An Unusually Productive Day

I have to admit, most days are spent preparing lunch and eating it while reading the newspaper, doing general daily things (blogging and helping the cats visit their friends' blogs, cleaning litter boxes, letting the cats in and out, playing with them, watching science/nature/politic news...  I do a few errands once per week (groceries, hardware, and odds&ends).  At this time of year, there is nothing to be done in the garden.  I often sleep late ( a pleasure earned by retirement - I got up at 5 AM and returned home at 6 PM for 35 years, so I plan to sleep late for 35 years to catch up) .

So today was a good day.  I was up an hour early, ate lunch faster than usual and took a look at the basement.  Oh boy, there's a year's worth of work.  But I got a good start on it...

First, I collected all the plastic 6-packs I grow plants from seeds in, filled up the laundry tub, added some bleach, and set them all in to soak old dirt loose for 4 hours.  All the damaged ones went into a bag for disposal or recycling. 

Second, took the two 35 pound tubs of new kitty litter and divided them among 7 smaller 12 pound plastic containers from a previous brand (easier to pour from). 

Third, my car battery dies randomly every few months (dealer says the battery is good and I must be leaving a door slightly unlatched to keep the internal lights on.  *I* say I have learned to watch the car EVERY TIME until the internal lights go out AND I check every door every time) - but I can't PROVE that).  So I keep a marine battery in the back of the car.  I used it yesterday, so I recharged it.

Fourth, had some caladium bulbs in planters and they needed to be removed from soil and dried out in cool (but above 50 degree temps).  I have more of them in lager planters I brought into the basement, but they need to dry out more.  Washed soil off the saved ones and set them to dry.

Fifth, shook the soil out of the soaked plastic planting cells in the laundry tub, rinsed them carefully,  and stacked them up in rotation to dry over a heavy towel on the top of the washing machine.  Next laundry day is 10 days, so they will be thoroughly dried to be stack together tightly for storage until January (when the whole planting season starts again - cant wait).

Sixth, collected all used dry potting soil into a big trash barrel for use with established houseplants and transplanted vegetables.

Studied the whole-house humidifier again.  It seems too dry in the bedroom at night.  I don't get static shocks like I once did (there was a time when I could get the fluorescent lamp on my headboard to glow when I touched it and stroking cat fur caused sparks).  But I'm on my 2nd humidifier.  The first was a sponge drum that rotated through a water tray and worked great.  But it (grungily) fell apart after 3 years.  But it worked great, (45% humidity)  The current one drips water down a honeycomb  panel and isn't worth a bowl of water on a heating vent for 3 years.  The highest relative humidity I can get with this one is 25%.  I need to get a drum-type again.  But the opening to the airflow it wants is leess than the current one, so I need to srew some sheet metal over the existing opening and then cut it to size.    It would be nice if there were standard sizes for those things.

Seventh, pumped up bicycle tires, wheelbarrow tires, mower tires, and handtruck tires.  I have an air compressor, but the darn thing is too big to move around conventiently.  I only use that on the car tires and I've never used it as intended. with impact wrenches and spay painting.  Sad.

Eighth, swept most of the basement floor.  I hate the noise of the shop-vac.  Plus it tends to sucky-stick flat on the cement floor.  I tried to epoxy some 1/8" wood spacers under the wide nozzle corners once but it didn't work.  Must try a new way. 

Ninth, took off the sprayer on the watering tripod I made a few years ago.  The round spray doesn't allow as mush water as a different kind I have  (more horizontal) that works better for my flowerbeds.  Measured the size hold-down clamps I needed.    Have a good list of stuff I need from Home Depot.

I decided that was enough for one day...

Remembering John F Kennedy

I spent all of Friday watching specials on TV.  And I was still too worked up to write yesterday.  On this 50th anniversary of his assassination, maybe I'm ready...  I'll try...

I was 13 when JFK was killed in Dallas.  Home life was good, private life was good (as good as it could be for a 13 yer old boy trying to "figure out things").

But, as they say, everyone of a certain age remembers that day. I do too, generally.

But what struck me as I watched the various TV shows detailing the events, I do not remember them as accurately as I thought.  Over 50 years, some recollections are just plain wrong and some are "iffy" at best.

The major details are accurate, the ones we all know from history.  Date, time, place, shooter, etc.  But my specific personal recollections are in doubt.  Things that I thought were factual, aren't (and I'm not talking about conspiracy theories here.

I have the clearest recollection of looking at the school "public address" (PA) box at the top of the cinder block wall above the teacher suddenly announcing that the President had been shot and killed in Dallas Texas.  The PA box was light wood colored, square with rounded corners, black cloth behind a open wooden grid.  It was angled slightly downward.  We were told that those of us who walked or rode our bikes to school should immediately return home.  Those who took busses should line up at our usual spots and wait for the buses to arrive.

I rode a bike to school, so I went straight home. 

And yet, my memory has the time and location wrong in some way.  In November 1963, I lived in Maryland.  When my memory looks out the classroom windows when I hear the announcement, I am seeing the previous year-before Virginia school I attended then (we moved around every few years).  I can't have been in Virginia in November 1963.

And the time is wrong.  My memory says we got the announcement just after lunch, about 12:30.  That was Eastern Time.  That isn't possible.  JFK died at 1 PM Central Time, 2 PM Eastern Time.  It took a while to get the news spread, and the school administrators could not have reacted immediately  (needing to arrange buses, plan students leaving, etc).  It had to be at least 3 PM before the announcement came over the PA system.

That's a shock to my memory.  Wrong place, wrong time.

The other memory problem is that I recall being at my grandparants house watching the funerial ceremonies for several days.  The memories are VERY clear.  My gramma was crying, my grampa was watching intently (but not crying), my dad was not very interested (at least not watching the small TV).

But wait, how did I get from Maryland to New England?  I'm not sure I was really there.  Would my parents have taken me out of school to go watch the funeral services in New England?  That was a very serious trip in 1963!  But the personal memories are SO strong.  Maybe we did go to New England for family grieving.  But how can I know?

Gramma and Grampa are long gone, Mom is dead, Dad can't remember where he lived last year.  I'm the eldest child; my younger siblings can't know (at 11 and 7).  Its not like there are any records I can check now.  My parents never kept a journal of events.  The only thing I have are old photographs and no photos I have show anything about that time at home or on travel.

I have clear memories of there being nothing on TV for several days except JFK's death and funeral march.  That has to come from somewhere, but whether from Maryland or New England, I cannot tell.

It bothers me greatly that I can't determine the accuracy of my memories of the events then.  Some MUST be false, some MAY be false, some are accurate.  But there comes a time when you can't know which are which.

And I don't mean to say that my memory is failing exactly.  Its more that the ongoing historical shows over the years have caused some "adjustments" to my memories.  I do understand how that works.  But it is sad to see the proof of that the past few days.  It is a shock to me.

And one of the TV shows about JFK's death was about personal recollections of "Where You Were".  I have to wonder about the accuracy of THEIR recollections.  Some of them were my age or younger.

I DO know that, even at age 13, I knew something horrible had happened and that history had changed (I was big into history at a young age and also reading alternate universe fiction).  JFK's death probably had some major part of why I studied "Government and Politics" in college.

Its odd to think that, had Oswald missed his target, I might have majored in history and had an entirely different career.  But I was considering mechanical engineering too.  Maybe I'd be designing a Tesla car today...

Maybe JFK is why I love alternate history stories.  Just think of a world where he wasn't killed and a story starts "The visit to Dallas was a great success, won him Texas, and led to the second Kennedy term..."

But I'm wandering.  JFK's assassination was a major event in my young life that has had serious repercussions through the years, and I have found I misremember parts of those personal recollections.  It's disturbing, possible inevitable, and maybe important or not.

Are YOUR memories of the event (should you be of that age) as accurate as you think they are?

Suddenness

Wow, the "10% chance of rain tonight suddenly became pounding on the window! 

And I MEAN "suddenly".  And "pounding".  From nothing it went from not raining to nearly beating the windows in!  Weird!

Computer Room Rearrangement

After falling over in the chair slipping off the plywood base onto the carpet, I decided to rearrange things. 

First rule, make the newer Mac computer table and the older PC be in swivel-range of the computer chair! without getting the chair wheels on the carpet.

1.  Move the 4-drawer file cabinet out of the way.
2.  Move the stored folding chairs out of the way to another room.
3.  Move the old PC table into the way.

I'm glad I have a hand-truck.  That allowed we to move the heavy file cabinet awy from the current spot.  Keep in mind that I was moving stuff around IN the room, so space was tight. 

I moved the 4 drawer file cabinet out of the way.  Then I vacuumed that spot.  Hint:  Rub/Twist  your shoes over the spots where the carpet is crushed down and it raises the pile back up rather well.

Vaccuumed that spot again with the vaccuum-brusher on.  Can hardly see the impressions of the file cabinet.  Connected a multi-plug outlet to the unused battery back-up plug fr the Mac.  Stuffed the wire into the the edge of the carpet to keep from tripping on it.  C0nnected that to another surge supressor to add protection AND reach the new PC table.

