I've just realized the importance of making a commitment in public, in this Blog, for instance. It brings pressure on you to keep it.
Fixing the faulty faucet was the first step. After complaining about it for weeks I finally did something about it. Yesterday I bemoaned the fact that I hadn't updated my hand-written monthly calender to my PC. Today I did.
On a much smaller scale, we all make shopping lists and try to get everything on it.
This afternoon, list in hand, we went to Costco and split our ranks. While my wife went to the food area I browsed elsewhere looking for copy paper. I found it later but in my wanderings I came across a good buy on K-cups coffee.
Since my wife had the shopping cart, I did not lug the 80-cup carton to the back of the store but I did mention it to her when we met. She agreed it was a good buy.
Did we pick it up on the way out? Of course not. IT WAS NOT ON THE LIST.
Moral of the story: write it down or fuggedaboutit.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Another Month, Another Delay
I just removed the March calendar from my desk clipboard and am staring at April. What I'm seeing, however, is the January, February and March calendar pages on my desk waiting to be entered into my desktop calendar for posterity. I'm procrastinating and don't know why.
Back story: When I went into consulting I kept scrupulous records of my daily activities by writing them by hand on a monthly calendar page printed from my Palm Desktop program. (How dated is that now!)
At the end of each month I would transcribe all the jottings into the PC, print the monthly page and enter it into a loose leaf folder. At the end of the year, I had a nice neat record of my daily activities. Of course all this also was in the bowels of my PC but a little redundancy never hurt anyone.
Even after I retired I still kept up the practice of daily notations, comparing my calendar with my wife's so we could literally be on the same page with appointments and such.
I don't know why I've sluffed off in the first three months of 2011. I still keep handwritten notes on the monthly page but I still haven't made the final transition to PC and then to loose leaf book.
Will history mourn these omissions? Will they be compared to the missing 18 minutes of the Nixon White House tapes? Am I being overly dramatic or just lazy?
It took months to get around to fixing the leaky faucet. I'll try not to take that long to update the calendars. Time, as you know, “creeps in this petty pace”...yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough already.
Back story: When I went into consulting I kept scrupulous records of my daily activities by writing them by hand on a monthly calendar page printed from my Palm Desktop program. (How dated is that now!)
At the end of each month I would transcribe all the jottings into the PC, print the monthly page and enter it into a loose leaf folder. At the end of the year, I had a nice neat record of my daily activities. Of course all this also was in the bowels of my PC but a little redundancy never hurt anyone.
Even after I retired I still kept up the practice of daily notations, comparing my calendar with my wife's so we could literally be on the same page with appointments and such.
I don't know why I've sluffed off in the first three months of 2011. I still keep handwritten notes on the monthly page but I still haven't made the final transition to PC and then to loose leaf book.
Will history mourn these omissions? Will they be compared to the missing 18 minutes of the Nixon White House tapes? Am I being overly dramatic or just lazy?
It took months to get around to fixing the leaky faucet. I'll try not to take that long to update the calendars. Time, as you know, “creeps in this petty pace”...yeah, yeah, yeah. Enough already.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Updates and More
First update: The faulty faucet is fixed! I did it with the aid of a $4.59 Allen wrench and a huge lug wrench. Yeah!
Second update: MRI postponed to Monday do to poor weather forecast for tomorrow.
And now the really exciting news. Typewriters are back! The headline that warmed my old heart was in the Styles section of today's NYTimes: "Rather than go gently into the digital night, manual typewriters have captured a new generation of hearts."
Welcome to my world new generation(See title page of my blog). I started my journalism career on Royal Standards, those noisy, sometimes sticky keyboards when my fingers crashed into the spaces between the keys because I was in such a hurry to get the words out.
Does anyone remember carbon paper? As a copy boy at the pre-pre-Murdoch New York Post one of my chores was to make "books" for the rewrite men(Get me rewrite!"). The book was three sheets of copy paper with carbons between the first and second sheets.
The finished book first went to the City Editor who kept the bottom copy for his file, the spike. The other two went to the copy editor's desk and when it was ready for print we ran the clean copy to the linotype room to be made up for the next edition.
It was an urgent, noisy, exhilerating and downright insipring procedure. Digitizing the print media may be cleaner and faster and surely more economical but you can't beat the clash and clamor of an old fashioned news room, the heart of which was the manual typewriter.
The Royal is dead. Long live the Royal!
Second update: MRI postponed to Monday do to poor weather forecast for tomorrow.
And now the really exciting news. Typewriters are back! The headline that warmed my old heart was in the Styles section of today's NYTimes: "Rather than go gently into the digital night, manual typewriters have captured a new generation of hearts."
Welcome to my world new generation(See title page of my blog). I started my journalism career on Royal Standards, those noisy, sometimes sticky keyboards when my fingers crashed into the spaces between the keys because I was in such a hurry to get the words out.
Does anyone remember carbon paper? As a copy boy at the pre-pre-Murdoch New York Post one of my chores was to make "books" for the rewrite men(Get me rewrite!"). The book was three sheets of copy paper with carbons between the first and second sheets.
