I need to do, too. Progress will come slowly.

–I have had a sore throat on and off since returning from Detroit. I know I need to rest more than I have been. Extra sleep is good. But I have been sucking on Hall’s cough drops and taking the occasional Sudafed. So far so good.

–Yesterday, my wife and I made our first trip to Rhinelander since early September–just before my mom’s fall at the nursing home. Our main goal was to find a good winter coat for her, and she found a nice one, in powder blue with white and teal trim. Plus, it was on sale. That made her very happy. She likes sales.

****
B wrote me recently, telling me about the talk in her office about Tiger Woods’ recent escapades. As you may remember, B and her husband are polyamorous, as I am.

“I had to bite my tongue so many times when the women were getting all over his case about his “ho” and such. It is useless to try to talk with people about this stuff. Obviously, his wife was not having any part of sharing him so poly was no issue here. My director was saying that the element of surprise is what is the worst about these things. If an honest admission takes place, it is much easier to deal with the situation. Could have hopped right in there but did not!”

I wrote back:

“Who really knows what is going on with him? My main impression about him, in general, is that he is wound way too tight for his own good, that he wants to control everything in his own little universe, while at the same time making scads of money from us (or at least the golf-pro-worshiping public, which doesn’t include me).

So when he slips and acts human for once, instead of as a golf-playing android, it’s a shock. Of course, then he tries to limit the damage to his public image instead of owing up to being a human being with all-too-natural weaknesses.

The fun question to ponder is: What if someone in the intense public spotlight like him is open about his life and says, “Yes, my wife and I allow each other to see other people,”–which apparently isn’t the case with Tiger–”and we decided to do that because we love each other and want each other to be happy. We have plenty of love for each other and plenty of love to give to others.”

Gee! Wouldn’t that shake up the world?”

Since then, of course, we have learned much more of Tiger’s private life than we probably ever wanted to, especially that he has apparently has spent time with a number of “ladies,” who now all want to go public. (I was going to say “girlfriends,” except that a real friend would never do that to a friend.)

Still, I think my fun question is just as valid and intriguing. What if a couple in the public spotlight were honest with each other and themselves. What if they treated each other and the others in their lives with love and respect and caring? What then?

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A blast from the past

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Nov.23, 2009

You aren’t going to believe what happened to me last week. No way. It’s amazing news.

I’m still a little stunned myself. I haven’t told anybody yet. Not even my wife, whom I usually tell everything to.

Not yet, but I will. You, my friends, will get a world exclusive a few lines from now.

But first …

****
As I started suspecting a few weeks ago, I will indeed be making a long, long trip out of town for Thanksgiving Day. And it won’t be to visit relatives or friends.

For the sixth consecutive year, one of our football teams has made its way all the way to the state championship game. They clinched it with a win at the dome in Marquette on Saturday, Nov. 21. The title game is at Ford Field in downtown Detroit on Friday, with a kickoff at 9 a.m. Central Time. (It’s 10 a.m. down there.)

The team had looked like it would be defeated in the first weeks of the playoffs. But they won against two strong teams and then dominated their regional opponent and, on Saturday, their opponent in the state semifinal game. Next stop: Detroit.

So much for my plans for visiting friends this week and having a quiet Thanksgiving dinner at home (for the first time since 2003). And the funny thing is, 2009 was supposed to be the “regrouping” year for our team, the one when the players acquire varsity experience, take a few lumps, exit the tourney early and get to do some deer hunting. But everyone has matured faster than expected, the team improved markedly during the season. And the 2010 team? It’s really supposed to be something. Who knows how many more Thanksgivings I will spend down there?

I’m going to go down there–I just don’t know how yet. Three options. Last year, for the first time, I was able to ride on the team bus–experience the entire week with the team. They sent two buses down to Detroit. This year, due to budget cuts, they’re just sending one team bus, and odds are 99:1 against me riding along.

Option two is the fan bus, if there is one. Here’s what that would be like: ride in the bus for 10 hours or so, climb out to watch the game (about 2 1/2 hours), then climb back on the bus for the 10-hour drive home. Remember to pack along the Tylenol!

Option three is the way I have gone almost every year: Driving down there myself, in my own car. Coincidence or not, I bought new tires a week or two ago, so that part should be OK. The advantage of that is that I can visit my older son (who visited here last week) and have time to talk with him. If I go there by myself, we can really talk. If my wife and/or son invite themselves along, there is almost never time or privacy for that. So I think you know what I would prefer.

In past years, we have watched the Lions game on TV, then watched a movie, or else the kids played some games. Once or twice, we have all gone across the river into Canada, to spend a few loonies–Canada’s Thanksgiving Day is in October, so Thursday is an ordinary working day there, and all the stores and restaurants will be open. If we do that, though, we to take our passport cards along, and David doesn’t have one.

No matter what happens, I am on the road by 7 a.m. Friday, heading downtown to the Ford Field parking lots. After the game and the press conferences, I start the 10-hour drive home. We have had very mild weather for November–some snow is supposed to move in this week, but the ground is not frozen, the lakes are fairly warm, so everything should melt quickly and roads should be no worse than wet.

Saturday, I try to gather my thoughts together for the article about what happened. It’s a long, difficult time. What I really need to do over these next few days is get some extra rest–It’s going to be a busy week.

****
Back to the main topic: my surprise. It’s about an old girlfriend who has found me. She is delighted that she has. So am I.

She was my girlfriend before N was. And B. And S. And even my wife. And I have never seen her in person.

Our history dates back nearly 45 years, when I was in high school. I was taking German in high school (in suburban Milwaukee), and we were told that if we wanted to, we could write to a penpal in West Germany. I wanted to try it, and that is how I started writing to a girl named Martina. We wrote on this onion-skin paper, trying out our German and English on each other, folded it up booklike, put it in thin envelopes with red and blue diamonds on the edges (to indicate air mail), put extra postage on it and mailed it.

