Sunday, April 20, 2008

Picture Sunday

Hello, end of weekenders, and welcome to another round of Picture Sunday. No recipe du jour this week, so if that's what you came for, you shall be disappointed.

This was an odd weekend for me. The good and the bad.

The good was that I had Friday off. This was because I was supposed to have plans for this weekend. A Hackensaw Boys concert that didn't come off (the club closed down!), and a weekend of lazing around with my long-lost cousin Jacob. Even though the concert was canceled, I had hopes of going to R'noke anyway and still lazing. However, Jacob called and was sick. She said she felt like shit, but offered to still go, but as she was sick with the same strain of crud I fought for six weeks and have just finally gotten over, I passed. I told her I loved her dearly, but didn't want to be quarantined in a room with her for two days. She understood.

Instead, I spent my Friday off - almost all day of it - working in the yard of the Poderosa. That would be the lower forty, or in my case, the lower one. It's a small yard. I'd mowed on Thursday, and Friday I wed and fed (is that the past-tense of using Weed & Feed?), then hit my flower bed to pull out the dying daffodils I hate with ever fiber of my being. Now my bed is ready to plant flowers I like much better, sturdier flowers that are easy to take care of.

I also have new fencing for the flower bed, in fact I have two kinds. I bought one kind and then found another I liked better. I'm awash in fences over here. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, because both kinds are in the back of podmobile2, and for some reason, the back hatch of podmobile2 won't open. It's just stuck. There is no way to open it with the key, there's no keyhole, no button from the inside that does it, the only way to open it is with the remote control opener. That opener will open nigh-on every door on my car but the back hatch. So not only can I not store groceries and large items there, but I can't get out the stuff that's in there now.

Podmobile2 is turning out not to be the trusty, stalwart, valiant friend that original podmobile was. Well, was until his steering wheel came off.

So Friday night I was way tired, and chilled around the house some, hoping to get out and have a nice rest of the weekend, Mr M took pity on me and invited me to B'burg, but things went very awry when I spent the entire damn day Saturday - I mean, from 8am to 8pm - waiting for my plumber.

He never arrived. And tomorrow I'm finding a new plumber.

So Saturday night was mainly drinking coffee, watching a movie, and welcoming a new member of the household.

However.

To tell you about that, I have the saddest of news to report. Yes, the lowlight of my week (which up until then had been the fact that the lawn mower I fixed myself last week broke again) happened yesterday.

As I said, I was mowing on Thursday and doing other work on Friday. My "yard outfit" had gotten mighty dirty, and in all those hours of waiting for the plumber to come yesterday, I did a hefty load of laundry. Round about 4:00 I started the task of loading the wet clothes into the dryer. One handful, fine, another handful, great.... Then I looked down into the washing machine.

And there laid my iPod.

My wonderful and beloved iPod, my surprise Christmas present from Mr M in 2006, my constant car and exercise companion. I didn't realize he was still in the pocket of those yard work pants. But he was, and there he laid, on a mountain of wet clothes, like the dead hero in an opera.

When you see a sight like that, you tend to do odd things. I pulled the iPod out of the machine and immediately tried to turn him on. No go. Then I - and it's embarrassing, but true - tried to give him the kiss of life. I went to his little usb hole and blew into it. I was thinking if he was water-logged, I could blow the water out and all would be well. Of course, now I realize how stupid that was, but I was desperate.

I loved that iPod. But he was dead.

And there was nothing to do but go to the store and buy another iPod. And so I grabbed my envelope that held most of my Christmas bonus, which I'd been saving for a rainy day, and which was going to be my weekend trip money, and headed out. I got a new iPod. And still have $90 of the bonus left, which is nice, but this new iPod just doesn't have the character of the old one. The old one was slim, long, lithe. The new generation iPods are short and squat. Believe me, I have enough short and squat in my life. But this one has more space in it and plays movies and videos, even though I'd never do that, I mean, who wants to watch a movie on an iPod? What am I, sixteen years old?

Anyway, Saturday night became Load New Music Into the iPod night as well.

But before that happened, we had a little service for my old trusty friend.
















A lot of the household gadgets showed up. The old digital camera, well, the new one did too, but he was getting the picture. The portable CD player, my metronome, a remote control came as the representative for all nine of my remotes, the Flip showed up, the new iPod was there as a show of respect, the portable cassette recorder made an appearance, as did the armband iPod holder, who, in a fit of grief cried out, "Why? Why? Had you been in me this never would have happened!"

Old iPod was laid out nicely, and everyone said he looked very natural.




















And when my metronome did a eulogy about how he liked to keep time with old iPod's music, well, the cassette recorder just couldn't help himself and lost control.






















It was a lovely service.

I went to B'burg this afternoon for a few duets and dinner with Mr M and the DeepFatFriar, and new iPod served me well, though I just can't get used to his new shape. A honeymoon period, I think.

And then back home. Now it's trash time, and getting ready for tomorrow.

Sorry about the recipe. Hopefully it shall return next time.

Happy week.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* There is a new movie at the Comfy Chair Cinema! Hey, did you like "The Yodel of Love" a few weeks back? Then you'd better head over there right this minute to check out the new feature, "The Yodel of Love, Pt 2," or "It's a Wonderful Pickle."
* By the by, the old iPod is lying in state on my television this week. If you'd like to pay your respects, come on over.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Michelle said...

I take it you didn't have the warranty? I'm very sorry for your loss!

9:18 PM  

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