Friday Thoughts

It is cold, damp and rainy here in Lake Gonebelow. The weather pattern hit yesterday and it appears that it is here for the weekend.

Lots of nothing this week. The princess went for her occasional visit to the spa. We had a contractor stop by to give an estimate on some work that we would like to have done. All of the work would increase the energy efficiency of the house. I’m itching to get my hands on the bath or the kitchen, but first things first.

This weekend is the local county’s electronic recycling program. It is held twice a year. I decided to recycle most of the eMachine that was given to me. I kept the hard drive and used it to test and wipe clean other hard drives that we laying around. To my surprise some of the drives that had crashed appear to be usable. I wiped them clean, but I decided to keep them for the time being. I’m keeping my friends monitor. It is an old CRT-type, but the screen is bigger than the one I had in the basement. So I recycled mine and I am keeping his.

Tomorrow we are attending a wedding – a co-worker of my wife.

I did some initial yard clean up this week. We have not as yet had frost, but it was a good time to be out and about in the yard.

Have a good weekend, folks!

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Mondayne

It was a busy but low-key weekend here at Lake Gonebelow, normal stuff with a bit of variety thrown in.

Friday evening we attended a local high school football game. Because my own sons are long out of high school and because we did not live here during those years anyway, we have no allegiance to the local sports scene. The BIL directs the band for the school that was playing a local school so we went to see and hear the band perform at half time.

Ole Lem was frequently otherwise distracted. *a-hem* Such events ooze testosterone and this one did not fail. Although it was a bit chilly, it did not stop the manly men among the fans from going shirtless and painting their chests with war paint. Lem did not mind. Of course for obviously legal reasons, it was look but not touch, and I much prefer my eye candy with a bit more aging, like the finest wine and cheese. Even so it was fun trying out the ‘dar on the young to see if I could guess who might be Family and who was definitely not. One bit of entertainment was a young man who was dancing up a storm on the track while the band played a particularly rockin’ song.

On Saturday friends from the old place stopped by for a pleasant visit. There was a fall nip in the air so I decided to make chicken corn soup with rivels. Rivels are similar to mini-dumplings. Among the other fare was my homemade, warm apple sauce that was a definite hit with the friends.

On Sunday I played with the eMachine a bit. ME is gone. I wiped the hard drive clean. In so doing I discovered that what I thought (from the paperwork) was a 40GB HD turned out to be only a 20. I had thought of using it as a server on my network, but I am again thinking that I will rip out the hard drive and add it to my Ubuntu pc. I will then recycle the remaining parts. The local electronic recycling is this coming weekend.

I have a long list of honey-do’s for the day, so I’ll stop for now. Have a great week, readers!

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Friday Thoughts

The theme for this week has definitely been computers. The week started with notification that the laptop that I had tried to resurrect had lapsed into a coma. My friend from the group met me Monday at a local shopping center parking lot and we “dealt computers out of the back of our cars” in his words. He was coming into town to do some errands and it saved me a trip out to his home. He handed me his unconscious lappy and I handed him his old eMachine tower from which I had capture his pictures. After a short conversation, I regained possession of the tower. He was only going to trash it, and, as a member of the Society and Dumpster Divers Anonymous, I just could not let that happen.

So I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday on the laptop. I nulled out the hard drive and started from scratch. Unfortunately that meant the sacrifice of most of the application software that had come with the laptop. Either the manufacturer had only provided a OS install CD or my friend had lost the application install CD. I reinstalled Vista and *very slowly* updated it step by step until by Wednesday I had it up to SP2. It worked well. I found an install of the only local application that he used. Yesterday I returned the lappy to my friend and he his pretty much back in business.

As for the eMachine, I was told that it was also pretty much dead in the water. Yesterday afternoon I slapped it upside the head and got it to boot. It has ME. Woe is ME! I’m not sure what I will do with it, I have a couple of ideas. I uninstalled unnecessary apps and last night I did a defrag.