I know have the Mac and the old PC set up on tables so that all I need to do is swivel in he chair on the same base.  The least likely thing was that my 4'x4' plywood base would work for both the Mac and PC computer tables but it has.

The old big file cabinet and the chairs used to be opposite my Mac.  The chairs are now in the cat room (they like to walk on the tops of the chairs) .  The big file cabinet is now next to the door.  The little file cabinet is now next to the PC for the boom box to sit on (and the spacing of the little 2 drawer file cabinet next to the wall with the card table with the PC means that both computers are exactly opposite.

I think I'm pretty safe from the chair tipping over when it hits the carpet now.  I should have done this before.  It wasn't the chair's fault that it tipped.  It was that the small wheels were hitting carpet becausr my Mac and PC tables were not aligned.

"Its a poor mechanic who blames his tools".  I was wrong to blame the chair.  But when you make mistakes, you just figure out the problem and fix them.  So I've fixed it. 

The "fix" was to get the computers connected in chair support base and that I could just swivel 180 from Mac to PC.. 

Pictures...

Note the new unclawed chair!  It "only" took an hour to assemble.  The second arm took half the time because the hole in the arm didn't match up to the  hole in the back.  I had to loosen almost all the screws in the bottom to give "just enough" slack to get it finished.  Instructions on everything is awful...

And now that I moved the tall file cabinet to the doorway, I need to decorate it it in some way.  Suggestions?  I'm thinking "flatcats", but I'm not locked into that.  A fancy towel might be good, or a poster.  Or other...

Fun With Monitors

Soooo, I bought this new monitor for the old PC I use only to play Civilization 2 (and maybe retrieve some old files and photos from AND it has MS Paint which I've always liked for creating greeting cards).  At 19.5" diagonal, and 16:9 aspect, its bigger than the monitor on my "real" computer (the fast internet one).  But I needed one that had the older-style connections (male, D, 15 pin plug, so I didn't have a lot of choices). 

Opening the box, I found warranties in several languages, a page of disclaimers, a page of warnings, and a CD.  No set up instructions...  Those were on the CD.  Um, how do you read a CD if you dont have a working monitor?  How often do YOU replace a working monitor with a new one?  Plus there was a page that said if the monitor did not receive a working video input it would turn on.  I had to think about that later...

Fortunately, the monitor was good for both PCs and Macs, so I could load the CD in the Mac while I set up the monitor on the CD.  The CD PDF manual was pretty pathetic.  Even though I could choose among languages to read it in, there were mostly just pictogram instructions.  One instruction said to repeatedly press the f8 button while booting up to get to a "safe screen" and and a page of possible ways to get to setting up the monitor.

Nothing happened...  Which could either mean the plugs weren't connecting, the monitor wasn't compatible, I had a "too old" version of Windows (and how can you find out if there is no monitor to click on the Windows icon to see what Windows version you have?), and how do you know the electrical cable is working if the monitor won't even light up?

BLEH!  It was a real Catch-22*

Fortunately I saw a PFD-manual reference to a small LED light that would show a working connection to the computer.  I didn't find one, but feeling around the bottom of the monitor frame I found a  pinhead-sized plastic button hidden about as well as possible.  I pressed it.  The monitor lit up (HOUSTON, WE HAVE LIFT-OFF).

The brief printed guidelines were COMPLETELY false.  NONE of the setup instructions had anything functional about them.  The manufacturer probably fired the person who wrote the instructions for the 3-generation previous version and never had them rewritten.

The instructions DID have some useful guidelines for setting the screen resolution and aspect choices.  IF you figured out that they were in the wrong order.  If I was new to this stuff, I would have returned the monitor to the store as "non-functioning"...

Then I turned on the Civilization 2 game I use the PC for.  The colors were HORRIBLE!  Dark, blurry, and the text was unreadable.  OK, little habit here.  I often just squat in front of the computer rather than bother with a chair.  I often did my computer work at the office and home squatting, standing, etc because I am restless and hate to just SIT.  But when you stand or sit a lot, squatting  puts a different tension on the leg muscles that can be relaxing.

So image my surprise when I stood up and the computer colors suddenly became perfect, then "too light".  This monitor is apparently very direct "square-on" to be color-correct".  I was angry!  I went to the Mac and loaded up a full screen color photo and tried the same "from squatting to standing" examination.

I was shocked!  It did the same thing.  Then, with some testing, I realized that the situations where I squatted to use the Mac were for reading email and that is in black and white.  When I am doing lengthier work, I sit.  Try it yourself; with a full color photo on the screen look at it from below to middle to above.  Do the colors change severely?  Mine do.