We wrote about … I don’t know. This and that. Whatever teenagers talked about during the mid 1960s. Popular music, of course–the Beatles were big on both sides of the Atlantic, along with the other British groups. I was a Rolling Stones fan even then, and the Beatles were a close second. She liked the Beatles most, and when their “Help!” soundtrack record album came out, I scrounged up enough money to buy a copy and mail it to her. That cost some money. I think my dad cut out a thin piece of plywood to keep it from getting smashed–evidently it worked.

We wrote for about two years. Then … I don’t remember. Either she graduated from her school or I did from mine. Anyway, life intervened, and we stopped writing each other. Kids, you know. They have the attention span of a fruit fly.

But I remembered her, her name, the city where she lived … and when a German woman named Martina contacted me via Facebook last Friday, it awoke those memories of a Martina from long ago. I asked if she is the same Martina L. who lived in R. … and she said she is.

Today she is a “Chefsekretärin bei einem Strafverteidiger” (chief secretary of a defense attorney), is married (second marriage) and has a son and granddaughter. Her Facebook profile says her favorite quotation is “Vergangene Tage, nicht weinen, dass sie vorüber, lächeln, dass sie gewesen.”

Literal translation: “Past days, don’t cry that they are over; smile that they happened.” A pretty good philosophy on life, I think.

All that happened out of the blue. So now I am trying to remember how to speak and write German, what the different words mean, the rules on word order and word endings and umlauts and genders and cases and all that stuff. I haven’t studied German for over 40 years. So among the things I will look for while downstate this week will be … a good German language guide and dictionary.

Wow. Amazing.

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Love’s Something Something

Filed Under: Uncategorized
Nov.12, 2009

Oh, the things we do for the people we love!

Late last week, my wife asked me to do something: Can you record a movie for me? A few movies? Fourteen hours’ worth?

It seems that the Hallmark Channel was carrying eight movies based on the Love Comes Softly series of books by Janette Oke. It’s a series of books set in the 19th century, following the life of a family living in the prairies or the West. They are described as Christian drama TV movies.

All the movie titles are three words long, and the first word is “Love” or “Love’s.” Love’s Something Something, for instance.

There are eight movies in the series, and Hallmark broadcast seven of them, back to back to back to back to back to back to back. At two hours apiece (including commercials), that’s 14 hours of recording. Enough to deaden the rear end of even the most ardent Hallmark movie fan. Then we found out that the times in the TV listings were incorrect, so we had to adjust the schedule.

But we got it done. The movies were recorded and eventually burned onto DVDs. She watched one Tuesday night (I was gone, covering volleyball) and said she enjoyed it a lot.

For what it’s worth, Wikipedia says that the Hallmark Channel movie versions “do not completely follow the books, and therefore take place in an alternate universe from the novels.” Alternate universe? Is that like alternative reality?

At any rate, my wife is happy to be able to see the movies on her own schedule, so she will probably do something nice for me. Maybe a nice dessert or a favorite dinner, when we have the time. Last night, we had wild rice casserole for supper. Haven’t had that for a long time. Yum!

****
We do things in the name of love or the quest for love. I do. You probably do, too. Here are a few other things taking place in the name of love.

My friend S and her husband are hosting a woman from the Northeast U.S. this week. They have been looking for a “third” (for a triad relationship) for a while, and in recent months they have gotten to know this woman. She is visiting them this week (their first encounter), and I hope things go super well for everyone. Barring a long downstate trip for football, I hope to visit them later this month for a much more conventional visit.

My friend B flew out for a long weekend last night, heading out to meet a friend. She met him online (as she met me), and this is their second weekend visit. She is happy and excited, and I am happy for her. No idea when she and I will meet again. It won’t be soon, alas.

A week ago, I covered a volleyball tourney out of town and then visited my friend N–just a few miles away. I brought along a new DVD player. She had recently bought herself a new TV (her old one died), but never has had a DVD player. I thought she should have one–they aren’t expensive and (aha!) it would give me a much greater range of movies I can bring that we can watch together when I visit.

So I bought one and brought it over, and N was very surprised and grateful. We snuggled up on the couch to watch two films that night before heading to bed.

****
I thought my football season would end last Saturday, but it didn’t. I have spent five consecutive Thanksgiving Days downstate because of the football finals. I didn’t think it would be six in a row, but then I didn’t think our team would win last Saturday. They did–they blocked a punt with one minute to play and scored the winning touchdown on the next play. So now … who knows?

My life isn’t quite back to normal, but it’s a lot closer. The stress of preparing for the sale of my mom’s house is done with. That long, rough week ended. My mom seems to be doing a little better, too. I visited her on Tuesday.

My wife and I had a couple quiet nights last week, watching this and that on TV–usually old TV shows on DVD. That’s the plan for tonight. Not too exciting, but those were good evenings. It’s nice to sit next to one another. We’re both feeling fine.

The H1N1 flu has been widespread in the local schools now. The entire district closed for the last three school days in October. They tried to open last Monday, Nov. 2, but still had over 25% absenteeism. (If more than 25% of students are out, the school doesn’t get funding and has to make up the day later.) So they closed at noon and stayed closed all week. Many other school districts in the western U.P. have done the same.

I called my older son last week. As it turns out, he will be driving up north to visit us this weekend. The reason is complex, but it has to do with his job and finding out whether he can be “on call” from the western U.P. over Christmas week in case the computers down near Detroit have a problem. Can he and his laptop do that work from way up here in the boonies? That’s what he’s coming up here to find out.

We talked Monday night. Wednesday, per his request, we purchased three pizza pasties for Friday night, and we’ll head somewhere else for a pizza another night.

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