Bismo’s son has a humor book of warning labels that has some stickers in it. He put one of them on a carton of ice cream in our fridge.
Not a bad idea, actually, warning against “brain freeze.” Some people call it an “ice cream headache.” When I was growing up our family called it a “cold fever,” and I still prefer that description.
It’s always something. Our washing machine has suddenly started to leak. I was hoping it was one of the hoses, but when I popped open the back I could see it’s leaking where the transmission couples with the tub. It’s only seven years old. So much for Maytag reliability! But at least it picked a good time to die. This weekend there’s no sales tax in Massachusetts. See you at Sears.
And oh, by the way, we still don’t have our replacement Bose Wave. It’s in transit from Arizona, and according to the UPS tracking number will be here mid-week.
2023 Update: The replacement Bose Wave is still working well, as are the Maytag washer and dryer that were purchased when this blog post was written.
Last Sunday we were at Tanglewood, in Lenox, MA, where the Boston Symphony Orchestra plays every summer. It was an all Mozart program, and well attended, although the age of the audience skewed decidedly 40 and up.
While waiting in the “wine line” during intermission, I happened to stand next to political consultant and former presidential adviser David Gergen. I overheard him discussing — what else? — politics.
I watched some, not too much, of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, and they sure were impressive in HD. All of the coverage is in HD, and it’s scaled down for regular TV. This made me think about the looming end of analog broadcast TV on February 17, 2009. When that happens, my little LCD TV that Carol bought for me Christmas 1999, will no longer work.[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/AUG/China.flv 440 330]This TV is very important to me, because it’s what got me out of a very deep and dark place emotionally, while I was face down for weeks on end, stuck in something called a vitrectomy chair, following a second surgery for a detached retina.
Before getting that TV I listened to the radio all day, but as much as I love radio, doing that didn’t lift my spirits. Reading was impractical, but I could put that portable TV on the tray of the chair and watch it out of my “good” eye, which later had problems of its own.
There was a UHF station in Boston that showed a lot of old Bonanza episodes, and those became the highlight of my day. I was amazed by how adult the show was, and by how much innuendo there was in the writing.
Besides the TV, something else Carol did that was helpful was she read out loud from Thomas Hardy’s tragic book “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” It’s not a very cheerful story, but I really got into it, and enjoyed discussing its characters and themes with Carol. Since then we’ve watched several different adaptations of “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” The recent A&E production is very good, but Dennis Potter’s version with Alan Bates is probably our favorite.
And I must also say thank you to D.F. Rogers, who played Dragnet radio shows from the 50’s for me, that we listened to on Eric’s toy R2-D2 cassette player. When I was down and out, doing that was a lot of fun. Hard to believe that was almost nine years ago.
As a child I was a Marxist. I had a Marx Mystery Spaceship and a Marx Moon Base. My twinster Jean spotted this eBay auction for a complete Moon Base set in particularly good condition.
I go past the Bose headquarters every day on my way to/from work, and a neighbor friend works at Bose. The Wave Music System is known for having more than its share of problems, but I bought one anyway, because it fit perfectly on the porch, and I could get it at a good price through our neighbor — not a factory renewed unit, but factory fresh.
Well, after only six weeks of light use, this is what happens when you try to play a CD. Eric demonstrates. Listen for a different neighbor’s cute, little attack doggies in the background.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/JUL/BoseWave.flv 440 330]
At least the slot loader mechanism works, so the disc isn’t stuck in there. I should be able to get a new replacement Bose Wave without a hassle. This has been a bad summer for product defects.
