GoodBUY Circuit City

Circuit City closed today. I never shopped there before they made the announcement of filing to find a buyer and choosing to close all stores. I never thought that I would have spent $250.00 on tech there in the past couple of months, but I did. All needed. A new messenger bag to replace the backpack I had been carrying around for several years. I bought four Motorola cable boosters and a great little 50-n-1 card reader. We went one last time today seeking a DLP projector mount. We were turned away when the local store had only fixtures for sale. Just as well.

Hi-Def, Hi-Debt

We won’t go hi-def until we are out of hi-debt. We won’t go into hi-debt just to experience hi-def. I just wouldn’t stop for me at hi-def anyway. I would need a media extender and a new cable box that had hi-def channels. Eventually the need will arise for a replacement for the standard definition TiVo that we love. So there. Besides, I’m thankful to be working even with what equates to a 10% pay reduction beginning next month. I will have two days of furlough each month. The first and third Friday of each month. No hi-def for us. We’ll take family time with what we have thank you.

Broken resolutions.

Well that didn’t last long. One entry per day. FAIL. One photo per day. FAIL WHALE.

Kids are in bed. It’s a wee bit quieter in the house. Jen is at the table doing school work. I’m about to shut down the digital day and unwind even more by reading some. The week prior ended with buying a mess of books at a liquidation sale, loading up on a good DS Lite homebrew game called Lunar Lander, and finally setting up Skype.

3/365blog

@EQAlert is predicting an earthquake tonight. He/she added ‘like’ to the post, but that like could like an expression that he/she is on to something. You be the judge.

2/365blog

Waiting Room at the walk-in clinic:

11:05 a.m.
The receptionist said there was a 2-1/2 hour wait. What could I say. There were only a few chairs left in the waiting room. As it is, I’m still waiting for them to call my name to make a $15.00 co-pay. Once paid I’m committed. Committed to sit around in the waiting room with people coughing. Parents with kids and the morning news chattering from a wall mounted T.V.

11:20 a.m.
Fortunately it’s me this time that needs medical attention and not a family member. Still feeling the results of a recent illness. It’s been 15 minutes now on the expected wait. I’ve moved to a seat closer to the receptionist’s desk to better hear them calling out names. A little hard to hear over the television and coughs.

11:37 a.m.
The waiting room is clearing out. More empty chairs. No screaming kids. Coughers still coughing. The receptionist just told another new walk-in that it would be a 2-1/2 hour to a 3 hour wait. The pregnant woman being told this responds with, “Wow”.

11:45 a.m.
I wish that I had stopped to sync a few episodes of Big Bang Theory to the iPod Touch before coming here.

11:51 a.m.
I’m not a big fan of the local ABC affiliate. As a kid in pre-cable days, this was the only station that came in clear enough to be the preferred station to watch. Not any longer. Even with shows titled, the ‘500 Pound Dad’ and ‘What not to Wear’, IMHO these are better shows to watch other than ABC’s Life on Mars.

12:00
Just made the co-payment of $15.00. First acknowledgment that I’m still here. I smell burgers from Carl’s Jr. Yum. Here I am on day 2 trying to eat less and move more. I can still have a protein burger from Carl’s.

I met Jennifer at a Carl’s Jr. in 1985. I was 20. She was 23 and still living at home finishing her teaching degree. I had been out on my own for a couple of years. Soon after I left Carl’s and began a career as a civil servant for state government. I was still plugging away in college as well.

Jen and I were married in 1987. Still happily married. She has been teaching since graduation. I’m still in serving in state government. So lunch at Carl’s it is.

12:20 p.m.
An hour and 15 minutes in. I’m in it for the long haul. I’m using the WordPress application for the Touch. After using the Touch daily for over a year, the battery life is still impressive.

12:40 p.m.
I’m in! Waiting for the doctor. Blood pressure was taken and is fine. Still not feeling well. Kind of weak. I’m thinking a cause is due to not having any protein today.

Started the day with a 3 advil, a multi-vitamin and a coffee and croissant. That’s it. I’ve had this sort of feeling before when venturing through the day with no protein. As one who has experience on a low carb, high protein diet, my body reacts quickly to the need for energy. This reaction was a little different.

I’m still waiting, but it’s closer to getting an answer and out of here. Waiting time in reception room was an hour and 35 minutes.

1:50 p.m.
In the lab for blood tests. Blood pressure was fine. Hemoglobin tests were excellent. Waiting to have blood drawn.

2:00 p.m. Leaving the walk-in clinic. So far so good. Hungry and tired. Heading to lunch then home.

1/365blog

A day for renewal. The first day of the year. It felt good….and bad to create a photo folder on the external HD for 2009. Good because I expect to fill those 12 monthly folders with memories. Bad because I did not take too many photos last year. Some of the 2008 folders are empty. So sad.

I contribute to the community over at www.GSPN.tv. My friend Wayne Henderson asked for a response to the Hopes, Dreams, and/or Plans for 2009 that fellow GSPN.tv Community members have. I replied with following:

If you must know,

- Eat less. Move More.
- Begin a family audio journal.
- Upgrade the 8gb Touch to a 32gb Touch.
- Continue working the Dave Ramsey plan.
- To be highly motivated and entirely dependable.
- Figure out what the deal is with fixed gear bikes.
- Date my wife monthly and escape with her quarterly.
- Encourage a ‘Timothy’. Learn more from a ‘Paul’. Open up more to a ‘Barnabas’.
- To stop promoting self and begin denying self to spend more time with my son and daughter
- Move downstairs to the now vacant in-law’s master bedroom then moving my daughter upstairs thus creating an office for the family

That’s not too much to hope dream and plan for.