So, when I use the old PC to play the Civilization 2 game, I will be sitting in a chair with the monitor aimed directly at me for proper colors.

It shouldn't have been that hard.  Of all the parts of a desktop computer, the one part that OUGHT to be utterly "plug and play" is the monitor.  If it doesn't just "come on" automatically, its really frustrating,  And useless.


*  If you don't know what a "Catch-22" is, its a situation where one is trapped between conflicting rules from which there is no escape.  Catch-22 is a novel by Joseph Heller about absurd situations in WWII.  The title was originally Catch-18 but was changed because of a then-recently published book Mila 18, then changed from Catch-11 because of a movie Ocean's Eleven, then changed from Catch-17 because of the movie Stalag 17, then not Catch-14 because "14" wasn't considered a "funny number", finally landing on Catch-22 for the duplication of "2" which seemed to fit the duplication concept AND "2" standing for the deja vu situations in the book.  I knew some of that, but got more from Wikipedia...  Didn't want to do a "Rand Paul" here.

Gripe, Lather, Repeat

Yes, I've been complaining lately.  And I'm going to do it again.  It's a bit long...

Electrical -  Sometimes I can't even win using AngiesList.

1.  The first visit had a guy over to add a downstair's light and replace an upstair's light.  He did the downstair's light.  I told him to wire it directly to the upstair's light, but he insisted it was better to wire it to the downstair's switch (of a 3-way switch).  Afterwards, he show me it worked.  Later, I found it only worked from the downstairs switch.  From the middle and upper switches, the lights went on and off oppositely.  He said the big lamp I wanted to replace in the upper stairs needed some nuts to "tighten things up".  And he said the heavy replacement light (a tiffany style knockoff) would need 2 people.  He also looked at the front door motion-detectotrlight and said it need to be replaced due to rust.

2.  So I worked on the "tiffany" lamp.  I found a few nuts at Home Depot that tightened it all up fine.  Then I called the electrical folks to come back with 2 people and fix the problems.  Two guys came by.  They said the big tiffany light wiring was not to code and that it needed a "vintage lamp restorer" to redo everything.  They undid the weird opposite on/off problem so that I was back to the original top light only condition.  They begged off wiring the downstair's light directly to the upper one, saying that, since they would by installing the large tiffany light the next visit anyway, it would be better to do both parts then.  OK...  They also replaced the old motion detector with a new one I had bought.  As one guy did that, he asked about the options (when and for how long the floodlights would come on.  I told him "only when the motion detector comes on, and only for about 10 minutes".  It was daylight, but he said he covered the detector and tested it and it was working as requested,

3.  The nearest "vintage lamp restorer" was an hour away.  When I brought the tiffany lamp to him, he admired it, but said "any qualified electrician should have been able to do this work", and "you should fire them for not just doing it".  Well, I wasn't going to get in the middle of an argument that might require me to make several more hour long trips, so I had him just do the work.

4.  I retrieved the rebuilt tiffany lamp and contacted the electrical company to come and install it and also wire the downstair's light to the tiffany one as recommennded by the 2nd guys in #2.  I specifically reminded the electrical company that the previous guys had said it would take 2 people to install the heavy lamp, plus that they recommended it be wired directly to the bottom light.  Plus, that a hallway ceiling light had died and needed repair (the circular fluorescent bulb only came on halfway).

5.  Team #3 arrived.  The service manager at the electrical company had called just before then and told me that he was reducing the hourly rate to $90 per hour from $110 because of all the trouble in the work and he was sending a "best" team.  OK.  I knew there was trouble right from the start.  They would not wire the lower light to the upper one.  They hadn't brought their "28 drill bit" to get through the wall bases (and I'm not sure why that was MY problem).  But they said everything would work if they wired the bottom light to the top switch.  OK. 

Why are electricians determined not to EVER go up into an attic?  They simply refused to do it!  One guy DID go up in the attic because he was simply forced to to attach 2 screws for a support bar over the heavy tiffany lamp.  And he was pissed about doing that.  Really, he said he was.

6.  Team #3 did wire the bottom light to the top switch and it does work properly.  Both the top and bottom lights go on and off together.  But now I have a 3rd cutout of my drywall I have to repair.  If they had simply fished the wire from the bottom light to the top light. I wouldn't have had the drywall cutout to repair in the main living area.

7.  Plus, I asked them to look at the hallway light.  As they did so, there was a snap sound and a piece of plastic fell on the floor.  They said the existing fluorescent light couldn't be repaired and should be replaced.  OK.  I CAN actually do that.  I forgot to ask them to fix the settings on the motion detector to the settings I originally requested.  My fault.

