Can't write; I'm hidin' under the bed!

    I'm not really too alarmed about New Year's Eve drivers. It is true that I got off the road around half past noon. And maybe this is erring too far on the side of caution. But hey-- maybe not. Later when I was out taking my walk (staying off highly trafficked Olympia Avenue) I saw a deputy sheriff's car patrolling Olympia Cemetery. I was well-pleased that it's being patrolled but wondered if it was a zombie check.
    Mr. Harry, the conditionally courageous cat, has mostly been hiding behind the washer-dryer from the fireworks. He's come out now, but not far. Amelia is remarkably blase about the noise. Perhaps at 12 her hearing is not so sensitive. Or maybe she's been living with noisy me too long.
    There's a free show for New Year's Eve in front of the State House. In the past, they had George Clinton four years ago and Kool and the Gang with ZZ Ward opening two years ago. I don't remember other years. This year, it's Lauren Hill. I'm sure it would be a great show, but I don't know anything about Lauren Hill. It's neat that it's free, but I'm not that curious, nor that confident in the weather. So I think I'll remain hiding under the bed. Maybe Harry can make room for me behind the dryer!

Magic

    In some ways, it's been a magical year. This is so in spite of the mountains of tragedy contained within. Oddly, although I met wonderful people this year, what seems most magical is, well, magic. I took all these photos that didn't seem to involve me much at all. The luck of being in the right place at the right time to point and shoot, the luck of having siblings sending me camera quadcopters-- not a lot of talent is involved. IF IT EVER STOPS RAINING, the new quad should offer new horizons in cool pictures, since I'll be able to see what I'm doing while I'm doing it. I can hardly wait!
    In other news, I may have mentioned that in moments of stress, Amelia the cat goes up the chimney, worrying to me because the chimney is filthy beyond belief. Forever I've been looking for a fireplace screen. I could never find one the right size in thrifts and since she doesn't go up at all often, I couldn't raise the enthusiasm to go to a hardware store and buy a new one. Today I found one for $4. And it turned out to be exactly the right size. Victory is mine! Until she figures out she can move it easily. Remember, though, that this is the cat who can't figure out how to open a door that's already ajar. Victory is mine!

Don't you hate it when the thrift store guys have Internet?

    So the reason I look at Goodwill for audio equipment even though what I'm looking for is seldom present is because the locally owned thrift stores are not that free with the bargains. I went to one today and found a Denon tuner very, very, very well hidden. Online reviews were extremely enthusiastic, but predicated on "I bought it for $10 at a thrift store, and..." Dude wanted $100. He would go $75. And it's a good price. But it would be a better price if I needed a home theater system with 10 speakers, which is apparently what this one is for. It's pretty thermonuclear for what I need.
    I can afford it and all. It's just ever so much more fun finding the ultra cool component for ten or twenty dollars than for $75. And I'm a lot less likely to get furious if it turns out to have lightning damage or something at the lower price. All that said, I'm so eager to use my cool speakers that if I haven't found a cheap tuner at Goodwill within a week or so, I'll probably go back for the Denon. I don't think a lot of people are going to find it. But I wish it had been at Goodwill!

DJI Phantom: shortcomings

    To be fair, I should also share the less good things about the DJI Phantom I reviewed so enthusiastically the other day. (It's a camera quadcopter, in case I didn't make that clear.) There still isn't much wrong with the toy itself, or anyway not as far as I can tell. But a shortcoming is that you can't fly it in the rain, which is why I don't know any more about its flying characteristics. Also, without upgrading the firmware, I can't fly it under 60 degrees. This hasn't been a problem so far, but it really IS winter; someday soon it will be below 60. (Hopefully, the firmware update will tell me what the new cutoff is.)
    The main problem with Toy is that you have to use the DJI Go app to do anything with it, and the DJI Go app is really disinclined to be turned off. It eats battery and heats up the phone something pretty dramatic. I went into Battery under settings on the phone and forced it closed and it's behaved ever since. But I'd rather not do that every time. And battery still is draining pretty fast compared to before I installed it. I was also not best pleased that I had to register to use the app at all. So now all I need is a toy EXACTLY like DJI Phantom 3 Standard only one that will operate without an app. I'm sure there are DOZENS out there. (Yes, I know; sarcasm doesn't work in print. Ah well.)

