December 2005

Conversation.

One of the most challenging things I find about your typical work week is the need to fall asleep when I’m not really that tired. I’m proud to proclaim that I am a “night owl”. I burn the midnight oil. I could work all night on an any given adventure, while others are in bed dreaming of their next adventure. On my ideal schedule, I’m awake until 3:30 a.m. or so and then sleep ’til noon. It just the way I’m wired.

Tomorrow is a vacation day, so normally I would indulge myself in my natural sleeping habits, but I need to head up to my grandparents’ house early in the morning to meet the movers to move my grandparents’ piano down to our house.

I just tried to force myself to sleep with no such luck. Usually I can lie in bed and sort of imagine myself someplace else; another city, another time, another outfit, and then I’ll eventually fall asleep with my recent imagination segueing into my dreams.

Tonight I had the urge to shake Earl awake and discuss a myriad of topics with him. I didn’t do that of course, as he was snoring loud enough to make the cattle in the barns two towns over restless. (“Elsie, what the hell is that noise? Is your milker clogged up again?” “No, it’s Earl snoring again.”) Normally Earl’s sounds of slumber are like music to my ears. Well, at least the noise masks the constant ringing in my ears that I have from too many ears wearing headphones as a DJ.

It’s not easy to carry on a conversation with someone that snores.

“We should talk about the Christmas shopping we have left.”

“honk honk gurgle gurgle honk honk [sound of sucking up pillow off the bed].”

I love him with all my heart but what kind of conversation is that?

So I’ll try to tire myself by surfing the internet and working on my little road geek projects and what not. Thank the Universe everything in the computer room is bolted down.

Tickle The Ivories.

There is something so invigorating of knowing a three-day weekend lies ahead. Today is my “Friday” as I have taken tomorrow as a vacation day. Tomorrow I’m having my grandparents’ piano moved into its new home in our front room.

My excitement is a little bittersweet, though. I’m really pumped about having a piano in the house again since it’s been over two years since Earl and I have had a piano. I’m anxious to start plunking out tunes. I might even take piano lessons again, because after all, I don’t have enough going on in my life.

But I’m a little sad because it’s my grandparents’ piano. When I hear or see this piano, I’ll remember the happy times I had as a kid listening to my grandmother play or trying to figure out tunes on my own. This piano predates the house its currently in, which was built in the mid 1950s. It hasn’t really moved since being put in its spot nearly 50 years ago. It’s a family heirloom that I’m going to treasure forever.

I’m sure that after the movers leave and I play the piano tomorrow I’ll have tears in my eyes. But that’s o.k. There’ll be a song in my heart.

Important Paperwork.

There’s nothing more important, actually more satisfying, then getting through the stack of paperwork on your desk and finding the bottom of the frivolity. Of course I’m referring to the stacks of rebate submission forms and lottery tickets stacked next to my computer.

I go crazy over rebates. I don’t know why. I find they’re more satisfying than coupons because you get something back several weeks after the purchase. Often you completely forget the arrival of your rebate check so it’s like a little bonus on a dreary day. So you had to buy an overpriced laser printer that was completely out of your budget. Big deal. You’re getting a free toner cartridge in the mail simply because you took the time to make a photocopy of your receipt, circle the item you are referencing, cut the UPC code out of the bottom of the box (complete with packing staple that was in your scissoring path), recorded the serial number of the actual printer, completed the form in impossibly legible, yet tiny letters across the thermally printed form that is no larger than 2 3/4-inches across and stuffed all that fun into a business sized envelope with made out to a business address that contains seven lines and a just a few words short of a novel.

After all the fun with the rebates, I came across the lottery tickets that haven’t been checked. Why, Earl and I could be millionaires right now and paying someone union wages to fill out our rebate forms! So off to the New York Lottery website we go, comparing and cross checking our lottery numbers with the numbers listed on the tickets. No luck though, we’re still your average bears.

Better increase our wealth with more rebates.

Cuddle.

I was settling down during my lunch to write a clever, witty and stimulating blog entry. I was interrupted by the unmistakeable sounds of purring and the eyes of a cat who was looking for a clear landing path to my lap.

The blog entry loses. The cat wins.

I’ll write tonight.

Moving Pictures.