8.  So I looked at the hallway light after they left to measure the size I needed to cover the unpainted part of the ceiling.  I found that the snapped piece of plastic was a part were the lamp needed to be attached.  The guy had tried to tighten the old light too hard and had broken it off.  I can now try to attach the new (very lightweight) light I bought today or I can have some electrician come out and replace the electrical junction box to allow for thew usual 2 attachment bolts to go in.

9.  And then the bill arrived.  It charged me for the same original work of installing the bottom stair's light that the first guy had charged me for, that the 2nd team had undone the bad work of, and tht the 3rd team had finally done correctly (even though not as I desired). I had to argue with them for 10 minutes about the fact that some of the work was previously paid-for .  And then, all I got was "I'll knock off half the labor hours "TO RESOLVE THIS SITUATION".  But not at the reduced hourly cost.  *I* accepted "to resolve the situation".

I MAY contact the original electrical company, try to do it myself, or contact a different electrical company.

And that is just PART of this past month's annoyances...

A.  On October 1st, I damaged my left arm ulner nerve.  That's the one that controls your little finger and half the ring finger.  It happened before.  20 years ago, I was a passenger on a car that hit a deer.  Two days later, my left 2 fingers were numb.  I thought it was carpal tunnel syndrome (I worked on a computer all day at work and sometimes at home at games).  After some awful electrical acupuncturish tests up one arm and down the other and into my neck (until I finally went into cold clammy shock and passed out), it was determined that there was a minor fracture of the 5th or 6th neck vertebrae.  The prescription was resting the neck and taking ibuprophen at double the recommended rate.  The problem went away in 4 to 6 weeks (can't recall exactly).

B.  On October 1st my computer chair fell over when I slid it off the plywood roller base and the wheels caught on the carpet.  On the same night, I had sat at my computer resting my head on my left elbow for 12 hours while engaged in a strategic computer game.  And immediately the next morning, I engaged in some rather violent shovel work (like digging up sod.  So I don't know the cause.  But I treated it the same.  Until that didn't help after 5 weeks now.

C.  I lost a filling in a tooth 7 years ago.  It hasn't bothered me.  But now there is a slight pain in the far back of my jaw in that side.  Coincidence, I hope, as it feels more like there is a chewed off fingernail bit stuck back there.  And there is a slight infrequent ear ache on that side.  But I get those infrequently too, so it could all be coincidence.

D.  But after the 3rd time my computer chair tossed me down this month (and it hasn't happened before) and I had to put the chair top on the wheeled bottom, I got pissed.  I took the parts out onto the deck and pounded them a bit.

E.  I've mentioned that the old monitor on the old PC has been acting up lately.  In randomly turns on and off.  Something wrong with the on/off button.  I took a small C clamp to the on button and it stayed on for weeks.  But lately it got worse and failed completely.  Same night the chair tipped over the 3rd time, I had to keep adjusting the C clamp every few minutes.  Then when it started going wrong  every few seconds, I disconnected it, took it out to the deck and threw it down hard.  Well, now I know what the insides of a monitor look like.

F.  It is satisfying breaking material objects that stop working (I never act out at living things of course).  Now I have a new (better) computer chair and a bigger monitor.  I expect them both to work fine for years.

G.  Now all I need to do is get my Ulner Nerve fixed so that my to left lingers don't feel numb...  And get that that hallway ceiling light replaced.  Oh yeah, my Photoshop Elements 6 disappeared when I downloaded Mac's OS Maverick...  And there is a new groundhog under the old toolshed.

OUCH

I have 2 computers set up.  One is the usual Mac I use to post with.  But last month, I got an old PC up and running and set it up on a card table behind me.

I have a 4'x4' plywood base so the computer chair rolls on it easily at the Mac table.  And that's where the problem started.  The plywood base doesn't quite reach to the new PC card table.  I have to roll it onto some carpet.  Not usually a problem. 

So I moved from the Mac (where I was downloading the new Maverick OSX) and playing Civilization II on the PC, and I failed to negotiate the drop off the plywood correctly and leaned a bit too far over...

Found myself on the floor with the chair in two pieces.  Naturally, I focussed on the chair.  Apparently the sitting part of chair can just lift off the wheeled base, but it took a few minutes to see that (I don't often fall off of chairs and few of THEM come apart).  Actually, I spent some time looking for a loose set screw I assumed was there to prevent exactly this from happening.

There wasn't one.  So I set the sitting part back on the wheeled part and sat in it carefully.  It seemed as solid as ever.  So I just had better be careful wheeling it off the plywood "carpet mat".  I decided that was a good time to call it quits for the night and went to bed.

