Letters to Holly

Thursday, October 2

Running on Empty

I decided to join the annual Halloween race. I ran it, what, two years back? That was when it remained a midnight race. Now it's run at sundown, almost seven hours earlier. I opted out because the fun was lost. But I need to run again before my body packs on winter weight. I ran for more than half an hour last night. My new idea is to run for time instead of distance. Thirty minutes should be enough to run a 5k even at a slow trot.

I found myself in a gas line last night for about 45 minutes. It was the weakest day for gas supplies in our region, but this morning looked better at local stations.

We both watched the debate last night. Biden did a much better jobs with specifics. Palin used so much homespun dialect, it was almost a caricature.

Picture of the Day
Here's to drinking in Atlanta.

Wednesday, October 1

Things I Forgot

1) On Saturday, I picked up my painting from the frame shop. The nice gent behind the counter dug it out from his pile of orders, held it up to me, and asked "it's supposed to hang this way, right?"

It was sideways.

This is why painters sign their work. It's not ego. It's so the framer knows which edge of the painting is the bottom.

To his credit, he immediately took the painting to his workbench and changed out the screws and restrung the wire. Ta-dah, I have a framed painting.

2) I sold Mom on opening iTunes on her new PC, but she wouldn't give up her credit card info to buy songs. I knew that she'd find songs she hasn't heard in years and years, and sure enough the first song she wanted to look for was a tune by the Harlem Globetrotters. Yes. It was the '70s; everyone made an album. She found the song, and I made her a deal: I'll set her iTunes to charge purchases to my songs, and she could pay me back. She agreed. We bought the song. She played it a lot.

She emailed me Monday to say she had somehow muted the program. This is why I didn't want her to sign up with Geek Squad. I hope I can remotely fix any similarly small problems like this.

She was hoping to buy the extended version of Sex and the City, but couldn't find it. I found it online and shipped it to her. I was hoping to surprise her, but I'm sure she'd see this Amazon order on her stoop and think someone had scammed her by finding her PC information online. Also, I never thought I'd have any conversation with My Mom that involved the word "sex."

I was asked to stage manage a show in the upcoming theatre season, and I agreed. I did it in the fall of 2003 for a much larger stage in a play called Tintypes. It required stacks of props. And that worked OK. I had stagehands to boss around. I can do this again with my local theatre.

Picture of the Day
The painting is up. And it suddenly looks tiny. I want a big painting now.

Monday, September 29

Working From Home

To save gas, I took my work PC home Thursday night and stayed home Friday. I like that set-up. I could take a break for Wookie-throwing when necessary, and I had plenty of snacks.

I watched the debate that night. Your Sis made it about 20 minutes before conking out. I have to admit, I was swim-headed when they started talking about Russia, but I stuck with it. The candidates were clearly talking to the undecideds. I think I'm objective when I say Obama made the better effort; McCain did himself no favors by stumbling over the name of Iran's president and nor did the tug-of-war over preconditions. But it felt like a substantial debate, and I'm glad we're finally at this point in the campaigns.

I drove back home Saturday and had dinner with high-school friends. I became re-acquainted with someone I hadn't seen since I graduated, and we all ate jambalaya and birthday cake. Long conversations about decades-removed relationships and drama ensued. Also, my buddy Esther's child is a little over two years old, and he looks juts like his dad.

The next day, we bought Mom a computer, her first. We practically tackled the Best Buy store as the doors opened. She wanted a Dell, easy enough) and a printer with all the bells and whistles. And she got it. It faxes, copies, and scans. It's an office. She does want the ability to work from home in bad weather, and she's set up for that now. It took some doing to set up the DSL in her new computer, and we both had to react to Windows Vista. After three hours of unboxing and activating, my brain shut down. I drove back home in time for dinner and some vegetative couch time.

Spartanburg and Mayberry are a little better for gas supplies. Georgia continues to have problems, but it's "supposed" to be stablized by this weekend.

Picture of the Day
A bad morning: