We received word from our web hosting company that they’re going to try to migrate the server we live on to a new data center in Buffalo, New York. When they tried this in October our server was down for over three days and there wasn’t much we could do about it. I thought that completed the migration but it did not, so apparently they’re going to try again.
I should have jumped ship when I had the chance.
So, if you see the blog gone for a while don’t fret, I’m still writing behind the scenes, I’m just waiting for the web hosting company to get its act together.
As I sign my emails at work when it comes to server issues: thank you for your patience.
I mentioned the Sears Wish Book earlier this week. Sure, back in the day, the Sears Wish Book encouraged men to buy their wives a dishwasher for Christmas so she would have more time to spend with him, but that was just a sign of the times.
Sears didn’t do well with keeping up with the times, did they. The chain was purchased by Kmart just when they should have become the next Amazon. Yes, Kmart Holdings bought Sears and then renamed the whole thing Sears Holding, it was Kmart that did the buying. Kmart got too big for their britches the moment they dropped the big red “K” with the lowercase turquoise “mart” for a logo.
So many malls all over the country have shuttered Sears stores at one end of a prominent wing and it’s a reminder to all that what was in the world of retail is no more. We spent time at the mall tonight and despite it being the last shopping weekend of the season, the mall wasn’t particularly busy. People point, click, and wait for a delivery. The JCPenney was sparsely stocked and Macy’s was a mess but at had a decent selection of merchandise. Only Dillard’s looked like a department store of the before times.
Remember the before times? They were lovely but they’re never coming back. Despite all efforts to “return to normal” during these pandemic times, there’s uncertainty as to what that normal is or what that normal should be.
I wish the new normal included going to Sears.
Sears was the very first store where I witnessed the use of an electronic cash register. It piqued my interest and eventually led me to a very good career as a software engineer.
I wouldn’t mind seeing one of those old Sears cash registers from the 1970s again. In person.
I’m finding it quite lovely to sit in our “Great Room” and admire the Christmas decorations while drinking a beverage. Earl sits with me and we just enjoy the twinkling lights and Christmas music on the speaker we have installed in there.
How I love this song. When I feel a little down at work, I fire up this video and dance around the office a little bit.
Here’s “Grazin’ In The Grass” by Friends of Distinction.
And for clarification purposes, the two ladies in the video are Jessica Cleaves and Charlene Gibson. Charlene was filling in for Barbara Jean Love, who was on maternity leave at the time. Charlene sang leads on “Love Or Let Me Be Lonely”, and ironically, in the video on YouTube, Barbara Jean is lip syncing Charlene’s voice.
I’m writing this 2.2 miles and 900 feet up into my hike today. The weather is perfect at around 65°F and I’m feeling good. This is the final day of my mini vacation and I wanted to try a longer, more challenge hike.
I’m sweaty, my legs are already sore and I still have 2 1/2 hours to go on my plan. I’m challenging myself and I’m loving every minute of it.
When I was a kid the Sears Wish Book was a big deal at this time of year. For those unfamiliar, the big department stores (Sears, JC Penney, and Montgomery Ward come to mind) would release these big catalogs of all their entire inventory to convince the consumer to buy their holidays gifts from the family from these catalogs. Think of it as Amazon of the mid 20th century.
I always enjoyed flipping through the Wish Book from Sears in particular, because out of these department stores we went to Sears the most and they had the niftiest cash registers at the time.
There’s a collection of these catalogs available online at WishbookWeb. I was flipping through the 1970 Sears Wish Book and noticed they were selling Micro-Waves (as they displayed in their ad). The technology was new for the consumer at the time; I believe my grandmother got her first Amana Radarange in 1971.
Apparently the Micro-Wave oven was so new that the Sears advertising department didn’t quite have all the mechanics down yet. In the page below, look how many places they display food wrapped or trayed in foil! To be fair, there’s tiny print that tells us to wrap the baked potato in foil after baking, but that TV dinner is going to create quite the light show if put in a microwave oven.
I’ve been wanting to go for a hike in the desert since we moved here earlier this year. Today I hiked 4 1/2 miles in Saguaro National Park East, which is a few miles from our home. The Douglas Spring Trail took me on an enjoyable journey through the Rincon Mountains. I climbed 795 feet along my hike and had a wonderful time exploring all this area has to offer.
The Expanse returns for season six, its final season. This season is abbreviated at six episodes and Amazon Prime is releasing the episodes one week at a time. I like to binge. I don’t know why we have to do things this way.
I’ve really enjoyed the series, especially the earlier seasons on SyFy and the first season on Amazon Prime. Season five was a little uneven and pulled too far away from sci-fi and to much into Dynasty in Space for my taste, but the trailer for season six shows promise.
I’m looking forward to the experience. I *love* Shohreh Aghdashloo as U.N. General Secretary Chrisjen Avasarala. Her voice commands respect and she’s one of the few characters I know that can give a world of class to the utterance of an F-bomb.
Steve Bronski of Bronski Beat passed away this week. He was 61 years old.
I wasn’t aware of Bronski Beat when their debut single, “Smalltown Boy”, was released in 1984. It wasn’t until I was in college in later 1986 that I discovered the band and started enjoying their albums and single releases. I instantly fell in love with their synths, and Hi-NRG music, and then started listening to their lyrics and realized this group was something special for the gay community.
A few elements of “Smalltown Boy” has always held some truth for me. As a Gen-X gay man I consider myself quite lucky; my parents were mostly fine with my homosexuality and I’ve always felt love and acceptance at home. Both of my parents were awesome in many ways, including dealing with their only son being gay. I’ve been blessed, many of my age and to this day are not nearly as lucky.
The video for “Smalltown Boy” has a couple of scenes that I can relate to, mostly around where Jimmy Somerville is encouraged by his gay friends to approach another young man and profess his interest in him and the results of the interaction turning less than positive. Even though it’s been over 35 years I still have a hard time with that similar moment in my past. A couple of gay friends encouraged me to approach someone that I knew was gay and muster up the courage to show an interest in him and it didn’t turn out well. I wasn’t hurt physically too much and there was thankfully no gang or police or anything involved as shown in the music video situation, but it was still a lot for me to handle that I handled alone and got through it. The biggest hurt I felt was the betrayal from what I believed to be friends that understood me because they were like me. They really weren’t like me, they just shared the attraction to the same sex. It was good to leave them behind.
The messages in the music by Bronski Beat was important during the 1980s, in addition to just being good music. RIP Steve Bronski. Thank you for doing your part to help life for LGBTQ+ folks a little bit easier and more importantly, thank you for your music.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