I'm glad I have synthetic product carpet in the computer room.   The next morning, I discovered that I had also flipped the ashtray over (yes, I smoke) as I fell off the chair.  A lit cigarette fell onto the carpet.  Well, when you are suddenly falling, minor details escape your notice.  As in, I can't recall what song was playing on the radio, what time it was, and whether I had a lit cigarette.

I had a lit cigarette.  It melted an inch long spot in the carpet.  "Darn" (I used other words at the time, but I won't ruin your innocent ears by being specific now).

Fortunately, there was no serious damage to me or anything.  But I sure will remember the awful sudden feeling of falling over in the chair!  Five wheels on the chair and 3 of them did NOT work in my favor, LOL!

Fun With Lamps

Three years ago, I inherited a knock-off (but good quality vintage) "tiffany" lamp.

I dithered for 3 years about what to do with it (Living Room or Stairwell).  I finally decided on stairwell. 

First, I called an electrical company I found on Angie's List.  I explained about hanging the lamp in the ceiling over the stairwell to replace an existing working light and that it was heavy and awkward (so it might require 2 people).  I also requested them to install a regular ceiling light at the bottom of the stairs wired into the same 3-way switch as the top one, and that I needed the outside motion detector repaired.  They sent 1 person.  He looked at the tiffany lamp and said it was missing some hanging parts.  Well, I hadn't examined it that carefully, and it was a bit loose.  So I had him look at the motion detector.  He said the detector parts had rusted and it needed to be replaced.  So I had him install the small ceiling lamp at the bottom of the stairs.  I thought it should simply be wired directly to the upper lamp (where the tiffany lamp would go later, but he said it would be easier to just wire it into the bottom stair switch.  OK, whatever works… 

The new bottom light seemed to work fine.  Both upper and bottom lights came on and wet off with the switch.  And the electrician said it would take 2 people to hang the tiffany lamp (agreeing with what I had told them to begin with).  But the next day I discovered that using the top switch caused one to come on while the other went off.  I called the electrical company back and explained the situation.  Meanwhile, I had found that the hanging parts on the tiffany lamp seemed merely loose and with an additional nut, tightened it all up nicely.  So they sent out 2 guys a few days later.

I had a new motion detector for them to install as well.  First, they looked at the tiffany lamp and declared it "not to code".  They said it needed a complete new "canopy attachment" and rewiring, and that they didn't do that kind of work, suggesting a vintage lamp restoration company in Annapolis.  I later googled "vintage lamp restoration" and sure enough Annapolis was closest (but not exactly next door).  Meanwhile, they undid the bad wiring job of the first guy, and installed the new motion detector outside.  I suggested that they wire the new bottom light to the top light then, but they said it would mean doing the same wiring work on the top light twice and cost more.  So I agreed to wait until they could install the tiffany lamp at the same time.

So I brought the lamp to Annapolis Lighting for repair.  The repair manager told me that any qualified electrician should have been able to make the attachment and wiring repairs, but he would do it.  Still, that was an hour drive both to and from there, and I had to do it twice (delivery and pickup).  Meanwhile, my hallway light died.  I replaced the circular fluorescent bulb and then the starter, but it still didn't work, so there was new work to be done.

A new pair of guys arrived today.  The original one was fired for incompetency, and the second team had been promoted to commercial work.  The new pair did know what they were doing.  One went to work on getting the bottom stair light wired in properly.  I still think it made more sense to wire the bottom light directly up to the top one, but he chose to wire it to the primary switch (which was at the top of the stairs). 

The other guy tackled the tiffany lamp installation.  He was convinced that it could just be attached to the existing electric box already there, but I told him I wanted a better support (knowing how my builder cut corners).  Sure enough, when he removed the existing ceiling light, there was just a plastic electric box that he pulled out of the attic joist by hand.  He had to get into the attic (they do almost anything to avoid that) to install a support bar and new electric box.   In spite of the idea that both of them were there to cooperate in installing the heavy tiffany lamp, the 1 guy did it himself.  He had to stand on the very top and almost losing his grip on it once, he got it installed properly.  The 2nd guy got the bottom light wired. 

 It all worked, and we 3 tested all the 3 switches in combinations to make sure there was none of that 1 on and 1 off problem from before. 

Then came a bill for $440.  I pointed out that I had already paid for that bottom light being wired properly.  So I had to talk to their service manager.  He pointed out that he was already offerring me a discount on the hourly work.  I pointed out that the initial paid work included "install new light at bottom of stairs and run wire".  He said the first guy did the invoice wrong and the price only included installing the new light.  When I asked who would think anyone would install a light WITHOUT attaching it to a switch, he babbled for a moment, and I added that it was a quoted price and I paid for it at the time (so one of the guys here today was merely correcting the bad work of the original guy and they couldn't charge me for that twice).  When he said I had requested 2 people, I told him that was what HIS people had suggested.

