In the Headlights

In With the New

This holiday season seemed particularly difficult.  It seemed to take a long time to get people in the spirit, myself included.  Then one day I received a wreath in the mail from my friend Rita, and it galvanized me into action.  I put up the tree and sent out packages.  You'd think by now I'd do all my Christmas shopping on the internet, but no, I persist in finding boxes (usually from Amazon purchases...), filling them with purchases and mailing them. 

Anyway, here's my tree.  I bought some LED lights this year and liked them a lot.  I didn't realize until I got them home that there were two shades of white bulbs.  Anyway, they are great energy savers, the bulbs last forever (which is why they are a lot more expensive than the average string of bulbs) and the colors are vivid.  It's the way I'm going from now on.

In my last post, I mentioned my Dad had fallen.  One of the things that inspired me to put up the tree for the first time in a couple of years was the fear that it might be his last.  I brought him and my Mom over Christmas Day for dinner and presents, and we had a great time.  It's not so easy to get him loaded into the car anymore...

A new broom sweeps clean.  Can't wait to see what Barack Obama does when he takes office in less than three weeks.  Even with the crappy economy, I find myself cautiously optimistic.  Not only do we have a new president, my company has a new CEO as of the beginning of December, and my department has a new Chair coming in the beginning of February.  All this change makes me giddy.

My friend Sandy and I are going to

My friend Sandy decided to go to DC for the inauguration.  She has a friend who lives in the area and is going to go visit him and go to the swearing in, along with millions of close friends.  I thought it was a great idea, and called my bro and sister-in-law, who live in Arlington, Virginia to see if they wanted to share the experience with me.  They said no way.  It was going to be insanely large crowds and they were going to stay home and watch the spectacle on their new TV. So I decided against going, in spite of having asked for the time off work.  Then, a couple of days ago, I had a dance lesson with my long-time instructor, Tom, and he told me he was going to throw a tent in his car and drive to DC, camp and try to go to the inauguration.  That it would be a historical event.  I told him I'd see if he could stay with my brother and sister-in-law.  I talked to them and asked if they'd try to go with Tom.  The upshot is that Tom and I are going to fly up, stay with them, and we are all going to try to get as close as we can...it may mean trying to on the hill by Arlington Cemetery and use binoculars and a telescope (not at the same time), but it would be better than being closer in a mob and not being able to see anything.

My New Year's resolutions are about the same as they have been.  Eat better, get more exercise, drink less, be a better person, etc.

Sandy and I are going to get produce from Palmetto Organics, an organic farm that allows you to order fresh produce from them on a weekly basis.  Hopefully, it will help with the "eat healthier" New Year's resolution.

I was doing pretty well on the exercise end, but after Pop fell in October, my personal trainer sessions and dance lessons sort of fell off, and when the holidays arrived, it all pretty much stopped.  I have some arthritis in my hip, and have found that when I exercise regularly and don't overdo it, my hip is much better, and I can even stop taking ibuprofen (or at least minimize my intake).  Too much or too little exercise and I have to take an anti-inflammatory.  So the exercise resolution is pretty important.

Anyway, that's the latest.  Now I'm going to have a glass of wine.

It is, after all, New Year's Eve.

If you don't like this post, blame it on Deborah Jane.

 

Out With the Old

No, I don't mean me.  Except maybe as a blogger.  When Deborah Jane emailed me December fourth and asked if I ever intended to blog again, I promised, thinking it was a chip shot, two more posts before January first.

Here it is, after 5 PM December 31, and I am just now starting.  Add the extra burden that I think these posts should be in some way meaningful, considering they are now so rare.  I just looked at my blog for the first time in a long time and realize there are a whole lot of comments I need to delete. 

This is a new template for me.  I used to post and download links and photos without thinking.  Now it looks very mysterious.

As every year, I am glad to get shut of the old one, and look optimistically forward to the new.

The last few months got crazy when my Dad fell and sustained a pelvic fracture.  Non-displaced, requiring no surgery, it nevertheless set him back quite a bit.  He spent a few days in the hospital and the rest of a month in rehab.  Home now, learning to walk again, slowly, with a walker and help from physical therapists.  I'd like to thank the nurses and therapists who come to his house and have given him a new lease on life.  We weren't sure it wasn't going to be a nursing home.  He and my Mom are talking about assisted living...We'll see how it goes.