And now for something completely different…

I heard last night that Levi Johnson Johnston may pose for Playgirl. Hmmmm…. The news brought both a chuckle and a bit of drool to my face. I have not bought magazines in print for ages, although I have been given to understand that this one no longer appears in print, only online.

It also set my mind back to remembering my encounters with “instructional magazines to be read only for the articles.”

I really never “read” a Playboy magazine until I was out of college. Some of you may find that hard to believe. It was while doing my studies after college that a friend in my dorm was a subscriber to Playboy. I would go down to his dorm room and read the current issue. And read I did, because the instructional images did nothing for me. HELL-O! But I was too dumb then to admit to myself why. I used to enjoy reading the letters to the editor most of all.

I would be working for three years after completing all my schooling when, during a flood, we stored a neighbor’s possessions in our home. The son of the neighbor had stashed an open box of magazines in our basement. I had my first look at Penthouse and Hustler. These were the first magazines that I had seen that included male as well as female nudity, although there were no explicit depictions of intercourse. These images were much more instructional.

At roughly the same time in the midst of a conversation with some teenagers, I learned of a new publication called Playgirl. The young fellow who spoke of it told disgustingly that it had pictures of men. Of course I made mental note of it all and shortly thereafter had procured a copy of an issue so that I might read the articles. “A sound mind in a sound body”, you know.

Not too long after that I was in the magazine section of a [regular] bookstore when the section of adult magazines (Playboy, etc.) caught my eye. I saw the customary magazines noted above, but then I spied a section with some new titles: Blueboy, Honcho, In Touch.

At that time in my life, I found these latter magazines to be even more instructional. The illustrations accompanying the articles were superb. At last art met literature.

I am now eager to read more about Levi.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Mondayne

Overall it was a pleasant weekend in Lake Gonebelow. I hope it was also pleasant wherever you were.

If you had read my recent posts, you know that this past weekend I was without adult supervision. My activities only proved just how trustworthy I can be when I am without such supervision. *grin*

Saturday morning was filled with domestic chores (doing laundry, etc.) and with chatting on line with a good friend. Of course I did spend some time on line with some instructional videos.

In the afternoon the princess and I snuggled on the couch and I watched our DVD of Alexander (Director’s Cut). It had been a while since I had watched it, and after seeing Colin Ferrell in A Home at the End of the World recently, I wanted to watch it again.

Late in the afternoon I joined some of the group at dinner to celebrate the birthday of one of the members. When the waitress took our orders, every one of us ended up taking one of the three specials for the evening: either scallops, salmon, or chicken. That messed a bit with the waitress’s mind. My own selection was very good, but my favorite of the meal was the wild rice with cranberries. I would love to get my hands on that recipe.

After the meal we adjourned to the nearby home of one of the group for some coffee and *delicious* chocolate cake/mousse. The princess had been back home in her cage for the duration, so I left about 10 to go home and relieve her.

I had arranged to pick up a discumbuberated pc tower from one of the members. He had some images stored on the hard drive that he and a friend had been unsuccessful in retrieving. I took it home with me and gave it a shot. I am happy to report that I was successful in retrieving the files and in burning them to a CD before I went to bed. I now need to get the tower and the CD’s back to the member.

I did not get to the local Oktoberfest, but I did have a Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest at the dinner and I flew the Schwarz-Rot-Gold at the house all weekend, so all was not lost.

I had bailed out of the ersatz college reunion over the weekend. I really do not regret that decision. I did fear that one or more of the classmates might stop by the house, but my fears were unfounded.

On a similar, but much more pleasant theme I had a surprise phone call last evening from a former colleague who had been a good friend in my “past life”. We had kept in touch through holiday letters and I knew he was dealing with frustrations similar to the ones that had driven me from my own past. It has all come to a head for him, but a happy opportunity appears to present itself to him. He wanted to pick my brain (slim pickin’s!) with regard to my experiences. I think we chatted for an hour and a half. It was good to hear from him, although I advised him that if his phone were bugged it might not be wise for him to consort with a known theological terrorist and heretic. He’s a good guy and good at his job. His gifts are very much under-appreciated in his present situation. I hope that the new opportunity works out for him.

So the weekend is over and I am again under adult supervision. Of course, I am not so sure that there is much difference in my life with or without it.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Friday Thoughts

It seems that there has been a dark cloud brooding over the blogosphere this week. Perhaps it is the movement toward the full moon. Many of my prime reads and some private conversations/emails have revealed dark days for many of you. Some are dealing with the possibility of job loss, some with financial crises, some with depression, some with just an even bigger horse load of crap than the normal day brings to most of us.

Then in addition to the normal insanity that we have come to expect from our national life, I read of the “oblique” calls for a military coup. I’ll refrain from my diatribe on that.

As for my friends in the blogosphere, I find myself frustrated at the loss of words and even more so at the loss of appropriate actions to reach out and to help you. I would make my concern real, tangible, if I could. You do weigh heavy on my heart.

As for life here at Lake Gonebelow, it goes as it goes. This week has neither held agony nor ecstasy for me. Sometimes that it good. I learned (and rejoiced) that the associate was returning to his duties as of yesterday, effectively releasing me from the visitation gig. There is an event for me to attend tomorrow evening, so that I can avoid the reunion that I did not wish to attend and so I contacted the organizer and informed him that my plans had changed.

The princess and I will still be without adult supervision tomorrow and Sunday. Unfortunately(?) we have nothing “untoward” planned. If you’ve got any ideas or just want to stop by, don’t be shy. *eg*

Have a great weekend, everyone. May the winds of change bring grace, renewal, every good thing, and much peace to you all.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Mondayne, 3

I did not do any visitation this past week. My schedule became complicated and there just was not time to make the trip and do visits. This week will also be a wash. My car is in the shop for most of the week.

This coming weekend I expect to be on my own. Without adult supervision. *eg* I’ve pretty much decided to bag the “class reunion”. The two classmates that I would want to see are not that far away and I can see them another time. I’m hoping to find something to do within the parameters that I need to be around to care for the princess.

The following note may fall into the category of TMI, but I will try not to be too direct. On Friday I met someone who is relatively new to the area. I would say that we had a good time, but I am not adding an exclamation point. It had been nearly a year for me (except for my dates with Rosy). Since then I’ve been contemplating my reaction to it all. I do not feel compelled to follow up, and what bothers me most are my thoughts that I am not so sure that I care that it ever happens again. It all rather takes the thrill out of the forthcoming weekend.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

We Interrupt This Blog…

…to encourage you to watch the Ken Burns/PBS special series on the National Parks.

We DVR’s the first one and watched it early this afternoon. The photography and videography are great! as is the content. I highly recommend it.

I hope that it will raise awareness and appreciation again among the American people of these wonderful national treasures so that the voices of “Drill, baby, drill!” will once again be silenced and these lands kept as a gift to our future.

I hope you will watch it and find it as enjoyable as we did.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Friday Thoughts

The theme of this edition of Friday Thoughts has to be gay lit and media.

From earlier posts you learned that I had watched the film of A Home at the End of the World recently and subsequently procured a used copy of the novel to read. Earlier this week I finished the book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. What I noticed immediately were the differences between the book and the film – particularly toward the end. Among some of the many differences: the character of Erich is a “no show” in the film for the most part, and the book is not as explicit as is the film with the thread of Jonathan having AIDS. As with a lot of duke outs between books and the film adaptations there of, I think I preferred the book, although I think I fell in love with Colin Farrell as the dopey Bobby – especially as he dances with Jonathan to Mozart. *sigh* The movie ran again one afternoon this week and I was able to see most of it again.

Another movie that I was able to catch this week was a re-run of Were the World Mine. I missed the first showing and it looked interesting. It reminded me very much of Kiss Me, Kate – a play within a play. I not only knew the movie of KMK, but we had done the play in high school. Instead of The Taming of the Shrew, WtWM uses A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I enjoyed it well enough, but some of the scenes were a bit over the top for my taste. I would have preferred that they turn down the volume on the “gay” knob a wee bit in places. One thing it did do was whet my appetite to read some Shakespeare again and add still another element to my “retirement ADD”.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Unwanted Intrusions

A few moments ago I checked my email.

