Thursday, July 26, 2007

It must be a mercury retrograde time. My machines are malfunctioning. I drive my truck all over the place, keep it well maintained and drive safely. On my latest trip to Syracuse, I heard a squeaky noise. Driving over a rut that I could not avoid, my back window shattered. It seems that the cap on the back was vibrating against the back window, causing a scratch. When the truck went over the bump, the jar crumbled the window. So, how come the window was not vibrating against the cap all this time and now it is?
My cousin Nancy gave me an audio tape,"chicken soup for animal lovers". I want to hear my new tape. My tape recorder hasn't worked in some time. I've been focusing on the DVD player and my audio components. Now it is time to take the tape deck in for a cleaning and repair. My choice of a store is Audio ETC. ...specializing in high end audio equipment. They have a repair man who I hope, can repair my tape deck. The man behind the counter says that I might just as well buy a new tape deck. The cost of repairing the old one will be more or equal to, purchasing a new one. Besides, a lot of parts inside the machine, are composition and are drying out. The tape deck is over 15 years old, so I might just as well get a new one.
The Best Buy store is just down the road. I've bought my printer there, and several tapes. Stephen bought some parts there that he used to install my radio in my truck. It's a good store for technology purchases. Unfortunately, tape decks are an obsolete technology. All they have are boom boxes. Nope. Nothing I can use. I have only one more choice: to purchase a professional quality tape deck with CD recording capabilities. I wanted to convert my tapes to Cd's anyways. The next stop was to the Guitar Center where Chris used to work. If this doesn't work, then I have no choice except to get my old one repaired and hope it holds out until I can convert my music to a CD format.
To The Guitar Center: yes they have what I want. What I don't want, is the price!. It was eight hundred dollars...yikes! Well, I bought it. It didn't cost me any money. I charged it. I will worry about this later. The tape deck is now on the stack, plugged in. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to wire the tape deck to my receiver and to the speakers. I will have to wait until Chris gets here.....about September?
At home: There it goes again. I rent a DVD. The coming attractions view fine. Then it is time for the video. The screen fades to black. Nothing is wrong with the DVD. It is my player. It is a basic model. It can play most DVDs, but not the high definition ones. (Sigh) Back to the store to buy a DVD player that can play high definition DVDs. Luck is with me. I got one on sale. On a different day, I pop a rented DVD into the new player. So far, it works fine. This time, the player...which isn't even paid for yet....that darn player ate my rented DVD. It would not give it back. Out comes the screwdriver. Out comes the tiny screws that I manage to drop on the floor. By tinkering, I get the player to eject the DVD. This time, I put the screws aside in a tiny plastic bag. I know that hunger with strike the DVD player again...at least until Mercury goes forward again.
What in heavens name is going on here? My tenant calls me to tell me that someone tried to break into her house. They jimmied the door and broke the lock. Then my other tenant calls me to say His hot water tank isn't working any more. Is providence out to get me? Or at least out to empty my wallet? These are expensive repairs...one on top of the other. My truck will have to wait its turn for a new window.

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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Months and months ago, about February, my friend Judy H. asked me what I was doing in June. How the heck do I know what I would be doing. I barely know what I am going to do after I get out of bed. Judy says she wants us to go into New York city to see a play. Its a bus tour. We don't have to do anything except sit on the bus. All details are arranged. A gourmet lunch is included. Who could turn that down. I said yes.
A few days later, Judy calls back. Would I want cancellation insurance? I'm cheap. I should spend more money than I have to? I told her no. Judy bought insurance. I did not. I thought I was ahead.
It is a few days before our bus trip. Judy calls me. She is in San Francisco. Her mother lives there. Mom has fallen and fractured her hip. Judy can't leave her mom. Judy can't go to see Jersey Boys. Judy gets her money back.
This leaves me with a problem. I can either miss the performance and lose the money I paid for the ticket, or I can go on the bus by myself and feel lonely. None of the two choices sound good.
A friend calls me that day. It is Spence. During our conversation, I tell him about Jersey Boys. Spence says He will go. He loves going into NYC. I call Judy. She has already phoned the travel agency and they confirmed she has cancelled. Judy gives me their phone number. I give the number to Spence.
Spence calls. The travel agency tells Spence that that performance has been sold out for months. There are no more tickets. "No No" says Spence."You have a cancellation. I am buying Judy's ticket." The travel agency agrees. Computers can be wonderful. The very next day, Spence and I are at the bus stop. The tour guide and the bus driver have Spence's name on the roster of names. Gee, that was quick.
We get on the bus and have a nice conversation while being driven into New York. We get the instructions about our lunch and where to meet. It is arranged beautifully.
As the bus pulls into our first stop....lunch....I casually ask one of the other riders, what the performance is about. He answers that it is about Frankie Valli.
Spence looks ashen. He tells me He HATES Frankie Valli. This is his story:
When He was in the navy, His ship was out to sea for several months. They ran out of fresh produce, especially fresh milk. They were drinking the reconstituted powdered kind. A supply ship comes alongside and sells Spence's ship a lot of milk. Every one was delighted. They hate the powdered kind.
Every sailor is guzzling fresh milk. They love it. A few hours later, every one was deathly sick...except the few sailors that don't drink milk. Every one had food poisoning. ...not a little case of food poisoning, but a really serious case of it. Several men had to be hospitalized. Spence spent a week in bed being sick as a dog...and that is really really sick.
On board the ship, is a communications network. One of the speakers happens to be above Spence's bunk. It is used for ship communications and also for entertainment...radio broadcasts, playing tapes and records....stuff like that.
Apparently the sailor working communications, liked Frankie Valli music. He played Frankie Valli over the speakers...the one next to Spence's ears. ....over and over and over.... Talk about conditioning! There is nothing like being really really sick and being tortured with falsetto male singing at the same time.
As I said, Spence hates to hear Frankie Valli sing. Now I know why.
Spence just spent several hundred dollars to be tortured again, by Frankie Valli. I now have ammunition to torture my friend Spence. ..with Frankie Valli singing "Sherry Baby"
The lunch was terriffic. We ate in a converted garage. We were serenaded with live jazz. The musicians were very good. The food was good...main course was salmon encrused with herbs served on a bed of pureed sweet potaotoes. Excellent food.
Then came the bad part. Spence has to sit through the musical. Actually, it was wonderful. New York is top notch in theatre. The orchestra was excellent. The stage settings were excellent. They used large screens with computer projections that were excellent. The actors were excellent. They are full of energy and talent. They sing their hearts out. Even Spence enjoyed the show. The best part is when I need leverage with my friend, I can hum Sherry Baby in falsetto. Spence winces every time.

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Sunday, July 08, 2007

Children amuse themselves differently from when I was a child. In the 1940's, there was no TV, skateboards,CDs, DVDs, Instead, We would listen to the radio. It was our "at home" entertainment. I think I am lucky to have been a little child then because it was the golden age of radio. I listened to stories with sound effects. My imagination set the scene, colored it and peopled it with the characters. You can get a similar effect by reading a good book. I would lay in bed, or on the floor on the rug in the living room and listen to someone on the radio, relay a wonderful adventure. I was transported. I would go to sleep listening to The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, Green Lantern, Buck Rogers in his space ship of tomorrow, Dagwood and Blondie, Fibber McGee and Molly. Saturday mornings, I would listen to Let's Pretend...a program devoted to fairy tales. It was wonderful. Those same characters were also found in comic books that I bought for a dime. Wish I had comic books today. I taught myself to read, by reading comic books...and little Golden Books.
Once a week, I would be given a quarter and allowed to go to the movies with my friends. Our parents never went, because a neighborhood of children in a movie theatre is something awful to experience. We were noisy and rude. We also loved the story on the screen. The projector was at the back of the theatre. A projectionist would wind the movie tape through the projection machine. We could see light coming from the projection room to the curtains on the stage. Now a days, a laser would be used to project the image. No light escapes from the side of the beam, so no light chord is seen coming from the projection room.
I thought the curtain because transparent. You could see the movie start right through the curtains. The curtains parted . There was the screen. Later I learned that the movie started with the curtains closed. They opened slowly so I saw part of the movie on the screen and part on the curtain, giving an illusion that the curtain was transparent.
We always went on a Saturday afternoon. We stayed the whole day. Our parents were rid of us! The show started with at least two cartoons and a "short". It was either a newsreel or a serial, like "Perils of Pauline" or "Buck Rogers in the 21st Century". We saw all that before the main feature came on. If the projectionist was slow to start, We children would stamp our feet and shout, "We want the show. We want the show." We were brats. Sometimes We got so noisy in the middle of the movie, that the projectionist would stop the movie and turn on the lights until every one got relatively quiet. When Abbott and Costello met a monster, We would all scream.
If I went in the evening with an adult, there was an usher with a flashlight to escort us to our seat. The movie theatre was packed. All the seats were taken. The usher wore a uniform, like a bell boy, complete with a hat. The adults often got a premium for attending the movie. It consisted of a piece of china. If you attended often enough, you could collect a whole set of dishes.
No movie experience was complete unless I had popcorn, soda (called "pop") and several pieces of candy. When We left the theatre, the floor was a sticky mess. So were We.
The theatre was a wonderful experience of escaping our rather drab lives.
In the summer time, We would go to the drive-in movies. They were even better than the neighborhood movie theatre, which We called affectionately, "The Dump".
Our parents had to take us to the drive-in movie. The whole family would go. The ticket man would charge by the car, so the price was the same if there was only one person in the car, or 10 people squeezed it. It was summer. The car had no air conditioning. We would drive onto a field that had been plowed into parallel rows. The purpose of this was to be able to drive the front wheels of the car up a slight incline, so you could see the screen better. Dad would find a spot and drive our Plymouth up the incline. He parked next to a speaker. He unhooked the speaker and hooked it onto his window. That is how We heard the movie.
The movie wouldn't start until it got dark. To keep all the kids busy, the manager had installed swings , rings and teeter tauters at the front, at the base of the screen. The play ground was swarming with kids. We would play there until the movie started. Then We would go back to our cars . Playing at dusk outside in the summer, is a guarantee for a lot of mosquito bites. I got my share. If this experience was available today, I think most of the play equipment would be removed because of liability exposures.
Watching a movie, in our own car, with parents was a wonderful experience. We could fall asleep on the back seat. So comfortable.
There was an intermission. The lights would go on and an ad would be shown on the screen, inviting us to enjoy the snack stand. The ads are similar to what you see in movie theatres today. The ads...and the lights...stayed on much too long. The theatre owner wanted to be really sure that you spent some money at the snack stand. We got restless, but eventually, the lights went out. I don't remember if the intermission was between movies or between reel changes for one movie. Memory fails me on this one.
The only time I remember my mother taking me to the drive-in, was as a reward for my eighth grade graduation. She invited a lot of my class mates. We packed into one car. The price was the same no matter how many people were in the car. When We got to the drive-in, some of my friends got out of the car and watched the movie sitting on the hood of the car. We thought that was cool.
Going to the drive-in movie is a treasured memory. As I got older, I met Richard who was destined to be my husband. We went to the drive-in movie as a date. Richard could drive. I think that drive-ins were past their prime, but there were still some around. We did the same things as when We were little, like visiting the snack stand. The only difference when watching the movie, is We rolled our windows up.

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