The finished book first went to the City Editor who kept the bottom copy for his file, the spike. The other two went to the copy editor's desk and when it was ready for print we ran the clean copy to the linotype room to be made up for the next edition.
It was an urgent, noisy, exhilerating and downright insipring procedure. Digitizing the print media may be cleaner and faster and surely more economical but you can't beat the clash and clamor of an old fashioned news room, the heart of which was the manual typewriter.
The Royal is dead. Long live the Royal!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The Facebook Film
This is not a movie review. This is just a reaction from two people who just saw “The Social Network” on DVD in their living room.
We're glad we saw it since it was such a water-cooler film. But we don't hang around water coolers anymore. So for people long past the Facebook demographic it was a struggle on several fronts.
For one, we just don't hear as fast as the Zuckerberg character talked, particularly in scenes where the background music was so loud. We understand the music created a certain atmosphere but for us it did nothing. We surmised much.
I have a great respect for the screenwriter Aaron Sorkin since he created “The West Wing” and seeing him interviewed on TV I know he talks as fast as his scripted characters. It's just hard to keep up sometimes.
As for Facebook itself...I've admitted before I have a page but rarely look at it. I opened it because an organization I belong to created a page and I thought I should have access to it. I don't think we get much traffic.
An acquaintance, however, recently became a grandfather for the first time and posted pictures of the newborn on his Facebook page. He invited us to look, which we did and sent the traditional congratulations along with appropriate oohs and ahhs. She is cute.
So maybe there is a Facebook function for people of all ages. Judging from the movie, however, you get the impression it works best for social adolescents.
We're glad we saw it since it was such a water-cooler film. But we don't hang around water coolers anymore. So for people long past the Facebook demographic it was a struggle on several fronts.
For one, we just don't hear as fast as the Zuckerberg character talked, particularly in scenes where the background music was so loud. We understand the music created a certain atmosphere but for us it did nothing. We surmised much.
I have a great respect for the screenwriter Aaron Sorkin since he created “The West Wing” and seeing him interviewed on TV I know he talks as fast as his scripted characters. It's just hard to keep up sometimes.
As for Facebook itself...I've admitted before I have a page but rarely look at it. I opened it because an organization I belong to created a page and I thought I should have access to it. I don't think we get much traffic.
An acquaintance, however, recently became a grandfather for the first time and posted pictures of the newborn on his Facebook page. He invited us to look, which we did and sent the traditional congratulations along with appropriate oohs and ahhs. She is cute.
So maybe there is a Facebook function for people of all ages. Judging from the movie, however, you get the impression it works best for social adolescents.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Wrong Again
Well, I still don't make the big bucks but I did make the DL. My orthopedist sat me down for 21 days at least and ordered me to take an MRI for the right hip.
I did get the cortisone shot. He said it would take a few days to take full effect but the leg is starting to feel better already. Have to curtail some gym activities involving the legs for a while but we can do some other things to keep going physically.
My defection from our fearsome tennis foursome sent our captain scurrying to find a replacement or two. Unfortunately we can't call up someone from AAA Scranton or AA Trenton to fill in. They're all busy playing baseball and far too young for our crowd,
Our group resembles the Mets of last year with injuries cropping up at all the wrong times. Age is a factor, I suppose, although none of us want to use that excuse. It's just that S—t Happens and we have to deal with it.
I'm looking on the bright side. My orthopedist is the same guy who repaired my torn rotator cuff and after a lengthy rehab it's just fine. Hoping for the same outcome this time.
Cheers.
I did get the cortisone shot. He said it would take a few days to take full effect but the leg is starting to feel better already. Have to curtail some gym activities involving the legs for a while but we can do some other things to keep going physically.
My defection from our fearsome tennis foursome sent our captain scurrying to find a replacement or two. Unfortunately we can't call up someone from AAA Scranton or AA Trenton to fill in. They're all busy playing baseball and far too young for our crowd,
Our group resembles the Mets of last year with injuries cropping up at all the wrong times. Age is a factor, I suppose, although none of us want to use that excuse. It's just that S—t Happens and we have to deal with it.
I'm looking on the bright side. My orthopedist is the same guy who repaired my torn rotator cuff and after a lengthy rehab it's just fine. Hoping for the same outcome this time.
Cheers.
Monday, March 28, 2011
No DL For Me
If I were a multi-million dollar athlete chances are I'd be on the 15-day (or longer) disabled list. But I'm not and I'm not.
I am seeing my orthopedist tomorrow for a shot of cortisone (the second in three months) for a persistent pain in my right leg. The first shot didn't completely do the trick so I'm hoping this one will.
I came up short playing tennis this weekend when I tried to move to my right. The pain was intense.
No trainer or manager raced from the sidelines to tend to me. The media did not examine my every leg muscle nor talk with countless medical specialists as to how serious this might be or how long I might be sidelined.
No story appeared the next day speculating on my condition or who might move into my slot in our foursome.
After massaging the leg myself for a minute or so, we continued playing. I could not go after every shot as I might have but we muddled through.
As usual, the post game coffee and donuts were the highlight of the morning.
