The Microwave

Our new house has a microwave / convection oven built in over the range, so the small counter top one we have here would probably not be used very much there. Unfortunately, it recently stopped working and since it is handy for a lot of things, we reluctantly decided that we should get another one. You would think that buying a microwave would be a simple thing. Maybe it is for most people, but not for us. I found one on line at Target that was reasonably priced and looked nice. Since Walmart in Old Bridge is closer than Target in Middletown, Anne though that we should look there. She found one on line that she liked and the site said that it was in stock at the store. We got to the store and the first thing I noticed was the large number of people standing in line for customer service. The second thing I noticed was that the microwave was nowhere to be found. A lady employee, who was very pleasant, but ineffective, said that she bet she knew where we got the idea that it was in stock - from the internet and cautioned us not to believe such things. She didn't work in microwaves so tried to conjure up someone who knew about them by speaking into a little box. After several attempts without success she wandered off. We wandered to Home Depot and Lowes where it was difficult to pair the boxes with the actual microwaves with the prices tags on the shelves. By the way, as we left Walmart, the customer service line was now about half of what it was when we went in. We continued to drive south on Route 9 until we were at the Target in Manalapan where we found the one I had first mentioned. It is a little smaller than what Anne wanted, but we got it. We can now microwave things again. Yippee.

Ramblings on a September Evening

Once again, I have been admonished because I have been derelict in my blog postings. It would be nice if the complainers would themselves post something, or even get a blog, but no, I alone am admonished as though I were the blogger in residence or blogger laureate, expected to provide new and scintillating material for the enjoyment of my readers. Very well, here goes, but remember, I am not Noel Coward (thank God) or John Wayne, or anyone of serious note and nothing much that's exciting happens to me. I suppose that's a good thing for me for the most part, but it makes it difficult to get enthused to write about the normal hum drum of daily life, but I will try.

On Friday I visited my old place of employment because I had a luncheon with Mr. Michael K. I enjoyed my lunch and our conversation, but my real love is seeing the ladies of ETA, my former co-workers. I do miss them. Having said that, I want to assure my readers and myself that I don't miss work and that retirement suits me just fine, thank you very much. Most of my working career I have worked primarily with women and have had mostly women bosses, when I have had a boss. Maybe that gives me a different perspective on things. I have liked almost all of the women with whom I have worked and still keep in touch with some of them through the wonder of Facebook. Maybe I fancy myself as a modern day Gardner McKay sailing to Tahiti with an all girl crew. Hah! What did I have to drink today? Anybody want to go on a sailboat ride?

So, last evening Anne and I went to Best Buy to look at televisions. We need to get one or two eventually for our new home. We have been putting off buying HD TVs in anticipation of our move, so we thought we ought to go look at them and see what we could learn. At first we were struck by the similarity in the pictures between the 720 p and the 1080p sets until we found out that the signal that they get in the store for all sets is 720p. Well, gee whiz, how the heck are you supposed to make a decision on that basis? Even at that, all the pictures looked pretty good. Then there's the thing about smart TVs and do you want Google TV, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora and what do all of these things do and who cares. What about 3D? Everybody wants you to pay money to watch or listen to entertainment today. We didn't buy anything, just looked. I need to find a sixteen year old to explain it all to me before we buy anything.

Tomorrow is my father's birthday. He would have been 105, but he died in 1987. We went to the cemetary this afternoon, because I got confused and though his birthday was today. The cemetery isn't being kept up very well, which is disconcerting. The headstone seems to be leaning a little also. I don't know what I can do about either thing. I guess and hope it doesn't matter to my parents. If it does, we all have a lot more trouble than we realize.

Peter is finally in Mexico. Last week they finally got shipments of all of their goods, all on the same day and found themselves somewhat overwhelmed. They don't know where they will put it all because their house is not quite as large as previous ones. Peter's delay in getting there had to do with the government's language school and their insistence that he achieve a high level of fluency in Spanish. Since he's been there he said that he hardly has to speak any Spanish except if he goes to a grocery store.

I know that there were other things that I was thinking of adding to this post, but I don't remember what they were. I believe that will allow me to write another post when I remember them and if I remember that I am supposed to blog about them. So, good reader, you will have to be content with this content for the time being.

A Walk on the Beach

We took a walk on the beach last evening, Anne and I and our friend Alice. The weather was about as good as it gets; a slight sea breeze and no bugs. I always find the wave action calming and restorative, but it's not just that. I think it also has to do with the sun on the water, the birds swooping after their dinner, feet touching the sand and water, the immensity of the ocean. I was thinking that we have made a decision to move away from this, so I hope that Lake Ontario has some restorative properties. I believe that there is nothing quite like the ocean, though.

