Sorry I missed your call...

Seeing first run movies is not something I usually do. “Public Enemies” was an exception last week. Kathy said she would treat for rental movie—one I would watch, since we rarely agree on what’s “good”. Blockbuster has a deal right now whereby for ten dollars you can take out as many movies or video games as you like for one week, one at a time. Woo-hoo! I went for it. Wish I had known about it during my vacation week.

There were four movies that I knew I wanted to see: Taken, Defiance, Gran Torino, and Knowing. I watched Taken tonight and promptly switched it out for Defiance, which I will watch tomorrow some time. Have you seen Taken? It’s sure to ruin many college age daughters’ plans for a European adventure this summer. It is a guy movie, I suppose, with lots of car chases, fighting, shooting and the like. It was also the fastest movie I ever saw as the 90 minutes or so just shot by. I felt my heart rate rocket and honest to goodness I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

This afternoon I knocked off another Robert B. Parker novel, a western called “Resolution”. Very fun read with wonderful good guys who hardly say two words at a time—in other words, typical Parker dialogue.

So why this burst of entertainment-seeking activity? I caught up on my New Yorker magazines.

Back on Wednesday three of us from the office volunteered at a local TV station to work a phone bank where people called in with job search questions. The first call I took was from a woman in her fifties who had been temping for the past ten years. I was on with her for half an hour. She managed to shoot down every idea I came up with. I felt I was kind of representing the TV station, so I didn’t tell her what I really thought. Shall I tell you? Well, she’s dug herself a pretty good hole over the last ten years—employers might now wonder what’s wrong with her, that she hadn’t taken a full time job in all that time.

Many of the other calls I took were from people whom I am not equipped to help, at least not over the phone: lots of blue collar guys who did die casting, mechanical assembly—that sort of thing. One poignant call was from a guy who did have some college and I was able to encourage him to get back to school somehow. As we talked he eventually told me he had a felony arrest, but no conviction. I didn’t ask him about the details, nor did he volunteer them.

Another was from a nice little old lady (I imagine) who had been retired for the past fourteen years. She had worked for thirty years in one company, and was now concerned about people who could have served as references, but whom she can longer find. I think that thirty years is reference enough. Why was she returning to work? She had been raising her grandson since the day he was born. Now he’s a teenager and no longer needs her 24/7 care. See what I mean? Nice lady.

It is hard to stay optimistic with announcements like last week’s of another 400,000 jobs gone. Makes you wonder where we will be in another year or two.

This is my ninth day of vacation, if you count last weekend. The first four days were devoted to painting the garage, the rest to messing around in the house and doing decadent things like going to the movies in the middle of the morning. It’s been raining for several days now and cold—cold enough for some Barry’s Tea in fact.

On a recent warmer day, I was sitting in my favorite chair on the deck thinking if this is what retirement would be like. I could see my retired sixty-three year old neighbor who rarely leaves his house and I thought, boy—my world would be pretty small without work or something to do. Kathy assured me that I would be volunteering somewhere probably, doing more at church. I suppose so. There are still four more years before I have to deal with that, though.
Tomorrow everyone is off for the Fourth of July holiday, so Kathy and I wanted to do something together, get out, go somewhere.

When I asked her what she had a taste for, she thought of a casino about an hour and half away in Pennsylvania, some place where we’ve never been. I was a little surprised, but said sure, let’s go. We’ll bring some rolls of quarters and see what happens.

Since I was complaining about my keyboard last time, I should tell you what I did. A genuine Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 keyboard now graces the slide out tray on my computer table. It does take a little while to get used to, but I’m starting to get the idea. It won’t fit under the table with the big plastic strip that raises the front of the board, so I remove that and just snap it back on if I have any extensive typing to do.
At first I was skeptical about buying such a thing, but I went to Best Buy to try it out and when I looked at my hands I was surprised to see that they naturally fell off to the sides anyway. The keyboard I have is not too swoopy with those crazy separate sides for left and right, but seems to be just right for what I need. Best Buy wanted $80 for it, so I got it from tigerdirect.com for $50.

One more note on the new computer: I finally got my “Favorites” over to the bookmark section so I can easily find all your blogs again.

Oh--what movie did I see? "Public Enemies" with Johnny Depp. It was something that I knew that Kathy would never want to see, and I was curious about Depp, since I've seen him in other things like Willy Wonka and Benny and Joone. He was pretty amazing. You're left feeling sad about his death, but you have to remember that Dillinger killed a lot of people himself. Even though you know how it will end, it's still a good story.

