December 2, 2002
was able to confirm the last several days that there is a conspiracy against
me. You see, I had decided to sleep in on Thanksgiving, haven given up
on cooking a turkey for one person. And so, when I woke at my normal 6:30,
I rolled over and went back to sleep. Sometime between 7:30 and 8, some
birdbrain tried to get into the house, both through the kitchen window
and through the bedroom door. In fact, this same birdbrain tried the same
thing every day during the weekend. Now, I ask you, how many times do
you have to bash your head against a screen door before you realize you're
not getting in? I finally had to get out of bed, and scare the little
wren away from the screen every morning. I just wonder what it thinks
is going to happen. I did notice it later in the day hanging from the
screen with its claws, but I have no idea what its purpose is.
Saturday night was a lovely evening, as we got a substantial lightning and thunder storm roll through. It rained rather hard for about 30 minutes, and there were several bolts of lightning close enough to send surges through our power grid, although we never lost power for more than a second. I counted myself lucky for having surge protectors and UPSes on all the electronic equipment, although I am aware than a surge protector isn't designed for that kind of voltage.
I've made arrangements to travel to Virginia at Christmas, to be with my entire family. Of course, it wasn't until after I made the reservations that I became aware that the carrier I booked with is on the verge of bankruptcy. Shouldn't there be a large flashing red warning sign on the websites when you make the reservations telling you this? Ah, well, the news this morning about United seems a bit more positive, so we'll see. I have to admit, I am looking forward to seeing all my kith and kin, which I haven't done since July 2001. In an effort not to offend either family that live in the area, I've agreed to bunk with my father in his RV, which will likely be a lot quieter than staying in either household :)
I'm also trying to get caught up on my TiVo stuff. I'm down to 2 episodes of West Wing, and one of 24 before I'm back to current. Of course, there's the football game tonight, too... I guess I have to say that TiVo really is the most useful piece of hardware since the PC came out. I only wish they'd had them back when I was missing MASH due to choir practice, and when I was missing everything by working evenings. Now that racing season is over, I really need to bless and install that second drive into my DirectTiVo.