Fall

I like the Fall. And despite the fact that I am not a huge fan of cold weather I like the winter. Winter is a time healing and respite for me. I suppose it’s like hibernating. It’s down time.
The fall is the preparation for this down time, and I am all about preparation.
I find something very comforting in performing the ritual maintenance of preparing for the long cold winter. Stacking and storing wood, for example, while puritan is still a favorite.
Sure, there are colors and pumpkins and costume parties – but for me it’s more about the winding down. Even the smell of fall starts to set my internal clock in motion.
As the days get shorter my body knows to rest more. The long days of summer draw us outside for chores or late evening entertaining. Summer is the gregarious season.
The dark afternoons of the winter suggest a closeness. I revel in this.
My moods, luckily, are unaffected by the short days, I actually like them. The dark settles me in at home in the evenings.
And so with all the activity and long days of fun in the summer over and done, I look forward to my respite.
Fall is anticipation. Can you smell it?


(oh, one thing tho… I (still) really, really, really want THIS.

writingwomyn october collaboration

Friday

We interrupt our regularly scheduled tip-o-day - to bring you:

the final day of Spirit Week.
Homecoming...

A Quarter of a Century

That is a long time.

Happy Happy Birthday
to our 'oldest' child.

Its that time again.

Spirit Week.
Day 1 for seniors is 'black' day.
Most of the kids will wear black today.

of course...Ferris will always take that one (HUGE) step further.

Ooo shiny…

Well we finally got the whole Hi D ef thing going on the newly acquired wide screen TV. Of course it costs more, we had to get a new box, and add service for a monthly charge and buy a new cable… but…wow.
Oh sure there are only a handful of channels that actually broadcast in H iDef .
But… wow.

The 49ers game was amazing. Oh sure – they lost…but they looked phenomenal.
And we missed a whole lot of dialogue during West Wing last night because we were so awestruck by the picture. And you know... you can’t miss dialogue in West Wing and expect to keep up. I missed an entire scene (well, my wife missed it too because of my voice-over commentary) because I was so amazed at the wrinkles in CJ’s face. And without H D it would never have occurred to me that Abby should stop wearing sleeveless.
Then we stayed up late watching an episode of Rome that we had already seen before – simply because we were mesmerized…ooo the colors…oooo…

Fridays

I just wanted you all to know that every day I try my best to conserve on my own personal usage of natural (and I suppose sometimes un-natural) resources. Not running water unnecessarily. Using as few paper towels as possible, letting my hands air dry (not forced air…just regular air – the stuff that surrounds us) when I can. Using the backs of printed paper to jot notes and do calculations etc. Reusing snack bags for my lunch (thank my conservative wife for that one, a woman who can make so many delicious meals from one turkey). Turning things off, especially here at the office where many items are left on when they are not being used.

I am not preaching – I am concerned.

So your tip for today is … conserve – any way you can.
Thank you.

Words

The words I posted yesterday simply came to me... not in a sentence, not in the context of any thing happening around me at the time. They both popped into my head as single words while I was putting around on Tuesday, perhaps doing laundry or washing a dish.
This intrigues me.

To those of you who wrote sentences...bravo - very well done, very clever. But participation was low -- too much like the SAT's? what?

Discuss amongst yourselves

extemporaneously

iconoclastic

If you like - please use them in a sentence.

Too much news

Am I just paying attention more than usual…or is there a rash of natural disasters and other events of epic proportions?

Hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, deadly flooding, the White Sox in the world series, bird flu, polio…

I am already tilted toward the paranoid side – so I thinking… the apocalypse is coming.

That said - I still need stop at the drycleaners, run to the grocery store and vacuum when I get home from work.


oh! and... In the Sunday paper's wedding section we saw the first Civil Union announcement!!

Fridays

tip-o-day
Another handy measuring tip for today.

Here is an easy way to measure equal spaces for any length.
Let’s say you are building a bookcase and you would like 5 evenly spaced shelves, and your finished height is 9’ 7¼”.
Not to worry.
Take your board and start your tape measure on the bottom and draw it up diagonally across the board until you rest at an easy to work with number at the top. In this case – move diagonally until you hit 10’.