I am seeing my orthopedist tomorrow for a shot of cortisone (the second in three months) for a persistent pain in my right leg. The first shot didn't completely do the trick so I'm hoping this one will.
I came up short playing tennis this weekend when I tried to move to my right. The pain was intense.
No trainer or manager raced from the sidelines to tend to me. The media did not examine my every leg muscle nor talk with countless medical specialists as to how serious this might be or how long I might be sidelined.
No story appeared the next day speculating on my condition or who might move into my slot in our foursome.
After massaging the leg myself for a minute or so, we continued playing. I could not go after every shot as I might have but we muddled through.
As usual, the post game coffee and donuts were the highlight of the morning.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
What if...
If we've learned nothing else from the twin disasters that hit Japan it's that we are all vulnerable not only to uncontrolled natural events but to their effects on our growing dependency on electricity.
When the power goes down everything that runs on current goes down with it. We've seen the effects in hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, blackouts, snowstorms, blizzards and just plain accidents.
On a smaller but no less disturbing scale, how many times have you heard this? “Sorry, but our system is down, please call back later.”
We take for granted we'll always have an uninterrupted supply of electricity to run our lives. Until there isn't. Eventually we recover, sometimes later rather than sooner. And then there are the endless recriminations and blame for why the systems failed or did not have back up.
Keeping this in mind, I generally go retro when accommodating myself to modern technology. I have flashlights handy in every room of the house and have used them occasionally when we've had a localized power outage.
I use a camera with changeable batteries and I charge my iPod and cell phone often (as long as there's power). If there isn't any, well, we'll just have to do without, won't we. I also keep good old paper maps in my car to back up my GPS.
Just some thoughts to keep in mind as you race to the store to buy the latest electronic gizmo. Remember, it could go blank at just the wrong moment.
When the power goes down everything that runs on current goes down with it. We've seen the effects in hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, blackouts, snowstorms, blizzards and just plain accidents.
On a smaller but no less disturbing scale, how many times have you heard this? “Sorry, but our system is down, please call back later.”
We take for granted we'll always have an uninterrupted supply of electricity to run our lives. Until there isn't. Eventually we recover, sometimes later rather than sooner. And then there are the endless recriminations and blame for why the systems failed or did not have back up.
Keeping this in mind, I generally go retro when accommodating myself to modern technology. I have flashlights handy in every room of the house and have used them occasionally when we've had a localized power outage.
I use a camera with changeable batteries and I charge my iPod and cell phone often (as long as there's power). If there isn't any, well, we'll just have to do without, won't we. I also keep good old paper maps in my car to back up my GPS.
Just some thoughts to keep in mind as you race to the store to buy the latest electronic gizmo. Remember, it could go blank at just the wrong moment.
Fear of Faucets
We have a kitchen faucet that's driving us nuts. If you turn it on full it works fine but splashes all over the place. If you want to run it slowly, say to rinse a glass, it turns itself off within seconds.
As soon as this began happening, I called the manufacturer's customer service desk and without any fuss they sent me the parts they thought would fix the problem. They even said it was a simple task.
Well, the replacement parts have been sitting on my desk for weeks now. I just haven't had the courage to tackle the repair job.
I'm not even a minor league do-it-yourselfer. And plumbing terrifies me. For one, like most average householders I don't own the correct tools needed for plumbing repairs. For reasons known only to the plumbing industry all the pipes and assorted connectors require specific tools to loosen, take apart, replace and put back together again. The wrenches have names I've never heard of and wouldn't know how to use anyway.
The fears mount as you actually try to loosen a piece. Will I break it? Even though I turn off the water before doing anything, will that really prevent a flood? Will I be able to reassemble the unit? Since I'm always dropping something, what if I lose a piece? I'm sure the part would have a name and I'm just as sure I wouldn’t know it. It wouldn't be the first time I went to a supply house and stumbled through a description of what I was trying to replace.
All that said, this may be the week I finally tackle the finicky faucet. With luck (and my plumber on speed dial) we will prevail.
As soon as this began happening, I called the manufacturer's customer service desk and without any fuss they sent me the parts they thought would fix the problem. They even said it was a simple task.
Well, the replacement parts have been sitting on my desk for weeks now. I just haven't had the courage to tackle the repair job.
I'm not even a minor league do-it-yourselfer. And plumbing terrifies me. For one, like most average householders I don't own the correct tools needed for plumbing repairs. For reasons known only to the plumbing industry all the pipes and assorted connectors require specific tools to loosen, take apart, replace and put back together again. The wrenches have names I've never heard of and wouldn't know how to use anyway.
The fears mount as you actually try to loosen a piece. Will I break it? Even though I turn off the water before doing anything, will that really prevent a flood? Will I be able to reassemble the unit? Since I'm always dropping something, what if I lose a piece? I'm sure the part would have a name and I'm just as sure I wouldn’t know it. It wouldn't be the first time I went to a supply house and stumbled through a description of what I was trying to replace.
All that said, this may be the week I finally tackle the finicky faucet. With luck (and my plumber on speed dial) we will prevail.
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