What the well dressed seven year old is wearing

My mother used to joke about someone’s birthday going on for a week like the Queen of England? That seemed to be the case for Max this week. We took Max out to dinner on June 16 for his birthday, the same day he had had a celebration with his mom and that side of the family. On Saturday, we had Kathys' sisters and their husbands over for yet another birthday bash. Max certainly cleaned up on presents this year with all these relatives chipping in. His dad's girlfriend, bought him the winner—a new game and movie player with all the bells and beeps. Shane dazzled our hero with a big mounted poster of his favorite video game with Max’s face Photoshopped into the character’s helmet and armor. Shane also bought forty yellow and green helium balloons for the party. We tied a few to the porch railing out front and Shane and Michelle put together several balloon trees that sprouted around the living room. Later we released a few balloons into the wild. OK—not the most environmentally sound action, but it was fun. Even more fun was watching Max play with his new water toys. He and his father donned (do people still “don” things, or do they just “put them on”?) plastic vests. When you hit your opponent’s chest with a stream of water, a little ball moves up a channel—kind of like the indicator on a dehumidifier—and when it hits the top, you lose. So they chased each other around madly while the rest of us civilians stood safely back from the fray.



In other news, I am still wrestling with my new computer, trying to make it truly mine: changing settings and such. iTunes is an issue, since it won't recognize my original ID; Sams Club suddenly doesn't know who I am; and they've shrunk the darn keyboard so much I can hardly use it. It's too much like a laptop, with the keys all squished together. My big fat fingers are always hitting wrong notes

Where have I been?

Jeepers, I didn’t realize that it had been that long since I last posted—May 17. So here’s what’s been happening:

I spent Memorial Day weekend in NJ visiting my dad and sibs. We had a great time catching up on everyone’s doings, especially those of all my talented nieces and nephews. One niece’s summer job involves delivering clothes from a fashion designer to celebrities’ houses. She’s met some au currant people I never heard of, though. A nephew—a law student—is working for a judge, another niece leaves soon for a teaching job in Switzerland—they are a busy bunch.

On Memorial Day itself, my sisters and I were drafted as marchers for the Democrats in the town where our brother is on the town council. We were a small but popular group as we slung candy at the kids lining the parade route. It’s gotten to be like Halloween now, as kids expect treats at every parade, even to the point of bringing bags to haul away their loot.

Back at home, Shane and Max went to a classical kids concert on Saturday, both of them dressed up in pants and collared shirts like young gentlemen. Since Max knows all the words to some song called “Holla back” and likes a song by Beyoncé, Shane thought he better get some culture. They both liked the music, sitting in a box in the big concert hall. Back on Election Day, Shane took Max to the polls and allowed him to fill in the circle by the issues on the ballot. Later Shane told us that Max had voted. He reached out his hand and touched his father’s arm saying, “Technically, Dad, technically”. Earlier in the week, he had to go to the ER for a cut on his heel. They put a purple bandage on it, and he groused about how everyone would laugh at him at school since to him it looked like a “girl’s “ bandage. What did he do when he returned to school the next day? Went around saying, “Hey everybody, look at my cool bandage!!”

Battling malware, treating myself

I have been battling some extremely malicious malware on my computer—something that rendered it virtually useless, so I haven’t been a good correspondent lately. The worm I had would put up irritating notices about my computer being under attack, and then would try to get me to buy some bogus antivirus package (“Spyware Protect 2009”). This thing was so insidious that it would not let me go to malwarebytes.org to get the solution. Eventually any browser I would use would be shut down immediately by this program.

If it happens to you, go straight to www.superantispyware.com and get the free version and do a complete scan of your computer to clean everything out.

Even now, there is still something wrong, since when I click a link in a Google search, IE will go to some random site and not the link I wanted.

Anyway, I decided to get a new printer, since the color stopped working on my current one. I don’t do a lot of printing, and I probably could have limped along with this one for a while but someone else offered to buy it for me, so how could I refuse?

After dithering about it for a week or so, researching HP, Canon, reading reviews (“Love it!”…”Hate it!”…”Waste of money!”…”Fabulous color!”…”Blows through ink cartridges like crazy!”…”Wonderful buy!”), I decided to stay with Lexmark after all. When I bought my Dell six years ago, a LexmarkX75 (scan-copy-print) came with it for free. The darn thing has been plugging along all this time with no problems. Soon Amazon will ship a brand spanking new Lexmark X7675 All-in-One Printer.

HP seemed to have humongous drivers, poor ink management and set up headaches. At least, that’s what stood out for me in the reviews. I have an HP at work and it’s fine if you don’t mind all the clicking and clacking it goes through before producing a document. We have two older HP 2500’s with footprints like dinosaurs that rotate four big toner cartridges, cycling them all through before it spits out what you want. Also, there are approximately forty-two skillion models of HP printers and I just started to get lost after a while.

Canon was a possibility. I had a small Canon back in the 90’s with my first home computer and it worked fine. I guess I didn’t want to pay for features I won’t use, like fax or super dupe photo printing. (I use my Canon Selphy for quick 4x6 prints.) Wireless—I also don’t care about wireless since I don’t have a network at home, and the wireless feature seemed to add fifty bucks to the price.

