morrowlife

Here’s the train in the station at Greenfield Village. Sadly, this appears to be the last steam-powered device still in operation there. They told us at the machine shop that all the other ones just got to be too expensive.

It’s Friday night! The work week is over and the whole weekend is still ahead. Sadly, it’s supposed to be cloudy with a little rain and highs only in the mid-60s. I suppose we’ll just have to make the best of it.

Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve are coming over tomorrow. We thought we might be going over there, but they say they want to get out of the house. We’re looking forward to seeing their place again, though, so we’ll have to make the trip in that direction soon. They had a little car trouble the other night, so they took the Suburban home with them. It needs to get back home.

Loyal Reader Number Two gave a piano performance this evening at MJC. Loyal Reader Number Four reports that it went well – he was definitely a standout performer. Sadly, I couldn’t get home on time to be there, so I’ll have to take her word for it.

I’ve been watching some old Home Improvement shows on the iPod. I borrowed some DVDs from LRN6 and converted them. Last week, he brought me the entire series, so I have plenty of disks to rip.

Time to start ripping. See you on Monday.

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve posing for a family portrait. I can’t tell whether LRN12 is practicing for her 80th birthday or just not too happy to be there. This one definitely ought to be on their Christmas card.

Busy, busy, busy today at work. There are a million things going on, none of which I can seem to get done. Sigh.

On the bright side, Loyal Reader Number One got his patriarchal blessing tonight. It went well and was a very nice blessing.

Nothing else to the day. Got up (almost an hour later than usual), went to work (got there a few minutes later than usual), worked, went home early, ate, changed clothes, went to the patriarch’s house, came home, changed clothes, did a little reading (They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They? by Patrick F. McManus – read it before and, like all his books, it’s always worth reading again), had dessert (banana pudding – yum!), and blogged. Then it’s time for bed.

I watched some of an old Clint Eastwood movie called Firefox on AMC last night. When we got home this evening, it was on again, so I got to see the last few minutes of it too. What a cheesy movie. The action is ridiculous, the characters are more like caricatures, and the special effects are unbelievably horrible. On the bright side, Clint has lots of opportunities to squint. Not recommended unless you’re in the mood for an old cheesy movie.

Well, that bed’s calling to me. What it’s saying is that I need to put my stuff away before anybody can get in it. So I’ll see you tomorrow.

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers One, Two, and Four and friends in front of a tree you can drive through. Well, you used to be able to drive through it. But at least you can still walk through it. The signs said the original owners of the park cut the hole in this tree because those competitive jerks at Yosemite had one and they needed one too.

Back on the train after yesterday’s pathetic morning commute. My boss said it was just as bad today. So I didn’t miss anything. The train’s been much more crowded than before. With gas prices over $3 these days, it’s much cheaper to ride. It’s still been fairly comfortable.

Otherwise, there’s not much to report. So why waste bytes? See you tomorrow.

Here’s another in my famous workbench series. This one is in the blacksmith’s shop at Greenfield Village.

Very short shrift tonight. Home evening is over (enjoyed it, as usual), I stayed up way too late last night, and I’m sleepy.

Wretched morning commute today – three and a half hours. It was a little under two on the way home, but the damage was done. I’m riding the rails tomorrow.

Otherwise fine day – and fine weekend, for that matter. I finally got some new speakers installed in the Miata on Friday (off Friday, of course), did some pretty serious cleanup work on the pool (it’s not yet healthy, though), and had Loyal Readers Numbers Five, Six, and Twelve and the other set of grandparents over on Sunday evening for LRN12’s first birthday party.

Her official birthday was today, though. Happy birthday, Loyal One-year-old! The Loyal Readers had a little tire trouble last night, so it took quite a bit longer than expected for them to get over here, but we had a nice meal and a good time together anyway.

But I’m exhausted, so it’s time for bed. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Twelve yet again, enjoying her Halloween dinner. Looks like she’s had a little too much trick-or-treating. Photo once again courtesy of Loyal Reader Number Five.

Wonders of Blogger. I just never got to it on Thursday or Friday. Considering the fact that I was home all day Friday, that’s pretty lame. Oh, well.

There wasn’t a lot going on those two days anyway. I drove the Miata to work again on Thursday – beautiful weather coming home, as usual these days. I think this coming week will be nice too, although I’ll probably ride the train at least a couple of times. The Honda’s mileage budget allows me to drive it to work once a week or so as well, so that might happen too.

I bought some new stereo equipment for the Miata on Friday and got the door speakers installed already. They weren’t too difficult to do once I got them figured out. I may have to take them back out again to install a rubber piece between the speakers and the doors, but we’ll see if that’s necessary. The stereo will probably require a custom installation kit. They don’t cost much, but I’m not impressed with the kits I’ve seen so far online. Might have to just bite the bullet and buy the best one of them I can find. The stereo has a CD player and – most importantly – a plug for my iPod. Sweet.

I also tried to install the new radio I got in Detroit for Loyal Reader Number One’s car. It’s a brand-new 1993-ish premium Ford radio that’s never been played but has been in one accident crash (actually, it wasn’t an accident at all). I was able to get the old radio out (after buying the right tool which was fortunately quite cheap), but the plug arrangement of the new(er) one is different. It looks like the existing one can handle only four speakers, while the new(er) one can take up to eight. The original one is back in the car, but I think we can make this one work. I just need to find the pinout for the new(er) radio’s connector and we can get it connected. It would be really nice to find the right connector itself so I could just solder wires, but that may be too much to ask.

Anyway. We just finished re-watching Operation Petticoat on DVD. What a great movie. In fact, it’s been kind of a movie weekend. I saw A Day at the Races yesterday, and we just started Horse Feathers. I like the Marx Brothers – not all the time, but often. Zeppo (link note: I recommend my Loyal Reader consider joinging SPAZ!) just isn’t funny, though, is he?

Time to do other things. See you on Monday.