morrowlife

Here’s a guy out for a ride on one of them flying machines. His eyes bear mute testament to his slight level of discomfort at straddling that thing. Picture taken at the Hiller Aviation Museum. Part of both my famous machinery and statue series.

Great day at home. On the downside, off-week number two is 20% over. Sigh. On the upside, I rested like crazy, and actually got a few things done. Let’s see, now. The pool filters are now clean, the leaves are picked up from the bottom of the pool, the Honda is clean, Larry’s server files are moved over to Moe, an HDMI cable for Larry and a 1 terabyte disk drive for moe are on order, the workbench light power strip is back on the wall, new windshield wipers are on the Honda and the Sable (and will be on the Suburban tomorrow morning), the band of my new watch is more my size, and a lot of food has been consumed. Not bad for a day off.

Lots of things are on the schedule for tomorrow, but they’re too boring to discuss here. Suffice it to say that I’ll be as busy as a leisure-filled day will allow.

I just finished reading The Blight Way, Patrick F. McManus’s first (as far as I know, anyway) murder mystery. Highly recommended. It’s a delightful little murder mystery. No gore, no sex, no profanity. Just fun and a triple homicide to solve. Exactly what I expected from McManus, and exactly what I wanted. If I still have a Morrowlife book club, this would be this month’s selection. I’m looking forward to reading McManus’s other mystery book, as well as the one scheduled to come out next September. Not to mention his new book of humor columns.

Anyway. No other news. Having a great holiday. See you tomorrow.

Here are Loyal Readers Numbers One, Two, and Three in a rare joint appearance as the flight crew of a 747. Picture taken at the Hiller Aviation Museum. Part of my famous Machinery series.

Wonders of Blogger. Friday was game day, and we were having too good of a time for me to blog. Sorry about that, Loyal Readers. And special thanks to LRN1 for noticing.

Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Fifteen went home today. Sob. We had a great visit with them and were very sorry to see them go. The good news is that LRN3’s job back at Fish and Game is a definite. He’s still working on either getting a second part-time job or converting what he has into full-time, but this is an excellent start at a job he’s very likely to enjoy as much as he did before.

Went to downtown San Francisco to see A Christmas Carol at the American Conservatory Theater. It was well done and we had a great time. The building itself was beautiful, which I always enjoy. The new TomTom guided us there and home flawlessly. It’s pretty cool – I knew all along that as soon as I got a modern GPS, I wouldn’t be able to live without it anymore. And I was right.

That’s all for now. We have friends coming over tonight, and preparations must be made. See you on Monday.

Here are Loyal Reader Number Four and one of her many colleagues working on an old Hiller helicopter. Part of both my famous Statue series and my famous Machinery series.

Merry Christmas! We had a great day. Lots of presents were given and received, new stuff was played with, video games were played, He-Man cartoons were watched (that show was so bad it was great), a new jigsaw puzzle was started (and will probably be finished tonight), and a general nice time was had by all. I’m sorry the day is over.

But it is, and I’m exhausted. We stayed up way late again last night, what with preparations for the holiday. We slept in quite late, but it still wasn’t quite enough. Need more sleep tonight.

Tomorrow morning is shooting time (at the range down the road, that is) for the boys and shopping time for the girls. Except that some of the girls might be coming for shooting time too. I’m hoping it’s not raining. The Weather Channel is calling for cool but mostly sunny weather. So there’s hope.

I played with my TomTom for quite a while today – it’s pretty cool. I never went out of the house other than the back yard, so I haven’t actually used it to navigate anywhere, but I’m looking forward to trying it out in the car tomorrow. It locks on to satellites really easily and knows where all the roads are. I updated it online, and discovered you can put your own splash screens, voices, map updates, and lots of other stuff on it. I especially like the ability to do custom voices. I just might try that.

Also love my new Seiko watch. It’s small and light, unlike the monstrosity I’ve been using lately.

Lots of other new stuff to talk about, but it’s too late. See you tomorrow.

Here’s Loyal Reader Number Two ready for takeoff. Picture taken today in the gift shop at the Hiller Aviation Museum. He really wanted to buy this getup, but we talked him out of it. Maybe we should have let him get it thought – he looks pretty jaunty.

No Tuesday post. I forgot. Fortunately, we had a nice day.

Merry Christmas Eve! We had a nice day. Went to the aforementioned aviation museum (Hiller). Turns out there was a Hiller Helicopter company here in the Bay Area. It started out as a few teenagers making toy cars in their parents’ garage. World War II broke out and the kids somehow got a military contract to build . . . ummm . . . something. I can’t remember. Anyway, they quickly became helicopter pioneers. Pretty cool.

Otherwise, we relaxed at home, enjoyed each other’s company, and watched A Christmas Story. Had our traditional lasagna dinner. It was even better than usual.

Speaking of which, there are a ton of leftovers around here. I’m having a hard time not overdoing it. As are several of my Loyal Readers.

Holiday greetings to Loyal Reader Number Seven, from whom we haven’t heard in a while. Thanks for the kind note and we wish you and your family the best Christmas ever.

Same wishes to all my Loyal Readers. Thanks for making the Morrowlife blog the cultural and financial powerhouse it is today.

And it’s time to get ready for Christmas. See you tomorrow.

Here’s a plasticky-looking lady in the Victorian Christmas Farmhouse, getting ready for Christmas. Picture courtesy of the exclusive Treo-cam. Part of my famous Statue series.

Great day! Loyal Readers Numbers Three and Fifteen arrived mid-day. We’ve been enjoying the day. Games are being played, computers are being worked on, shopping was done, wrapping is happening (and there’s more to come), great food was eaten, cookies were baked, home teachers visited, Loyal Reader Number Twenty-Four spent much of the day, and . . . let’s see . . . lots of other fun things happened. Oh, and I worked for a few hours. But we won’t count that.

So my first official day off was a great one.

We’ve decided where to go on Christmas Eve. We’re checking out the Hiller Aviation Museum. LRN3 has been requesting it for a few years now. Loyal Reader Number Five preferred the Asian Art Museum, but we think Loyal Reader Number Twelve might not do as well there this year. Maybe next year.

We went to the wacky light house last night. It was as lighted-up as last year, but it was cold, windy, and raining. There weren’t many people there, there was no Santa, and there was no hot chocolate. On the positive side, there was plenty of nearby parking. We took a quick look, got back in the car, and went home for our own hot chocolate. I’m glad we went, but the weather was not very favorable.

Good news! My recently-ordered Christmas present arrived in the mail today. Bad news! LRN15’s gift that was ordered before mine and for which quick delivery was paid still hasn’t arrived. As I mentioned to her, I guess I’ve been good this year and she hasn’t. Do better next time, LRN15.

Nothing else to write about tonight. Film festival tomorrow, which will be duly reported on. More Great Art will be shot over the next few days. See you tomorrow.