Cat people

    I don't want to get in trouble with Malcolm McDowell and Nastassja Kinski (checked spelling, only missed by one letter), but actual cat people wouldn't be much like in the movie. They'd just be all about, "Is it dinner yet? Is it dinner YET? IS IT DINNER YET?!!!" Just like dog people, in fact. I never would have known this but for switching them to wet food. And to be fair it's just Harry who's so demanding. Not for nothing was he once called Starvin' Marvin.
    I finally hooked up my Goodwill receiver and speakers and... both left channels (i.e. A and B buttons) on the receiver are blown. Not totally, but unacceptably quiet and crackly. The speakers are superb, however. I set out to hit 5 or 6 Goodwills today to find another receiver. You can find untold numbers of VCRs and fax machines, large numbers of printers, and a good supply of DVD players, but receivers are rare. Of course there was a receiver at the first Goodwill I hit today. Thing is, it had an LED display that some of the lights were out on. Couldn't judge audio quality without speakers, but the burnt out lights put doubts in my mind, so I left it to fate and somebody else grabbed it before I went and got it. Ah fate. No receivers in the other two stores I visited, and time got away from me. Maybe I'll buy the Kenwood the lady on Facebook offered me. She might want more than $10, though.

Dreaming about dreaming about dreaming about...

    It finally happened. I had a dream in which I remarked to someone that I have dreams like this all the time. It was the usual thing. I was trying to get through an antique store where the proprietors had made practically no passageways and were actively moving things in the way of what few there were, especially a long narrow ramp that was the only way to get from one part of the store to another. Then a high white ridge rose up. Another fellow and I, the only ones who seem to have noticed, were trying to get over it, and that's when I made the remark. Why we couldn't just turn around and leave is a question I can't fathom, but perhaps it was an obstacle course antique store and you got points for making it all the way through.
    There was also some business outside involving perilous cliffs and panoramic views. When at the new Star Wars, I thought (not a spoiler), "Oh great, now my dreams are taken care of for the next ten years." Well one night anyway. (Cliffs, I hope, are not a spoiler. Just scenery, really!)

DJI Phantom = pretty highly recommended

    Or, in a word, TOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYY! My friend Tamara and I went for Indian buffet this afternoon and a Christmas 3D screening of the new Star Wars (also highly recommended). In between, we gave the new DJI Phantom a short test flight. Man, what a great toy! It actually hovers; the other ones were supposed to, but never remotely succeeded. This one goes straight up, comes straight down like an elevator. Looks like new horizons in total insane fun. Unfortunately, the park we were playing in was just starting to dry out after the latest round of insane rains. And the Phantom featured dire warnings about bad things that happen if the battery gets wet. So we didn't play with it long.
    Drawbacks are few. The company forces you to register to use the app. You have to have the app to control the camera. On the bright side, you control the camera via your phone, clamped to the remote control. I didn't know how yet so I have no pictures or video, but it looks straightforward, even if the controls are small. I had been thinking it just filmed everything all the time, because the phone display shows little still pictures of whatever the camera is looking at. I guess you could say it transmits video but doesn't record it unless you tell it to. I'll see.
    Regardless, crazy stupid fun toy!

Japonica

    That Jeopardy memory of mine is a little scary sometimes. I was walking in Olympia Park and noticed that the camellia bush near Rocky Branch (creek) was going crazy, not something I would expect on Christmas eve no matter how warm it is. (Very.) And the name Japonica sprung into my head. I looked it up, and indeed, that very bush looked exactly like Wikipedia's idea of a camellia japonica, also called the winter rose. So not that surprising that it would be going nuts this time of year regardless of temperature. The things you learn!
    The name reminded me that growing up we had a bush in the yard that our parents called japonica, so I tried looking it up. I found a lot of plants called Japonica (not surprising, as it just means Japanese), but none of them looked familiar, or even close. I was a little frustrated; it's japonica, dammit! My parents weren't ever wrong. Eventually I turned up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaenomeles or Japanese quince, in which entry the Wikipedia writer somewhat puts down people who call this Japonica, as it isn't a very specific epithet. Oh yeah? You come over here and say that!:)
    Malcolm sent me a DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter, a seriously badass toy, and now I have to wait for the weather to clear up before I can play with it, which is looking to happen some time in 2017. Just about bouncing off the walls here!

Easier than I expected

    I've been meaning to switch the rotten stinkies (cats) to wet food for ages but was stopped because the last time I tried it didn't go well. Or at all, really. At the time, Alice's older cat had died and we got a ragdoll kitten who was unclear on the whole ragdoll concept and thought she was a ball of fire instead. She ate all the wet food and Amelia showed little interest in it. So I thought she just preferred dry and left it at that.
    I knew that Harry felt differently because he would come running every time I opened any vacuum sealed can. So when my friend Tamara gifted the cats cans of high-end grain-free cat food, I was happy to give it a try. They went nuts! But in a good way. They didn't fight over it. Amelia ate her fill and Harry cleaned both plates and I think everybody was pretty satisfied. I bought another 14 cans. Today was the first day I fed them morning and afternoon. It went well. Tamara was here for the latter so I let her feed them. Harry, who had earlier run from her, suddenly regards her as his very bestest friend. Amelia isn't that easily won, but she dug it, too. So that went well!
    Tamara and I went to Charlotte in hopes of getting her laptop fixed at the Apple Store, but before Christmas turned out not to be the ideal moment for that move. And the rains came down astonishingly hard, complete with lightning and thunder. So we bailed, but not before having an outstanding meal at favorite Spanish place Miro. My favorite Charlotte Ethiopian restaurant has closed, but Miro continues to thrive, if in a new location. We were best pleased.

More boredom than I needed particularly, too

    Before I went to Precision Tune yesterday, I went by Time Warner Cable to try to pay William's cable bill using their handy dandy pay and go machine. It only gave me the options to pay with cash, credit or debit instead of the normal magical put-a-blank-check-in-and-your-bill-is-paid method. I asked the nearest service rep what was up and she said I probably needed to talk to them about my account and to take a number and wait my turn. I didn't exactly say anything four letters long and Anglo-Saxon but noted that I couldn't do that right then.
    After car repairs and lunch, I went back and took my number. It was maybe a half an hour wait until they called my number and I went up to the same lady who said that the machine had just needed fixing and would take my check no problem now. For some reason, I wasn't the least bit angry about this. I guess I was hungry for the smart phone Sudoku time. Anyway she was right and the machine worked perfectly. I also explained about the car troubles in the morning so she wouldn't think I was just being rude and impatient. Or anyway so she'd know there was a valid reason.
    I resisted the temptation to suggest that for future ref, they might want to tape a sign on the door saying that the pay and go machine was now taking checks again. Somehow, people never appreciate your pointing out the very, very, very obvious. I wonder about that.

More excitement than I needed particularly

    Yesterday, as I was driving home from Fran's holiday party, my oil light came on a couple of times, but went right back off again. (Flashed, you could almost say.) This morning, it did it again. I wasn't quite due for an oil change, but am not fond of seeing oil lights come on, so I took it in early. This was a good move.
    The tech told me there was no oil at all in the crank case. He recommended an engine flush, which I OKed. Later, he mentioned another 58 things that were going wrong and noted that the leaks weren't very bad so they figure I'm burning oil. The battery was covered in corrosion again, so I OKed fixing that and treating it so supposedly it wouldn't happen again. But further work seemed insane. It's really time to retire the old vehicle and get something new, so I just asked him to get it so it would run for a few weeks. It would be nice to be in something that isn't a rattletrap. It's been advantageous having a car so filthy looking that it's recognizable (distinctive is a nicer word) but I think it's run its race. Hey, I've had it 9 of its 21 years; it was a pretty good run.
    The trick is finding a used car in an area that's been inundated recently. I'm thinking my best strategy is to look for something really really specific. Either that or I'll drive up to North Carolina. Or you know, car jack somebody. Yeah!

Spoke too soon, # a billion

    As it's been sunny out and got up near 60 degrees, Miss Amelia has of course decided that she must go outside again. Or possibly she's just being a cat. I got her back in once by using the nuclear option (getting the broom, sweeping leaves) but I'd rather do this as seldom as possible, since she's only going to be scared of the sweeping sound and run inside for so long. In fact she faked me out this time and ran away from the door at first; if she'd kept going I would have been truly screwed. Fortunately she reverted to form after that.
    It's going to be warm again in a day or two, so I'll be ever so much more happy to let her out again for at least the week or so that it's warm. Could be worse though. At last night's party, I was told about places further out of town where pet cats are getting killed by coyotes. Hot damn! Something else to worry about!
    A real nice Bernie Sanders volunteer just knocked on the door, which thrilled me to no end, I mean that they are doing door-to-door in SC. As Amelia is scared of people, this may have also solved the WANT GO OUT problem for a little while. I hope.

Kitty roller coaster

    I'm pretty sure I've already said at least three times that the revolution is over, the will of the resistance has been broken, the kitty is willing and even eager to stay inside. And uh these statements proved to be a little on the over optimistic side. Not in the Rumsfeld realm, but maybe a trifle over optimistic. Today is cold. That certainly didn't stop her yesterday, but she's mainly been nappy all day and only bugged me a very little bit, wasn't overly whiny and gave up pretty quickly. This in spite of the fact that Harry was out gallivanting in the cold for most of the afternoon. All this means is that it has been a good day today at least as far as kitty whining goes. Hopefully this keeps up. I am not holding my breath. But if it holds up a couple of days until it's warm again, I can go for it.
    I'm invited to parties today and tomorrow. I was also invited out on Hallowe'en. It's like a new world! Unless Miss Amelia has just been resting up for a truly magnificent whinefest, I expect to be going to both parties.
    My beef stew always tastes good but the meat is always too tough because I don't cook it long enough. So this time I cooked it for freaking hours. If it doesn't turn out this time, darn it, I'm looking for gluten-free Dinty Moore!

Paragraph breaks, indents

    Huh. About a month ago, the composition page for Blogger started looking different. A little different. Almost exactly the same until you add text. That showed up in a totally different font, but I figured this was the only change, a minor, tiny one.
    However, I finally got around to looking at one of my entries as posted on the Internet (as against just what it looks like on the composition page) and found that my paragraph breaks and indents as created in Notepad had vanished. (I've been composing in Notepad all along since you can't put in indents on the composition page, anyway not without switching to composing in HTML which isn't one of my favorite things. I just checked; you still can't.) So for the past month or so, my blog has been going out as a block of text. So if you've been reading it, all apologies. This here is an attempt to see if I can get any kind of break in. If not, it's been fun but it may be time to go. Although it might be fun to free-form it for a while. Blank verse blog? Cool!
     Edit: Huh. Turns out I had at some point inadvertently hit the HTML button. Hitting the Compose button instead gave me back my breaks and indents. Well that was simple! Now to go back and fix the old ones.

Feets do your stuff

    When I'm crossing a busy street on foot, or anyway when I'm in some way jaywalking, I invariably stop in mid-street and put my feet right next to each other. I imagine that this signals to drivers that I'm not going to lurch out in front of them. I don't know if anyone actually gets this message or not, but anyway no one has ever run me down, so there's that.
    I don't think I've seen other people do this, but then most people inclined to jaywalk don't stop at all, just relying on providence or the kindness of others that the cars will stop, slow or change lanes. I'm not sure why I do it nor when I started. I'm wild guessing to be polite and Philadelphia, where there are a lot more busy streets to cross, respectively. Funny thing is that telling it like this, I feel ridiculous thinking that anybody on the road might care whether a pedestrian signals his intention to stay still by keeping his feet together. But I don't think I could stop doing it if I tried. For some crazy reason it makes me feel safer. One of those rituals nobody teaches you, I guess.

I'm not funny in my sleep

    Now and again I come up with a joke in my dreams. Until now I never remembered them so I could always convince myself that I had just forgotten the killer joke. Under those circumstances, it's almost a relief finally to remember one. The worst thing is that first I thought I had woken up and really really believed it was the killer joke and was going to post it on Facebook and then... I really woke up. This is the joke, rephrased slightly so it makes as much sense as it can: "If a beef is a fight and hash is a fight, beef hash must really be dangerous!"
    Now in my heart of hearts, I really believe that somehow this joke can be saved, that there's some other beef dish where both parts of the name in some way refer to a fight. Beef stew? No. Beef barley soup? No. I think I just want to hold on to the belief that I'm funny 24 hours a day. I've got it! I'm absurdist in my sleep! That's got it!

All this purring suggests that she's not that furious

    Amelia is still in "How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On The Farm" mode regarding the great outdoors and when I bring her in too soon, she's whiny and petulant as a terrible two-year-old. But all the purring she does the rest of the time suggests that she has a pretty good idea that she isn't being all that terribly mistreated. Frankly, just this minute the weather is so glorious that I want to be outside more eagerly than she. But I felt the need to make some cookies.
    And there was a senior moment. I completely forgot to set the timer on the cookies in the oven, nor did I much note the time when I put them in. I took them out and they neither look nor smell too burned up, but I feel an idiot and a half. Since they have to cool for ages before they're particularly taste-testable, I guess I'll just wonder. No I won't!
    OK, the first one I grabbed happened to be the one browned the most on the bottom. It didn't taste wonderful, but it tasted fine. I'm sure the rest will trend more towards wonderful. These are the Triple peanut cookies that I made once before, but again demoted them to double peanut, substituting chocolate chips for the actual peanuts because I miss Reese's peanut butter cups. They aren't very Reese-like, but people like them. And now we're going outside!

Incredibly keyed up about nothing

    In order, the Obamacare deadline, which I could meet easily just by, you know, meeting it; paperwork attached to my Dad's estate, which I just have to do; similarly, an email to the lawyer for the estate, which might require typing an entire SENTENCE; a spot on Harry's eye, which at worst would require a trip to the vet, something I've done already with no tears; and silly computer game difficulties, which don't even merit commentary, so you know I'm going to comment.
    I just seem to have managed to get up to maximum stress level for no reason whatever. The whole thing about Amelia wanting to go outside, well really that's neat. I don't know how I'm managing to get keyed up about that either. I would switch to decaf except for long since having switched to no caf.
    Ok, the computer game thing. I'm not telling this for therapy purposes, but just because it's bizarrely funny. In Sims 2 (yes it's ten years old), your female characters can get pregnant the old fashioned way. Your male characters can spend too much time stargazing through a telescope and wind up pregnant with a space alien baby. Back when I played this a lot, ten years ago, this only happened once or twice. With the new (to me) expansion pack, it happened twice on succeeding game days to the only two characters in the game! This could prove to be a pain in the butt, as it were. I think I'll marry them off to rich ladies. Two space alien babies in one house? Might be tricky.

Seasonal nap affective disorder

    I don't think I have a lot in the way of seasonal affective disorder anymore as we rocket towards the solstice. I just seem a lot sleepier. I don't feel depressed and especially not extra depressed. Just sleepy early because it gets dark so early. I have no idea how I survived England and can only imagine winter in, say, Trondheim or the highlands of Scotland. Not a fan of short days nor of cold weather.
    Fortunately, we're still getting crazy stupid warm weather. It looked for a while like we might get a December thunderstorm, which would be pretty funny, but nothing came of it. Amelia went out twice and came in both times on her own and seems satisfied with short stints as porch cat. Hopefully, she'll get over it when it's really cold or really hot. I'm still scared to vacuum thinking it might inspire fresh agitation to go outside, but I can't put it off much longer if I like breathing. Oh well, she's coped so far.
    I was annoyed that my cotton blankets had shrunk, and equally at how hard it was to find new cotton blankets, preferably not made in China. Found one at Kmart and a cotton quilt (though made in China) at Kohl's heavily discounted. Queen sized blankets just are not as large as I think they should be, but though these aren't so much larger than the shrunken ones as I would like, they are larger. And should be warmer. This will be nice momentarily when it gets colder.

The rebellion waxes and wanes

    About the time I think that Amelia has totally lost interest in the outside world or going out in it, she keeps me up half the night whining about going out. It appears that her primaray motivation might not be any keen interest in outside so much as being jealous that Harry gets to go out. Before the whining, she spent much of the evening out, eventually exploring the yard and winding up hiding in a huge bush right up against the house.
    Today, however, she's been sweet and my best friend again. I let her out in the afternoon (with crazy beautiful 80 degree weather). I moved my bungee chair to the front gate so she couldn't get by. And she did no exploring at all. She just hung out on the porch, looking content, and eventually moved into the doorway. So I moved the chair back and came and closed the door. And she's continued to be buddy buddy and hasn't whined a bit. Maybe I just have to let her stay out until she gets bored. Or maybe she's a cat and acts different from day to day and minute to minute. Well we'll see.
    Our excitement on the street was a house half a block up Ohio blowing up. I was listening to Casey Kasem and didn't even hear the bang. I did see all the fire trucks and ambulances, though. Turned out to be a meth lab on what used to be the second floor. You never know, do you?

Too great

    The lawyer for Dad's estate emailed the other day. I was puzzled by it but couldn't figure out why, so I kinda sorta ignored it for a while. Today I looked at it again and figured out why. He referred me to an attachment that wasn't there. So I emailed him back remarking about this. What's great is that Thunderbird (the email package, not the inexpensive wine) saw the word attachment and reminded me to send an attachment. I think maybe I'll suggest that the law firm switch to using Thunderbird (the wine or the email package).
    Having two indoor-outdoor cats running my life continues interesting. Amelia just wants to be on the porch to look around. She doesn't really want to do anything. So far. It's that so far part that worries me, that and the whole Curiosity killed the cat thing. But I think it's making her happy, we're probably all breathing a lot better getting more fresh air, and she deserves a better look at the outside world after ten years. How I'll feel about this when it's cold again is quite another question.

Outside? Meh.

    So after a couple of days of having free rein to explore, Amelia seems to have figured out that outside isn't really all that exciting and that there's a lot to be said for the indoor life. She still likes going out and looking around, and there's still a certain air of wonder and delight. But she almost has to be coaxed outside, and says "Heck with this!" and comes inside much more quickly. We are looking at a magnificent and warm weekend, so I hope she gets it out of her system thoroughly in the next few days. One senses that magnificent days will be few and far between over the next month or so. Unless my calendar is very very confused.

The brave 'splorer

    Amelia the cat, after ten years of being an inside only cat, has decided that she wants to see the world. This would not be news if I spoke cat; it turns out that her tearing up the area in front of the front door over the last year or years means "LET ME OUT!!!" Since I don't trust her too much in the big dangerous world, I'm spending a lot of time on the porch keeping an eye out. This is pretty funny since the cats have fur coats that they were born in but I dress for polar exploration just to sit out on my (admittedly pretty shady) porch.
    She doesn't go far. At first, she wouldn't leave the porch. Then she went down one step. Then she went down two steps. Today she went all the way down and went most of the way down the walk. She doesn't actually interact much with actual soil. I don't know if she's prissy or what. But she's bright-eyed as anything out there, so I figure it's a good thing.
    She also runs back in a lot. Sometimes she hears a person, sometimes a dog, sometimes a door slam. It's weird what alarms her and what doesn't (freight trains don't, for instance). All this means that I need to leave the door open all the time, OK now that it's almost winter and the bugs are less savage. But this won't be much fun some day soon when it's warm again and they're out in their gazillions. Maybe it's time to buy a house with an enclosed porch. Or find my little girl a new home.

Epic waste of time

    I will try to be brief. I'm still playing Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword maniacally or addictedly or both. This even though the one-handedness of playing is destroying my left shoulder. But it's usually fun, at least until you get into involved end-games that you can't, well, end.
    The epic I just finished was majestic, though. You start out with seven civilizations. At the very start of this game, or nearly so, there was a barbarian uprising and the Romans and Koreans were eliminated. However, their cities weren't wiped out but taken by the barbarians. So I went and got them. So I'm instantly much bigger than anybody else and I just grew and grew.
    Unfortunately, while the game has ways for you to win quickly when you're huge, they don't work when you're extra huge; you have to work your way up to mega huge for another method. In other words, diplomatic victory isn't available if you're big enough to swing the election yourself. The only thing available is a domination victory requiring you to get about 2/3 of the world's land surface, which is hard to do for a committed pacifist.
    So the game was endless. I eventually got my rocket ship to Alpha Centauri, the old standby Civilization victory condition. And it was only 1927, which was cool. The game wasn't impressed. Although I rated Augustus Caesar (the best), it was a pretty low adjusted score. My unadjusted score however was far and away the best ever. So I was impressed at least!
    Hey, don't complain; I could have blogged about my peeing dreams.

Acme!

    So I found a winner at Goodwill, sort of. It's four episodes of The Shadow on two cassettes. It's promoted as episodes never available before, and there's much mention of Orson Welles and Agnes Moorehead on the box. As it turns out, Orson and Agnes are nowhere to be heard and the shows weren't available before because they're in terrible shape. However, what I could hear of them was crazy stupid fun. Also the sponsor was Acme, makers of self-polishing wax. Wile E. Coyote take note. Also, The Shadow has the most annoying laugh up until Fran Drescher, and uses it at the least appropriate times. Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh!
    At the next Goodwill, I found an expansion pack for Sims 2. The Shadow cassettes, almost impossible to find, were 50 cents. The expansion pack for a 10+ year old game available anywhere was $3. Mind you, I can afford it. But the pricing is irritatingly arbitrary. Less so if I can play the game without a disk in the disk drive, though, but I'm not betting a lot.

Edit: two of the four Shadows did feature Orson and Agnes as it turns out. Yay!

As we barrel towards the anniversary

    As we draw closer to the anniversary of Dad's death, I think I'm OK. Could be better, but who couldn't? Facebook has a delightful feature where it shows you your past posts on this day a year or two years ago, etc. I tried switching it off because I knew we were coming up on a time when I really didn't want to see my posts from a year ago, but it kept switching itself back on. So I went to Options and gave it a range of dates not to show me posts from (a year ago up until Dad's death or funeral, I forget which). And that seems to work. I really don't need any reminders; distractions would be nice.
    I keep wanting to tell the siblings to come down, the weather is so nice, but a glance at weather sites says that the weather in the northeast is at least as nice. This isn't anything to complain about, but it sure is unusual this time of year. But I'm sure one day winter will come there but not here and I'll say, "OK come down now!" And they might.

Super duper

    When I was a lad and could grow bangs and make wee-wee in under ten minutes, I was lucky enough to go visit France. Of course we loved the museums and gardens and food and cafes and topless beaches and all. But we also experienced regular everyday French life, and were puzzled by hypermarches. (Hypermarkets. You'll just have to take my word for it that there's an accent over that E.)
    I may have mentioned this before, but I think at least I'm going somewhere slightly different this time. Hypermarkets would be about at weird as a Super Walmart to 21st century American teens, but they were pretty wild in 1979. And where I'm going with it this time is that I was passing by the Dollar General near my dad's house. When I was a kid and still in 1979, it was a Red & White supermarket. Later on my way home on Rosewood is the Dollar Tree, which used to be a Piggly Wiggly.
    Point of all this is that Walmart didn't just kill the downtowns of small towns. Smaller supermarkets bit the dust, too. Still, Walmart's hypermarket model hasn't exactly won out. For some reason, supermarkets are just bigger than they used to be, but not quite hyper. And where the smaller supermarkets were are stores that also have groceries of a kind, although I myself won't eat anything from there. Also all drugstores are bigger, and also carry groceries. I do know who's buying groceries from the dollar stores (really poor people) but I don't know who is buying groceries from drugstores. (Presumably people with more money than time, or really desperate people without cars.
    I'll admit that I don't have any point to all this; I must composed the first sentence and really liked it. Ok there's a point with no point: all the little supermarkets went away; I just don't know why. Hey, I used to buy my baseball cards at that Red & White! Come back!

Odd thing to gloat about, I know

    I stayed up to hear the miraculous (or anyway very very very lucky) ending of the Green Bay-Detroit game last night. I did not have a premonition, a sixth sense or any other feeling that something amazing might happen. It was just plain old common sense; if a team down 20-0 in the third quarter can score two touchdowns in a minute and a half, then they can probably come back at later points, too. However, if anyone wishes to impute to me fabulous psychic powers, well I'm willing to accept the laurels.
    Harry still seems subdued but by no means cowed. Meanwhile shy Amelia is getting a little bit braver regarding the big scary outdoors. She'll go out on the porch, but she comes back in if I'm out of sight. She doesn't try to come back in if I close the door on her from the inside (even though I'm out of sight then) but she comes back in if I close the door from the outside. I'm not sure I'll ever work out the cat logic behind all this, but it's pretty delightful.
    Yesterday's entry was almost impossible to post. I suspect that the new version of Avast free antivirus is even worse than the previous one. And that our little entente is soon coming to an end. Anybody out there with a better suggestion for free antivirus software is oh so welcome to offer one.

Domesticated?

    I daresay that Harry is not completely transformed by being jumped on by Amelia the other day, but he has been strangely subdued. He spent most of yesterday indoors but that was natural; it was raining. Today, though, it was just cloudy and not particularly cold and he spent most of it indoors, too, never agitating to go out. I forgot he was here to be frank, which heretofore has been pretty difficult to do.
    I think it's all just a coincidence. Maybe he just has kitty seasonal affective disorder. I don't remember clearly since things were pretty bad in my life a year ago, but I think he was pretty much equally full of beans all winter last year. Anyway any time it wasn't raining, snowing, sleeting or freezing. Anyway, somebody is coming over now most likely bringing treats, so I bet his outlook is about to improve markedly!

Could it be progress?

    Amelia jumped Harry last night. This may not sound like progress and it may not be progress but it seems encouraging to me. I don't know if I can explain why. After a year of cold war and feints and hissings, well, she finally conveyed that she is in fact bigger. In my dreams at least, this may mean that they can start getting along better, or anyway keep their distance better. Harry is unfortunately fearless. Unfortunate as he is not a large cat.
    Harry went out shortly afterwards and didn't come in at bedtime. I did wake in the night and let him in a little after 3:30. They behaved very well all night and pretty well during this rainy day. They're really sweet cats; I still hope they can get along someday.

Wanna buy a watch?

    My old watch was still running, but the light no longer worked. Or rather, I would push the button and the display would light up sort of, but the actual time would disappear. So in the sense of actually doing its job, no it wasn't working.
    This watch had been good to me, or anyway the cloth strap had. I'm not fond of metal straps and not much more fond of plastic ones. But it was time for a new one, and Kmart as it happened had a sale. And I found a neat Sharp watch at deep discount and decided to live with the plastic strap.
    I dunno, it's never worked out. I have a tiny tiny bump on my wrist which it just always seems to aggravate. I tried it on my right wrist but that's just too weird for me, and it wasn't overly comfortable there either. So finally I realized that whenever I go out, I have my phone (which features a clock) and when at home I'm often on the computer (which features a clock). The only time I need a watch is when I'm playing computer games and the clock is disabled. So I checked through my dead AA batteries and found one that was only mostly dead, stuck it in my Dad's old clock I got him for the nursing home where he couldn't wear his watch, and bingo, I'm watchless. I'm hoping the dang bump will eventually go away and I can wear my Sharp watch again. After all, you need to keep a Sharp watch.