The $440 came down to $275.  The service manager allowed that he was doing it "to resolve the situation"  (as if he was doing me a great favor by not charging me twice for an initially botched wiring job).  I don't really care how he accounts for his charges, just that the final charge was only for the work installing the tiffany lamp and it seemed a fair charge.

I asked the electrician here how HE would interpret "install new light at bottom of stairs and run wire", and he laughed saying he never argues with the service manager.  I understand; to the electrician (a sub-contractor), I'm not the customer, the service manager is.

But everything is fine now and I am thrilled with the tiffany lamp…

I haven't decided how I will review the work on Angie's List yet.  They botched the first wiring, but made up for it immediately.  The tiffany lamp wiring and hanging hardware wasn't their fault.  And while they got confused about the costs involved in the 3 visits, they did make the charges reasonable after a brief discussion.  And the work WAS finally done well.

I can't give them perfect scores, but I won't flame them either.

But I LOVE the new staircase lamp there.

More Movie (The Hobbit)

And I wasn't expecting this.  Verizon called and I don't usually to bother to listen to telephone offers but that started with one I could tolerate.  They were offerring increased internet connection speed for $10 per month.  Forever.  Well, I don't really feel a need for that.  Internet speed is pretty much instantaneous here.  But maybe not forever, and I am considering a mobile device.  But I told them I wasn't really very interested.

They tossed in HBO.  Hmmm...  I don't really watch movies very often and don't miss any HBO shows.  But I DO like Bill Maher and seldom see him.  And the offer had no contract requirement and no equipment installation.

I said OK.  I cant say that I really notice any difference in internet speed.  But I saw the movie "The Hobbit" was on, so I watched it out of curiousity.  Why not, I only got up at 5 pm (played Civilization II from 10 pm to 11 am), so the day was pretty much wasted already.  Keep in mind that (in my opinion) the book "The Hobbit' was to 'Lord of the Rings' as ''Dick Jane and Sally' was to 'Hamlet.

I don't have a history of admiring the way movies translate books, and 'The Hobbit' was a pretty poor book to begin with...

But "Oh WOW"!  I may have to change my opinion of movies made from books.  Every one I've seen made in the past decade has been outstanding.  I can still complain that they don't follow the original books very well, but they sure do make a good movie from them.

I have to credit planned sequels and big budgets.  It used to be that science fiction/fantasy movies were produced on low budgets and the producers crushed whatever story there was into a 90 minute movie.  Not any more, apparently.

So, "The Hobbit' was only half the book (and I'll say again that the book makes me cringe compared to 'LOTR' and the 'Silmarillion'), but the producers/directors/whoevers really did a superb job with this one.  In the scene where the Giant  Eagles took the whole Gandalfian group away from the goblins, I was just gob-smacked.  Admittedly, special effects really make a difference.  Eagles with a 50' wingspan are unusual.

My criticisms of the movie include the really human-looking dwarves (in spite of the fancy hair and beards which were well done) compared to the true-to-book description of Gimli of LOTR, the attack on the campfire rolls by the dwarves, and the apparent confusion between goblins and orcs.  I could get into details about Bilbo's "orc-detecting sword" glowing when there were only goblins around, but I'll spare you.

But as a movie when you don't know the book (or if book/movie differences don't bother you)?  It's a great watch!  It kept me in my chair for almost 3 hours, and that's not easy to do...  I'm looking forward to part 2.

And as a very minor matter, I miss commercials.  Sometimes you just have to pee.  I may have to just record the few movies I want to watch before watching them just so I can put them on pause when nature calls.sometimes.  LOL!

I Watched Two Movies Recently

Which may not seem odd to many of you, but I generally don't watch movies in theaters or at home.  Most are about "human drama" which I don't need more of, action movies wore me out after Rocky and Diehard, and most sci-fi movies weren't faithful to the books or comic strips.  Especially the sci-fi.  Seriously, I'm old enough to have seen mostly bad sci movies when younger.

Most of my life, favorite sci fi comic books or real books have been made into truly dreadful movies.  Have you ever seen "Howard The Duck"?  A thoughtful mature social-satire comic was turned into a Grade D farce.  And the first Dune movie was little better. 

So I've been pleased the past decade or so as sci-fi and comic book characters have been turned into quality movies.  The second version of Dune was suberb, Siderman was very good, and the movie industry has done a decent job since.  They still mess up the characters badly (Lord of the Rings was most accurate).

But while Marvel comic characters have done reasonably well (being written toward college students), DC comic characters have generally not (Superman and Batman being exceptions).  So when I saw that Green Lantern was a movie on TV tonight, I cringed, but need something to watch while eating dinner.  Well, Green Lantern was probably one of the hokiest shallow undeveloped  characters DC comics ever created.  Really a magic ring lets you create anything you can imagine (no origin of the power or anything.  That's 1940s sci-fi stuff...

Imagine my surprise when I enjoyed the movie.  There was actually character development!  There was a theme.  There was even some philosophical discussion (the difference between fearlessness and courage for example).  I enjoyed it.

And there was a scene which I absolutely positively delighted in.  Green Lantern touched down on the balcony of his love interest (like in Superman).  She was amazed at his mystery and power (just like in Superman).  Then she looked at him, sniffed him, and identified him at once (unlike Superman).  I cracked up!  I don't know what writer got that scene in the movie, but I sure hope s/he got a raise and a bonus.  I flashed Two Thumbs Up and decided to watch the rest of the movie.   The rest was Ok, concluding with a reasonably good fight and a clever resolution based on information offerred earlier in the movie.

But I only watched Green Lantern because I had watched an anti-hero movie a few days ago.  Hancock.  If you haven't seen it, Hancock is the only superperson anywhere.  He is no hero.  He is lazy, irresponsible, drunk, stupid, carelessly destructive, and amnesiac.

In fact, he is only named "Hancock" because the hospital told him to put his "John Hancock" on the forms and he thought they knew that was his name (note to foreign readers - a "John Hancock" is a generic term for a signature because the real John Hancock wrote his name so LARGE on the Declaration Of Independence)

I would have thought about the amnesiac part earlier, but I assumed that some OTHER character would come along to straighten him out.  Well, actually I was right about that, but sure not in the way I expected.  There was no character to "straighten him out" by being stronger and wiser" (deus ex machia). 

Hancock goes through life stopping minor crimes by destroyed massive amounts of property just because that's the easiest way to do it, acting like an idiot physically and socially, and living a lonely boring life punctuated by violence.  The citizenry is thinking they might be better off without him but there is nothing they can do about him.  He is invulnerable and seemingly immortal.  He's sort of like the vigilante semi-crazed Batman with Superman powers, except that he doesn't seem to care about crime other than than that he gets to really beat up on the bad guys.

And then, oh so slowly, a past begins to emerge.  He begins to recognize that he is destructive.  The wife of his best friend turns out to be a superperson too.  Not different (ie, "feminine" powers),  to oppose Hancock; identical! 

After the obligatory fight scenes (equal to the last iota of energy) where they seem to destroy a large part of a city (after which it seemed to me that even Hancock looked around appalled), the truth starts to come out. 

Hancock first lived in ancient times, created by ancient deities.  Beings like him were created in pairs, male/female.  As they found each other, their powers waned so that after so many years they could live mortal lives and love, raise families, and finally die (often called the "mortals blessing" in mythology).  Hancock and Mary (the female superpower) were the last of the pairs. 

In a touching scene, she explains all his scars as examples of what happens when the two of them are close and their powers weaken.  Though nearly mortal, he fought off swordsmen in Sumeria (Persia?), saved her a few more times through history.  They always had to separate to regain their powers. 

But the last time they were together, he was injured so badly he was amnesiac, not eve remembering who he or Mary was.  She left him so he could survive, determined to stay away from him forever to keep him alive.

After getting in touch again (Hancock saves Mary's husband's life) the weakness begins again,  Hancock is shot in a minor robbery.  While stopping from (unexplained?) assassins from killing Hancock, Mary is mortally wounded.  Hancock (near death) manages to kill the assasins efficiently (throwing several out of high windows) and Mary's EKG flatlines.  Hancock understands what is happening and leaps out the high window himself to increase the distance between himself and Mary.

He survives the fall (barely) and so jumps further away, gaining strength as he gets further away.  Mary de-flatlines!  Her fingers twitch, she breathes again, she lives.  Her husband Ray (who understands everything by now) rushes to her side with the young daughter.  All is well in her world.

The resolution is basically that Hancock has learned responsibility, purpose, and control in line with his original created intent, and that Mary will have a temporary loving marriage with Ray.  That she and Hancock will have a new relationship in the future, and that Earth will have a superhero. 

I note (cautiously) that Hancock and Mary seem to have not had any children in the times they were together.  There might be an origin movie someday.

But it was sure a good movie.  And having watched only 2 movies in several years,  Those were good ones.