When I’m bored and find myself aimlessly wandering the internet, I often stop over to The Internet Archive and browse through some of the old short films from the 40s and 50s.

One particular short film I enjoy is titled “Young Man’s Fancy”. This film is about young Judy, who is just smitten with a friend her brother has brought home from college. She’s trying to get his attention so they can go to the dance together.

Now, you would think the title refers to Judy as the young man’s “fancy”. Nope. The twist of this film is that it’s really an infomercial for electric appliances! No specific brand names are mentioned, but mother and daughter discuss the virtues of having an electric washer and dryer and all electric kitchen, and Alex, the object of Judy’s affection, has a most peculiar hobby: “engineering and time study”. A geek before his time! I love it!

I love watching this little episodic movie for a couple of reasons. I snicker when it’s mentioned that Alex is a “really woman hater”(?!?) and he and Judy’s brother go upstairs to take a shower together. (There’s a scene where Alex is shaving and the brother is taking a shower, in the same bathroom).

The mother in the film reminds me of my paternal grandmother in her homemaking skills; “wash day”, ironing the sheets, making a hearty lunch, etc.

What I like most is the innocence in this film. It has no basis in reality but rather takes place in a utopian, innocent world where time moved slower, people dressed up for dinner (I’m lucky to have pants on when I’m at the supper table) and the most technologically advanced piece of equipment in the house was the television.

I think there’s subliminal messages in the film though. I have the urge to redo the kitchen in an early 50s motif. Complete with an all-electric laundry.
Young Man's Fancy

Surly Crowd.

One of the things that I’ve noticed over the past couple of years is that there doesn’t seem to be in any “holiday spirit” amongst the shoppers that are doing their Christmas shopping. I don’t know if this is confined to this area, where people are generally surly to begin with, or if this is an epidemic that has taken over the country as a whole. Nevertheless, I find it all quite depressing.

First of all, I refuse to shop on “Black Friday”. I find these pre-dawn specials quite idiotic and I’ve heard too many horror stories. Super Wal*Mart (Always White Trash, Always) advertises laptop computers for $299.99 between 5:01 a.m. and 5:36 a.m. on Black Friday. People start milling about these 24hour behemoths around 3:00 a.m. or so, awaiting the magic time when a overworked, underpaid and uninsured Wal*Mart associate croaks over the loudspeaker, “Wal*Mart associates, it’s time to remove the paper”, referring to the brown paper that is wrapped around all these bargains for the “specials hour”. Now mind you, they’ve been shreaking in newspapers, on the radio and on the tube about how wonderful all these sales are going to be for the prior two weeks, so there’s probably a couple hundred or so people awaiting their chance to pick up a $299.99 computer. They’ve been dreaming, scheming and salivating over this opportunity to get this deep-discounted computer. They’ve been wandering the store for two hours in the middle of the night waiting for this Golden Opportunity, this one chance to get the computer their rug rat has been whining about since the middle of August. They’re tired, they’re cranky, but more importantly, they’re ready to join the other folks and get this computer.

Except there’s only six of them.

And one of them is damaged.

(And I won’t mention that they run Windows. Unpatched.)

Natually, all mayhem ensues, men are making fists, women are tripping others, people in wheelchairs are getting herded away from the “fun” by ambulatory people using shopping carts as battering rams, children are crying. I have to ask, is it really worth it?

How does the song go? Oh yes, “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.” Chance are you won’t have them if you go shopping on Black Friday. They’ve been knocked out by some holiday shopper, undoubtedly spreading holiday cheer, who saw you grab the laptop they had their eye on.

Kicking off snowblowing season.

Yesterday marked the first significant snowstorm of the season. The weather folks predicted three to five inches, so of course we got nearly a foot of snow.

Earlier in the week I was commenting that it was a balmy 67.8 degrees here in Upstate N.Y. While quite beautiful, that’s a bad thing in December. You see, warm air keeps the Great Lakes warm, which then just invites Arctic air to come over the lakes, scoop up some lake water, make some magic and dump lots of snow on those of us that live in strategically placed locales.

I grew up smack dab in the middle of the Lake Ontario “snow belt”, so lots of snow doesn’t bother me. Where we live now is not as close to the snow belt area, but we still get our fair share of snow. I’m always fairly bewildered at others’ reaction to a foot or so of snow. If you think about it, it’s all easier to deal with if you just, well, deal with it. I don’t fly into hysterics and buy sixty loaves of bread and fourteen cartons of milk. I don’t cry and throw my vehicle into a tailspin when I enter a whiteout. I don’t believe that school should be closed due to snow on the roads. That’s what living in Upstate New York is all about.

It’s just so much damn work!

Oh well. I’m hoping that working my way up and down the driveway with the snowblower will pass for physical exercise.

Christmas shopping complete. Almost.

With our original plans to go to Pittsburgh this weekend thwarted by Mother Nature, Earl and I decided to keep it local and do our Christmas shopping in Syracuse today. So off we went to the behemoth of a shopping experience, Carousel Center. This mall is going to become the largest mall in the United States one of these days, when the plans for DestiNY USA are completed. As it stands now, it’s still pretty damn big.

We navigated from store to store like the old pros that we are, shopping list in hand and burn marks on our palms from too many swipes of the debit card. It’s a cash Christmas this year, as we refuse to go into debt to spread joy to our loved ones. If you’re gonna play, you gotta pay. That’s what I always say. (If you believe that, I have a oceanfront property in Peoria, Ill. to sell you.)

One of the things I always enjoy about Syracuse is the pride in the SU sports teams (Go Orange! Go ‘Cuse!) with t-shirts and hats and everything on everyone everywhere you go. I never had the opportunity to go to college at Syracuse University, but I still bust with pride when I see the orange and blue apparel, posters and other team spirit stuff and I enjoy every opportunity we have to see a game at the Carrier Dome.

Anyways, Earl and I got most of the Christmas shopping done. I now know what I’m buying him this year (all to be ordered online tomorrow). It’s nice to get it all under control a little early in the season!

Change Of Plans.

Today has been a day about changing plans. It started when I decided to take my lunch to work today. Being Friday, the cupboards are starting to get a little bare, so it was peanut butter and strawberry jam on wheat bread with a snack pack of Pringles as accompaniment. Earl called me at work around 11:00 and said “let’s do lunch at noon!”. Not wanting to waste food, I decided to eat my lunch at 11:00 and then joined him at noon at the local cafeteria-type place for a big plate of spanish rice. So I had lunch before lunch. Small wonder I’m gaining weight again. Oh well.

During lunch (the second one), we noticed the weather was taking a turn for the worse in the way of some pretty good lake effect snow squalls. This was a problem because we were planning on doing our annual Christmas shopping trip this weekend. This year’s destination was Pittsburgh. We were going to leave right after work and get as far as Erie, Pa. We’d spend the night and then get up and complete the trip tomorrow to do some shopping. Right now we’d be about Buffalo. But instead we’re at home, snug in our home as the snow falls and the wind whips about. So much for Pittsburgh. If the weather clears up a bit tomorrow, we’ll hop in the Jeep and drive away from the great lakes, maybe towards Albany, and do our Christmas shopping there.

Faced with an evening ahead of us now, we decided to go to the movies and see “Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire”. Honestly, I don’t know what the fuss is all about. Quite frankly I personally found this to be the weakest of the Harry Potter movies. I found the plot trudged along at an acceptable pace, but the magic seemed to be missing from the movie. I thought the whole movie was way too dark; the plot, the story, the magic and the cinematography. It wasn’t a waste of money by any means, but I would rush out and see it a second time.

So now I’m catching up on my blog reading and looking forward to calling it a night soon. It’s a definite change from the Pittsburgh-bound road trip, but nothing disappointing. We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Holiday Memories.

Earl worked late tonight so I took the opportunity to head over to my Mom’s house for supper and to fix her ailing computer. I hadn’t seen her in a while, so it was a little visit to look forward to, even if I did have to fix her Windows computer.

She recently when through some boxes of her stuff left over from when my parents separated a number of years ago, and came across a our family picture from December 1978. Since I’ve somehow become the unofficial family historian, she gave it to me. I haven’t seen this picture in a long while. I have to admit it brought a little lump to my throat since it reminded me of the rush of the holidays when I was a kid. I thought I’d share with the class.

I was 10 years old at the time.