Today, fourteen hours after I bought the printer, I checked on Amazon and saw that the price had dropped by 32 dollars! I was mad—how stupid! I should have waited till today! But I used that cool feature Amazon has now where they call you—and I clicked the button and my phone immediately rang. I thought it was my sister in law and I was about to tell her I had to get off the phone, and here it was a nice lady in India calling from Amazon. She adjusted my account and I got the new price. I was very pleased.

So, here I’ve gone and spoiled myself again. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.

Putting in the crops

I’ve been a lazy blogger lately. The weather has improved, and it’s time to sit out on the deck and read until I can’t see the pages anymore. Since I’m not wireless, I won’t be blogging from the backyard either.

Today it started out warm and sunny, but a cold front blew through this afternoon driving the temperatures into the 50’s. It didn’t keep me from my landscaping projects, though, as I planted the pansy bed again in the back. One year I used Miracle Gro soil, but it just caused the poor dears to become all stalky. What usually happens by July is that it stops raining and no amount of watering can keep them going.

So why bother? They are Kathy’s favorite flower and that’s reason enough.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Dixie, all that

This past week was our big trip to the Deep South—Americus, GA to see our son and his girlfriend and of course, their house. Before we left, we asked our local son for a AAA triptik and the book for Kentucky and Tennessee. I also mapquested every leg of the trip. When we left, I plugged in the GPS (nicknamed “Penny”). So we had three sources of directions, and they didn’t always agree. This is what our trip looked like:

Cleveland to Knoxville
Knoxville to Americus
Americus to Seneca, SC
Seneca to Chattanooga, TN
Chattanooga to Lexington, KY
Lexington to Cleveland

In Knoxville, the restaurant hostess was from Binghamton NY; the server was an underemployed Psychology grad from the University of Tennessee and the hotel clerk regularly drives up to the Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio. It was fun driving further and further south and seeing stronger and stronger signs of spring. In Kentucky, the dogwoods were in bloom and in fact Knoxville was getting ready for their Dogwood Festival.

Kathy was not pleased with the crowded bypass around Atlanta, but soon we left that behind for the empty country roads heading into Americus. I did not realize that Andersonville, the notorious POW camp run by the Confederacy was located in Americus until we drove right by it. I added that to our list of things to see later.

The house was wonderful: a “Craftsman” (no, it did not come from a Sears kit or anything).It has three bedrooms, two and half baths, a ginormous kitchen, a big comfy living room, a formal dining room, a sitting room off to the side, a nice big porch out front and a screened in porch out back. They put a lot of work into it, staining the woodwork and restoring a lot of its former glory. It used to be a group home, then the owners just previous to our son knocked out some walls to enlarge the kitchen, and were in the process of removing all the paint from the woodwork. They pleaded with our son not to just paint over the wood but to stain it as they had planned, and he was fine with that.

During our stay, we walked over to an “Art in the Park” event. There was a Shakespearean troupe strolling around in costume, promoting their production of “Taming of the Shrew” for that night. A woman on stilts was a hit as she effortlessly glided through the throng, occasionally stopping to juggle bowling pin-like objects. We watched glass blowers in action and bought a nice vase made by one of the college students raising money for a trip to China.

We got a glimpse of southern gentility when we bought tickets to a Porch Walk—another fund raiser, this time for the Americus Historical Society. We walked up and down Lee Street, visiting a total of six houses with grand wrap around porches. The hostesses had prepared finger sandwiches and cakes and provided liquid refreshment (vodka was a popular choice). We met some nice people along the way and saw some great houses.

There are 62 churches in tiny Americus, Georgia. Of those, 38 are some variety of Baptist. There is one Catholic church. I called the church one night before we left to get the Mass schedule. They had two Masses in English and a few more in Spanish. So we planned to go to the English 10:30 Mass.

Instead, we sought out Maranatha Baptist church in a town right next to Americus. We realized that it was not often that we’d have a chance to go to a Sunday School session taught by a former President of the United States. Sure enough, Jimmy Carter was our teacher for a lesson on the last chapter of Luke. Of course, he spent about fifteen minutes talking about politics and his upcoming travel plans—he’s going to Lebanon, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. He was funny and warm and engaging and we all had a great time. After the service, we walked outside and waited for a moment to get our photo taken with Jimmy and Rosalynn. I am not making this up.

Kathy’s favorite story about this adventure goes like this: We pulled into the church parking lot where a large black man in a suit stopped us. He told her to roll up her window, as he was about to have an explosives sniffing dog walk around our car. Of course he was Secret Service, not the valet. At the front door of the church, there were more agents searching purses and wanding everyone before they entered the building. Kathy was a little embarrassed when she realized she had a pair of panty hose stuffed into her bag. The agent rummaged around in there but handed it back to her without comment. It could have been worse, I suppose.

The jaunt to South Carolina was to visit some retired friends, then we backtracked to Chattanooga, staying at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Holiday Inn. Trite, I know, but an interesting place.