Ponderings and Musings

Apparently someone made off with the FedEx truck between Carson, Cal. and Phoenix, Ariz. It’s been making that drive since Friday. It’s a six hour drive. All I can imagine is the driver running amok and speeding across the desert, eager to get away from his mundane employment, in an absconded FedEx truck.

I’m old enough to remember when color televisions were considered “special”. At least they were considered special to me because we didn’t have a color television until 1976. I remember the event; the black and white television situated in living room atop of cabinet of some sort stopped working on a Thursday night. I remember being in a panic that I would not be able to see our cartoons on Saturday morning, but Dad went to the Zenith dealer in town and bought a 19-inch color TV and brought it home and we were able to watch ElectraWoman and DynaGirl in glorious color. We watched it on Channel 9, the local ABC affiliate, which at the time was WNYS-TV. The television looked pretty close to this:

Both sets of grandparents had color televisions in the early 1970s. Grandma and Grandpa Country had a Zenith console that sat on the floor that took a minute or so to warm up after turning it on. It looked like this:

I don’t remember Grandma and Grandpa Country getting this television, but I do remember Grandma and Grandpa City getting theirs in 1972 or so. I rode onto the west side of town with Grandpa City and he picked out a television to be delivered to the house. It was an RCA and it had a new feature of the time, turning on immediately when you flipped the switch. It would make a loud electric “hum” sound for a brief moment as the picture snapped into place. The controls were tucked behind a door that pivoted out the entire control panel. It was quite heavy.

A couple of years later Grandma and Grandpa City had cable television installed and I was excited to see shows on WPIX (11 Alive!) and WTBS from Atlanta. That was kind of a badge of honor amongst the geeks in elementary school, having grandparents in the city that had cable. To this day I can remember my grandmother mentioning my uncle had stayed up late “watching a movie on Home Box” (instead of today’s “HBO” we use today).

I sit here watching television with my husband on our new 55-inch Samsung flat panel television that was a third of the price of our previous television purchased 10 years ago. I wonder how the younger folks today would enjoy ElectraWoman and DynaGirl on a 19-inch Zenith.

I was in fifth grade when Olivia Newton-John released “A Little More Love”. I was fascinated by the track, mostly because of the musicality of the tune. The backing vocals are very entrancing to my ears, especially the variations of the title lyric. I used to blast this tune during recess on an ancient record player amidst the chaos of Miss O’Rourke’s fifth grade class in room 209. I’d listen with my friends Joyce and Renae, two of a minority of students in that class that actually had any chance of finishing our primary education.

I was sad to hear of Olivia Newton-John’s passing yesterday. I’ve always enjoyed her music and I liked her performance in that wacky movie “Xanadu”. I have another story about that title song that involves baton twirlers; I’ll save that for another day.

One of my best friends in high school was obsessed with ONJ like a good young gay boy and yesterday his husband shared that he had the opportunity meet her shortly before his passing from cancer. That made me smile; I hope Scott and Olivia get a chance to reminisce about his visit with her now that they’re both on the other side.

Rest In Peace, Olivia Newton-John. May your soaring melodies continue to soar.

Hat tip to keyboard guy with the mustache. I remember him from the ONJ performances on TV in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

I haven’t been out of the house since our return from Anaheim on Monday. I’m still feeling the effects of COVID; I’m doing my best to remain distant from everyone else in the family. I would feel awful if they got sick and so far everyone seems to be maintaining their health.

I’m feeling better than I did yesterday but nowhere near 100%. I haven’t had a fever, I’ve just felt run down and very winded climbing the stairs and basically ambulating around the house. I cough and sneeze a lot.

I would say my recovery is headed in the right direction. And that’s all I can hope for right now.

I like watching old sitcoms. I haven’t watched a lot of “Hazel” in my day. “Hazel” ran for five seasons in the early half of the 1960s, was based on a comic strip of the same name, and starred Shirley Booth in title character. I’ve seen episodes here and there and I watched one on YouTube earlier today. Hazel purposely lost a baking contest so the other woman, a widow, could take her son to the World’s Fair (the grand prize of the baking contest). It had all the charm of early 1960s sitcoms and it made me smile.

I got to poking around to see if I could find out a little bit more about Shirley Booth and I came across this interview with Dick Cavett. It took place in 1971, so Shirley was around 73 years old at the time. I found her to be a delight, so pleasant.

As I get older I tend to appreciate these interviews from days gone by more and more.

Yesterday morning, waking up at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel and readying ourselves for the ride home across the desert, I felt sniffly. I had a little post nasal drip and a bit of a headache. I took a couple Tylenol and we made our way home for the 450+ miles from Anaheim to Tucson. I went to bed rather early last night.

I didn’t get much sleep.

I woke up this morning feeling more of the same except a little more intense. Having just been away from work for four days, and since I work from home anyways, I dragged myself downstairs to my office and got to work. I took a couple more Tylenol. I checked my temperature as well, and it was within normal range (admittedly, slightly high for me at 98.1 DEG F, I usually clock in around 97 DEG F).

The sniffles have continued and I feel dragged out. On a whim I tested myself for COVID.

Yep, I have COVID again. No one else in the family is sick and Earl tested negative for COVID, so I’m staying away from everyone else. Apparently I didn’t mask up enough or the elevators were too crowded or someone breathed the wrong way on the Pirates of the Caribbean or something.

I don’t feel awful. I don’t feel as bad as the last time I had COVID. But I’m kind of bummed that’s I’m going through this again. I’m thankful for my original vaccine shots and two boosters since. It’s probably helping keep things under control.

The pandemic is not over. I know we like to believe it’s over, but it’s not. Be careful out there, act responsibly, and most importantly, get vaccinated. I’m probably not in the hospital tonight because of my vaccinations. I hope I get better soon.

Work has been incredibly busy again and I’ve been absolutely drained of energy at the end of the workday. Luckily, we have a mini-vacation coming up for the latter half of this week.

I am always fascinated by extra on television shows. If I’ve had a couple of drinks and start watching old sitcoms, I’ll see an extra doing their thing in the background and start to wonder about who they are. How did the end up as an extra? Did they get their big break and end up front and center on the stage? Are they a friend of the casting director or the producer or something?

The handsome gentlemen seen in this screen capture appears in the fifth season episode of “Designing Women” called “Miss Trial”. He’s one of the jurors being abused by Julia who has been sequestered with the other jurors on a trial after being reported by Charlene to the judge for not doing what she was suppose to do as a juror.

Admittedly, the guy garnered my attention because he’s quite attractive, even by my standards back in 1990.

I searched IMDB but didn’t find out a thing about him. He’s not listed in the “all cast and crew” section so I don’t know who he is. But as a favor to this unknown background extra I posted his photo on IMDB. Maybe someone will provide a name someday.

I think part of my interest in these background extras comes from my days in high school theatre when I would end up in the chorus or one of Mame’s random party guests while singing “It’s Today” or something. Light the candles, fill the punchbowl, throw confetti, it’s today!

Now that SCOTUS has ruled that teachers can lead classrooms in prayer, does that include Islamic practices? Wiccan practices? Jewish practices? Will those students of non-Christian faith be allowed the same amount of time and attention so they can pray in front of the school? Classes are going to get very long if teachers start a prayer and then need to address the diversity in their classroom. I can barely sit through anything Canadian being done in both English and French. I guess the students will need to skip study hall or something. For the record, I have absolutely no problem with your relationship with your beliefs or your faith. I have my own relationship with my faith and quite frankly it’s none of your business. If you find comfort in prayer, yes, absolutely pray. I never learned that it had to be done in front of everyone to get the message through.

I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.