Now, simply tick off 2’ intervals.

Think outside of the bookcase, and those fractionally challenged can apply this same method to dividing an 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper.

(and yes David, technically… this gives you 6 shelves – but you get my point)

the party is over

I stepped onto the scale this morning.

wow.

Today

I sent an email to my boss first thing this morning:

>
Pete,

Need to take an ‘emergency ½ PTO day’.
It’s cold and drizzly, [my wife] is home from work, we are having pie for dinner.
I am 44 today.
>

Life is grand.

Wine

We took our annual wine tasting adventure yesterday. We had a fabulous time with our dear friends.
We ‘tasted’ A LOT of wine.
I am not a wine drinker…but I taste them all.
During the tasting– the sommelier always provides a bucket or jar for you to dispose of any wine that you are not particularly enamored with.
Not me. If I don’t like it – I just shoot it back. No wine is wasted on me.

Friday

tip-o-day

Today's tip is for me!
From Ed and Bruce - who sent me advice and links to assist in 'cableing up' this new jagumbo TV (see yesterday's comments).

I never expected my rant to garner good advice.
I am so pleased.

HDTV WTF

When we were young we had all the latest gadgets and top notch electronics.
Remember Beta format video tapes? – yeah…we had a top of the line player.
One day, my wife and I were walking through Sears at the beginning of football season. She spied a mammoth TV. We found a salesman, pointed and asked – can that be delivered before Sunday’s games. That was 15 years ago, and the TV was a 32” Sony with picture in picture. It was cutting edge technology …at the time.

Well last week we ‘acquired’ a new TV. It didn’t fall off a truck or anything, just a good deal through a friend came our way. We were not really in the market for a TV. The ‘32” cutting edge of technology TV’ was still in the living room. Granted – the picture in picture didn’t work any more… and for that matter neither did the tuner – but hooked up to a cable box it’s been fine for all these years.

Do you have any idea what a 32” TV weighs? A lot.
So much so in fact, that the two of us together cannot really lift it. We sorta scootched it onto the little red Radio Flyer wagon. Then spent quite some time fashioning a ramp to get it out of the house. It’s in the garage right now…still on the wagon. It’s fate is yet to be determined.

As are most TV’s these days – the new one is HDTV.
HDTV is somewhat elusive. The TV needs to have a certain set of features and of course the broadcast must be in High Def and evidently, if you want to watch it in the wide format and not have short, fat people – you also need a ‘special’ cable. This ‘special’ cable is a hundred bucks. C’mon people – it’s some wire and a couple of connection jacks. How could a cable POSSIBLY cost a hundred dollars? The materials are probably about ¢.03 a foot.
Needless to say – we do not yet have this magic cable. I may try to make one myself out of scraps in the basement.

I had to laugh last night – we were in our favorite neighborhood sports bar (family Wednesday Wings night), they have TV’s all over the place. Watching the ball game on their huge wide screen at the end of the bar I noticed all the players were short and fat.

denial

I am always giving advice and yet I miss the blatant signs right in my own backyard.
Like the old adage – the shoemakers’ children are always barefoot.
I am embarrassed…even ashamed. And now, of course I have to live with the repercussions. Not to mention what I am putting my family through.

It’s not like we can hide it anymore. It’s out there… for everyone to see.
I can’t help going over and over it again in my head. How did I miss all the warning signs? They were there, and now that I look back I can see how clear as day it was really. But I just ignored them, until now it’s gotten so bad that making things better will take weeks…maybe months

At this point, all I can do is hang my head in shame and hope that I can make amends in the spring. Yup. I will have to wait until spring ... it’s too late to solve a problem this big now. It’s all about timing you know. I have advised countless friends on the importance of timing. And yet I failed to heed my own warnings. Not only that but I tried to blame the drought for my problems….when clearly – the grass was dying because of grubs.
There – I have said it out loud. I have grubs.

Ooo the horror of it.