I have lived near the ocean all of my life. I started out in Newark, NJ, which isn't quite what would be called "near the ocean," but we spent many weekends at the shore when I was a child, then moving to Sea Girt when I was in my last year of high school. Thereafter, I never considered myself a "Day Benny." I believe that I will be closer to the water at our new house. It is about two miles to the lake straight up Holt Road. It's a pretty big lake. Not big as far as the Great Lakes go, but big, nevertheless. You can't see across to Canada. All you can see is water, so, except for your knowledge of geography, for all you know, it could go on forever. But, I don't know if it will be the same as the ocean. There's something about the beach. There was one sight, however, that somewhat marred the experience and that was the lady in the bikini. An older woman who had no business being in a bikini because a good portion of her hung over the bottom part of it. Shouldn't there be a naturalist or someone to point out to people that they are disturbing the balance of nature, not to mention the view.

Too Many, Too Young

In the past few years I have attended far too may funerals for people who have died before their time, at least in my way of thinking. The latest was yesterday which was a funeral for the thirty-six year old son of a woman, BJ, with whom I used to work. Michael was, for all anyone knew, in great health. He was an avid kayaker, an archer, fisherman and a lover of the outdoors. Apparently he was in good physical shape, but he was felled by what was probably a brain aneurism. It came out of nowhere, suddenly, and, of course, the family was devastated. When someone "old" passes on, you figure that they lived their life and that's what happens eventually. I don't know anymore what the qualification for "old" is, but a number of the people for whom I have found myself offering condolences are younger than I. I don't think of myself as old, except when it leads to a discount, but certainly someone thirty-six or someone in their fifties is not old. All of the people to whom I refer were active, health conscious and did what they were told we are supposed to do in terms of exercise, eating, etc. Does this mean that I shouldn't worry about healthy living because, no matter what I do, something can come out of the sky and get me? I think that it tells me that I should only renew and intensify my efforts at healthy living. Some things you just can't do anything about, but you can at least minimize the risk factors. I feel bad for BJ, her husband Mike and their family, but they will survive. I saw that they had a lot of support and as BJ said, she wanted not to mourn his passing, but to celebrate his life.

Nothing Much New Here

They say that no news is good news, but on the selling of the house front, some news might be better than no news. We had an open house over the weekend and ten sets of people came, including the grandson of the original owner who had the house built in 1912. According to our realtor he was telling stories about the house and enchanting the assembled multitude. We were not at home for the festivities and we haven't heard anything since, except that the country is going to rack and ruin, the economy is in shambles and the stock market tanked. It's interesting that investors abandoned their stock and bought up every US treasury bond they could get their hands on, the very things that were downgraded. By the way, Standard & Poors has made some colossal blunders in the past. Remember Enron? They only have 100 analysts to cover over 100 countries. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it turns out that someone, or some group, has figured out how to manipulate the market. Maybe it's all those tea drinkers. No, they're not smart enough.

The garage sale went well, although we still have a lot of stuff remaining. We got rid of a lot of bulky stuff. Anne took a load of books to Goodwill and we will get the Vets to pick up a lot of the other things. They seem willing to take about anything in good condition.

In anticipation of our move, I have been trying to figure out the best values in TV, internet and phone service. Anne's brother in Rochester uses a good old antenna and gets a nice selection of stations. Time Warner is the cable company there and Verizon apparently doesn't service our street yet. You can't find out on line what it costs for basic TV service, only all about bundled services. We cut back to basic here and I wanted to find out how much that service costs there. I guess I'll have to call them. Here we were paying over $80.00 a month for the TV part of our cable bill. They advertize the basic service for $10.14 a month, so I figured we would save around $70.00. Not so, we only save about $50.00 a month because we lose this discount, that discount and the other discount. That's why I'm thinking about using an antenna at the new house, except now, the geniuses in Congress want to sell off a lot of bandwidth to cell phone companies and make it harder to get anything over an antenna. You just simply can't win.

Got in a swim in the pool today before the rains came. It felt good and we need the rain, so all in all it was a good day, although it's not over yet. Hopefully, the best part is yet to come. I wonder what's for dinner.

The Pool Isn't Cool

It's been a bit warm here. Even getting into the pool doesn't provide much relief. The water was 91 degrees today. Okay, body temperature is about 98.6 (mine is usually slightly lower), but still, 91 doesn't feel very cool. I did take a cold shower tonight and it really felt good, once I got used to it. I guess it lowered my core temp. We had a garage sale scheduled for today, but after trying to set it up yesterday, we cancelled it. We'll do it in a couple of weeks when the atmosphere returns to normal. In the meantime, if anyone wants anything, come on by. All of my readers get a substantial discount and I'll even load the stuff into your cars. That's the least I can do if someone drives all the way from Florida, or the Carolinas, or even LBI. The Woodbridge reader already had a chance and she took what she wanted. We'll even provide a room for the night while your car is being loaded.

Still Waiting

The deal that we thought we had for the sale of our house fell through so it is on the market again. We lost a month and the best part of the selling season again. In the meantime we have been hauling our possessions to Rochester. I am almost thinking that maybe this wasn't a very good idea and that maybe we should sell the Rochester house and stay here. However, that would mean hauling all of our stuff back here which is not a happy thought. Someone should remind me of why we wanted to move up there in the first place.

Nothing much else is new or exciting enough to report.