In my in-box I found an email that had been forwarded to me (and to dozens more) by a former classmate who recently “rediscovered” me. Since the day of our graduation over forty years ago until the phone call of a few weeks ago, I have seen the man once. I have talked with the man one other time on the phone. That should tell us how close we are.

Now I find that I am suddenly on his email forwarding list… of emails that I do not appreciate …on topics with which I do not agree …about issues that I do not support.

He is not the only one. Persons from my distant past and from my recent past also engage in this practice.

I have my own opinions. I have issues that I support. From time to time I have used this blog as a platform to express my views. I feel I have that right to my say.

BUT if you do not like my views, you do not have to read this blog. You do not even need to stop by. I do not wish to force my ideas on anyone. You need not acknowledge that the Greedy Maelstrom even exists. I will not email you copies of my posts, certainly not mass mailings.

In a similar vein, if I make comments on any of your posts that you find offensive or unwelcome, I would ask you to notify me “post haste” and I will cease and desist from doing so.

I do not ever intend to intrude where I am not welcome or wanted.

Why then are there those who are so taken by some kind of twisted “missionary zeal” that they feel that they must forward every bigoted, hate-filled, lie-infested email that they receive to everyone they know? What makes my friends and some distant members of my family think that I support their cause? or that I am even remotely interested in reading their latest lunacy?

What right then do they have to their outrage when I inform them that I do not wish to receive their hate-filled email and that I do not support their cause?

This classless, clueless mindset is also related to the Kirk Cameron plan to distribute in November copies of Darwin’s Origin of the Species with a “special” fifty-page introduction written by creationists. I appreciated many of the points outlined by the woman in the video below in response to this plan. Among the one I liked the most was the plan to distribute copies of the Christian scriptures with an introduction written by atheists and agnostics. As this woman points out, the furor from the “Right” would be red hot. They would be incensed at such audacity. Yet they do not appreciate the offense of their own unwanted and inappropriate intrusion.

There is a voice in me (despite my own faith) that hopes that someone takes up this woman’s suggestion. Let’s just say that it’s the devil in me that makes it so deliciously tempting.

There is another voice that screams “don’t do it!”

If someone does follow through on her suggestion, my inbox will be filled to capacity with even more unwanted intrusions by all my lunatic fringe friends and family.

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!

Mondayne, 2

It was *BEAUTIOUS* here in Lake Gonebelow this past weekend. It was good to be outside and enjoy the bright sunshine without oppressive heat or humidity. The A/C has been turned off and I hope not to turn it on again until late spring.

Saturday was an anniversary of sorts (no, not *the* anniversary). Thirty-nine years of the day we met. We were going to go out to eat and rent a movie. We could not find a movie that appealed that we had not seen and we decided that we did not want to fight the crowds, so we picked up dinner from our favorite Chinese place and ate in. I bought a dozen roses and told her I got her 3[+]9. That’s what happens when a cheap math major’s brain gets creative.

Right now I am listening to the sound of jack hammers at our front curb. It appears that the local gas utility has decided to replace the lines that run by our home. They started on the next block in the middle of last week. We received our letter of notice the day *after* they started. We do not have any gas line into the home, but our frontage services a number of properties across the way. I am hoping that they contain their digging to along our curb only. There should be no need for them to come up and dig around our home as they have at other properties (who actively use the gas service, I assume).

We learned over the weekend that our younger son has a job interview “north of the border”. It is in one of the English-speaking provinces, but even if it were not, it should present no major problem to him. He excelled in both French and Latin in high school. The distance is going to be a concern to his mother (who will not fly). But at this point it is only an interview and we will cross our bridges when we come to them.

Over the weekend I sorted through some boxes of old computer parts in preparation for the area’s electronic recycling program. We’re talking *old* parts here. Some date to my Tandy 1000 era! I think I can safely rid myself of them now. I think I had three office boxes full of toss outs.

May your Monday foreshadow a happy and fortuitous week!

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That’s a wrap.

Sending HUGS to all!