Best book:  Who knows.  I just finished Wicked by Gregory Maguire.  A wonderful fantasy.  The musical might be the best theater I've ever seen.  The book is the story, in all its detailed glory.  In case you aren't acquainted with it, it is the story of The Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West.  True in detail to L. Frank Baum's book, it embellishes the story with the history, geography and politics and intrigue of Oz.  Easy to get lost in.  There are some differences from the musical, but when it comes to Jacksonville in April, I intend to be there, too.

I'm also currently re-reading House of God by Samuel Shem.  Another fantasy, this one about a medical residency at a major US teaching hospital.  With all the sex, it's a wonder they ever have time to take care of patients.  With some of the care, maybe it's better that way.  Still, entertaining with a lot of memorable catch phrases.

My electronic landscape changed a lot in the last month or so.  On a busy day, I heard a knock at the door, and tried to shoo away the saleslady standing there, even as I spoke on the phone with my secretary and tried to shoo the cat back inside.  She was persistent, and I wound up switching my cable TV company over to ATT U-verse.  This is a fiberoptic network ultimately sending a signal through the phone wires to the house.  I now get my home phone (unlimited free local and long-distance), my internet (with a provided full-house router) and my television (more channels, music channels, a box  that records TV shows, and is pretty much idiot-proof).  Great images.  And by combining the three, I'm saving $20 or $30 (don't rightly remember, but it's pretty significant) a month.

So with this neat setup, I started to think I should get me some HD technology to replace the 10+-year-old TV that was in the living room.  My research led me to a couple of stores on Black Friday to look at LCD sets, but I found no great deals.  I started birddogging Amazon and B&H Photo (great deals).  I wanted a Samsung LN52A750.  Specifically, I wanted 1080p resolution, 50,000:1 contrast ratio, and 120 Hz response time.  I loved the touch-of-red frame.  Ultimately, I was looking at the ads in the Sunday paper and found that Circuit City had a Sony Bravia XBR with the same specs.  The price was quite low, and they included a free Sony Blu-Ray DVD player.   It was a very good deal.  The Samsung and Sony were about the same price, so the player was free.  I had to pay tax, so it was equivalent to a very good internet deal.  I was going to wait until they informed me that they would refund the difference if I found any of the products for cheaper for 60 days.  Since that would take me through the post-Christmas sales and even through Presidents' day, how could I go wrong.  Also, while there, I picked up a 32" Bravia XBR for the bedroom.  The pictures are phenomenal.  I'm still trying to figure out all the programming, though, since they were just installed 4 days ago.  Meanwhile, I am recording "The Daily Show", "Scrubs" and "House."  I watched one movie a couple of nights ago:  "Love, Actually," which my friend Jill loaned me.  The movie was pretty good.  The picture was phenomenal.  And it wasn't even Blu-Ray.  I have "The Dark Knight" ordered in my Netflix queue in Blu-Ray.  Can't wait.  Saw it at the theater, but can't wait to see what it looks like in my living room.

Anyway, I like the look of the Samsung frame better, but the Sony black lacquered look is nice as well.  The Sony screen is more matte than the Samsung.  The Sony speaker is across the bottom of the TV and has great sound.  The Samsung speaker is invisible, pointing down under the frame.  The sales guy at Circuit City said the sound is better with the Sony.  Don't know if he's right, I didn't study it, but I have no regrets about my choice.

The final tech treat:  When we set up the ATT U-verse, my Logitech Click optical mouse stopped working.  I thought the software had gotten corrupted.  Reloaded that after changing the batteries.  The control panel said it was working fine...except that it wasn't working at all.  Finally, I threw my hands up in the air and called tech support.  Not only did the tech talk me through the step-by-step troubleshooting, when we couldn't get it to work, she said "maybe it's under warranty."  "No way," said I, "I've had it forever."  She said she'd check, and when she came back, she said there was a 5-year warranty, and that it was covered.  They sent me a new mouse in a couple of weeks, simplest installation ever, NO charge whatsoever.  So if you want mouse or keyboard technology, go with Logitech.  I was extremely pleased (and, therefore, extremely surprised!)

Happy Holidays, y'all!

Finally, your moment of Zen: