So-lution?

    As time goes on, my CDs featuring oodle after oodle of old-time radio shows, some with 55 hours or more of programming per CD, have been performing worse and worse. You get ten minutes into a thirty-minute show and it just ends and the player skips to the next show. Often the same thing happens to the next program as well. So for ages I've been trying to find a CD player lens cleaner. But the days of CDs are pretty well past. Every store has a slot where cleaners should be sold, but they're always sold out.
    Today at Target, I found one. So far, the results aren't overly good. It appears that the files have gotten corrupted over the years. In fact, I kind of buried the lead. I checked one of the CDs on my laptop and specifically one of the files that had ended early. Windows media player showed it as being 19 minutes long instead of 30. So most likely no CD lens cleaner is going to help.
    I ripped some of my favorite shows and put them on my iPod Nano. The files went on my old laptop and filled it up to the point that it wouldn't/won't boot up anymore. I am assured that this is easy to fix and I can get those files, at least, back. Short of buying them all again, this is probably the best solution. I also still have the iPod Nano, which is how I mostly listen to the shows now. Apparently iPods are more reliable than CDs.

Go to the room where the needles are

    For some reason I was in New York state. Or somewhere up the eastern seaboard. And for some reason I was in a large, large group undergoing evaluations. Don't know what it was all about or even supposed to be about. Maybe the death panels finally started up.
    Everybody was very pleasant and the first stage was straightforward, or straightforward enough that I don't remember it. Anyway, none of my fellow evaluatees were upset. Then the official person told us that we needed to go next to the room where all the needles are. She was still pleasant, though, so I asked if she could maybe provide more detailed directions since none of us knew where that was. She laughed and led us there, still pleasantly.
    I woke before anybody could do anything with any needles and admit that by nightmare standards it isn't much, but I sure as hell couldn't get back to sleep. I did dig that I could hear the old-time radio playing in the waking world during the dream and everybody liked Kay Kyser there. Still, a return to nightmareland, however mild, tends to support my idea that GNC kelp is really a nice little dose of caffeine. But hell, I'll say it again: if it works, it works. It's certainly a nightmare that I can live with. Unless they get me with one of those needles.

Well I tell you what

    Switching back to my (probably non-kelp) kelp pills from GNC has not resulted in any notable upsurge in productivity, but I am more cheerful and now have a measurable heartbeat, both good things. It occurs to me that what's in the pills most likely is not green powder from leaves from house plants plus iodine from the drugstore down the block like I had been thinking, but more likely green powder from leaves from house plants plus caffeine. Still, if it works, it works, and so long as I can sleep at night I'll probably stick with these. Especially if an upsurge in productivity happens.
    As to the other kelp, Nature's Way capsules, I don't know anything about that company's reliability or trustworthiness. Assuming that they're trustworthy because the people I bought them from are is a little tricky since GNC, which I've already said I don't trust a lot, sells this brand, too. But for argument's sake, say that the capsules contain kelp equivalent to 2 1/2 times the daily requirement for iodine. It occurs to me that it might not be in a form (iodide, I think it is) that the body can use. Anyway, my body didn't seem to be using it for a darn. Maybe I'll just throw the whole idea over and join the rest of the world in drinking coffee with breakfast. Only two problems with that: 1) I don't like coffee; and 2) it gives me cramps. Oh well, GNC for me!

It's just possible that I made a mistake

    That's never happened before, right? Well, this is me, so not a mistake exactly. I was exactly right except of course for the whole being completely wrong thing.
    I mentioned some months ago that I was quitting GNC's kelp tablets on the grounds that recent studies indicated that their products were fake, that they didn't contain the ingredients purported to be inside. I think I mentioned then that even though I doubted if it was really kelp, it certainly was really iodine since it kept my thyroid up. Well, the better more reliable seller's kelp I bought instead is probably really kelp, but whether there's any iodine in there is another question. I've been depressed for months but there's no reason. It's not like lingering mourning; it's like I was when my thyroid wasn't working. Thus, when I finish dinner, I'm heading over to GNC to get me more fake kelp. Hey, what works works!
    National Weather Service says we're getting really astonishing quantities of rain but, knock on wood, so far we're doing fine with it. We were somewhat in a drought which helps, but then so was Texas. So hopefully, things slack off or at least continue to run off. Last night's rains were so ridiculous that I just gave up on sleeping for an hour there and sat in the comfy chair. And that was before the thunder started! Later, there were two big pops like transformers blowing but I never lost power. I never did find out what that was about.

Topic topic topic

    Yesterday's topic that I forgot was easy to remember once I drove past the same place. I've already made it a Facebook status update, but you know I can blither further on it.
    There's a marquee at a business on Huger Street (if you don't live in Columbia, just don't ask; I'll answer in a minute anyway) that reads "Train station trainers needed." As with all great mysteries, once I figured it out (will probably take you under a second), it was no longer as funny, but for a day there I was delightfully puzzled. My first instinct was to call or drop by and ask what it meant. My second was that it was so delightful as a perplexity that I never wanted to know what it meant. My third was to call and ask if they offer training.
    Of course the explanation almost has to be that there's a gym opening called Train Station and they need trainers. But darn it, I liked it so much better being puzzled! As to Huger, it is a Huguenot name. Many French Huguenots (protestants, if you're not keeping up) settled in Charleston, and we've been mispronouncing their names for centuries now. Apparently, Huger St. in Columbia was pronounced like "more huge" until late in the 20th century. By the time I came around, there was a movement to pronounce it like U.G. My suggestion that the street signs be taken down and replaced by a single really really huge G has not thus far been taken seriously, nor has my idea that they change the name to The Street That Is More Huge. I guess they would have to widen it first.

Topic topic

    I had a great topic a minute ago but completely blanked on it. You would have loved it, too, it was that great. Oh well. On the other hand, if I'd tried to record it in some way while driving (where I was when I thought of it), I would probably be a statistic, so you can take some solace (hopefully) in that. I'll probably think of it again the next time I'm driving.
    One topic I used before was silly car names with Limited or Special added to them, but I took a different slant. Now I'm noticing how many have Limited in the name but really shouldn't given the main model name. Ford as I mentioned last time specializes in this. Escape Limited, Expedition Limited, etc. Do these guys never ask anybody if this is a good idea? (Another driving inspired idea, of course.)
    The week here is supposed to be dominated by rain, so flying opportunities may be, well, limited. This morning I had two instances where I told the drone to shut down and it wouldn't. (In other words, I pushed the throttle control all the way to off but could still hear the motor whine.) Terrible twos, I suppose. It did shut down eventually, but I'm now expectiong to have it fly away forever rather than fly into a tree forever as the end experience. I just hope that everybody who wants to see it or play with it gets a chance to first.

Blue jay way

    This was supposed to be yesterday's entry, but I blanked out totally. Day before yesterday, I wanted to go down the street to the empty lot and try to get sunset pictures. Harry had just been outside, but I had let him out. When I started down the street, he sat peaceably in the yard for a moment, but when I got half a block away he of course had to follow. It is not news that you can't tell a cat to do anything, but I at least tried though to no avail.
    On the next block, he started being dive-bombed by a blue jay. At first it was a little funny since neither combatant seemed wounded in any way, but the blue jay wouldn't quit. Harry was making these pitiful little mews, but he wouldn't quit either. He kept following on, making sadder and sadder sounds even after the jay was left behind. So I played with my toy a bit and shot some pictures, but made it short. I led Harry back through Blue Jay Way again. I came about an inch from threatening the jay with the drone (for all the good that would have done), but got Harry home safely. Then I got an acceptable shot of my own street from on high (the only decent shot all day) before ceding the night to the blue jays.
    Thing about this toy is that the camera is slung underneath and pointed down. This means that you have to get really high before you can get any good pictures. (Not a Grateful Dead song.) The problems with that are wind and trees. I found out yesterday after posting that my old middle school is actually ideal for this since the school yard is just a yard, no equipment or trees of any kind. This morning I even got some decent skyline shots from there. Now that I know which way uptown/downtown is, I might do better! Still, I couldn't fly far since the school is surrounded by immense trees.
    I do want to give a shout out to the dogs of Shandon neighborhood playing at Hand Middle School. None tried to play fetch with my drone nor messed with me in any way. One owner said, "Not a dog toy" to one, but the dog was showing no sign of interest. Good dogs!