Happy New Years!

26 Christmas Questions Answered

Ok, my turn. Below is a list of Christmas questions I found over at Keeping Up With the Jones

Below are my answers:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

Wrapping paper. I really get into the art of the wrap. Not so much the bow or strings or even a label. It’s the art of the wrap.

2. Real tree or Artificial?

Has to be real. I skip the live trees on display. I search the ‘pile’ of wrapped trees looking for a straight trunk. The joy is unwrapping it in the driveway of the house.

3. When do you put up the tree?

Has to be the weekend of Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down?

New Years Day after the Rose Parade.

5.Do you like eggnog?

Can’t stand the stuff.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

An original Big Wheel at age 7.

7. Hardest person to buy for?

My wife.

8. Easiest person to buy for?

My daughter.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?

Yes. We clear off the mantle over the fireplace. We have a large star over the manger.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?

Christmas cards.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

Last year. It was a $20.00 gift card for Macy’s. I still have it. I tried to use it twice and could not find anything I wanted. Waste. I loathe Macy’s.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?

Hands down….National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation ‘Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day‘.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

Cyber Monday. Most of the shopping I did this year was through eBay.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

Only at the office Christmas party.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

A bowl of mashed potatoes topped with two slices of cranberries ’shaped like a can’.

16. Lights on the tree?

Yes. New lights this year. All 300 of them. LED. Cool to the touch. Love ‘em.

17. Favorite Christmas song?

Santa Baby ~ sung by The Generators

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Always at home. My wife’s childhood home that we now live in. I have spent the past 23 Christmas seasons here. Blessings !

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s?

Nah. Less Fa La La. More Emmanuel.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?

Star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

One present after Christmas Eve service. Everything else on Christmas morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?

Stores with Season’s Greetings painted on their store windows well past Ground hog’s Day. Office gift exchanges AFTER Christmas. The Corporate Christmas party. Again…..less Fa La La, more Emmanuel.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?

Hand painted ceramics and Hallmark by the year.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?

Used to be Chinese in honor of A Christmas Story. We suffer instead with Ham and mashed potatoes. Miss my Orange Chicken terribly.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?

Less of the gifts. More of the Giver. I would be satisfied with a cup of Starbucks Christmas Blend watching my kids enjoy the day.

26. Who is most likely to respond to this?

The female bloggers of Living Spring and a few of my Twitter friends with blogs.

Pass it on….

Recording voices of youth

An old friend listening to my then 5-year-old son asked me to not miss how boys that age talk. Not really what they say. He meant more the way they say it. The pitch of the voice. The way that he forms words and then words into sentences. My son will soon be seven. I have taken to recording him of all places, in the shower. I’m not in there with him. He gets into the shower and I place the Zoom H2 portable recorder on the window sill where he can’t see it, or hear me setting it up. I walk away and return before he finishes. I know he is finished when he stops talking. That’s right. The boy talks non-stop in the shower.

I started recorded him last night. Actually, as I type this, he is singing the 12 days of Christmas for my wife while she is washing the dishes. That’s my job, but I’m not feeling well. Hey, I’m going to set up the Zoom H2 right now and see what I can capture.

Everybody Say Love!

Sarah Laughing.

My friends Eric and Loren Hartman fronted the bluesy rock band Sarah Laughing. They have since dissolved. Loren Hartman posted a tribute video on YouTube from from their first CD titled, Red. I interviewed Eric Hartman three years ago and posted it as a podcast. Earlier today I bought a used CD of RED to replace the cassette. Everybody Say Love! Can’t wait for my early Christmas present to arrive from eBay.

Raindrops

Photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk

It’s raining here tonight in SoCal. I’m sitting in a room with an open vaulted ceiling. No insulation. The rain drops can be heard hitting all corners of the room. Without seeing, my ears work at measuring the the size of the roof. There is a draft in the room. Water is hitting the air conditioning unit mounted in the window.

I am thinking about the old dishwasher sitting exposed in the backyard. The fresh cut grass and my 1995 Taurus in the driveway that received a quick 15 minute hand wash this morning. I’m thinking about a phone call from a friend calling to check in to say hey I have not seen you at church for a while. We talked about how good God was and how the days are spiritually getting lighter and darker at the same time. He was genuinely excited for us. He called about an hour later simply to say that he would miss us.

I’m thinking about the visit to my daughter’s school today. Her class had a Thanksgiving meal for parents and students. I made goulash. Elizabeth wrote a speech of Thankfulness. She had memorized it and delivered the speech to her 6th grade class. I was very proud of her. The visit was just long enough. I came home and did some yard work. When Jennifer arrived home from school, we laughed a bit at our ‘kitchen tornado experiment‘ then grabbed some dinner. A couple of rented movies later and the kids are now in bed. I’m here typing this and listening to the raindrops hitting the roof. Lights out and I’m heading upstairs to play the tooth fairy to my 6YO son.