Twitter Vs Blogging

TWITTER:  "Got haircut.  Then went fud shping. Traffic!  Rainy today.  Took mins to put all fud away.  Fed cats.  Ltr, store calld about new TV dlvry tomrw!  Cnt waIT. 

BLOG:  Well I got up early today (early for ME anyway) and went off on errands.  First on the list was a haircut.  I wait too long sometimes.  The side hair was over my ears and the "back of the neck" hair was as long as my sideburns.  I was fortunate to catch the barber at the perfect time.  The only customer was getting out of the chair as I walked in.  No wait, and I HATE waiting.

I don't much like talking to barbers while they work because they usually have weird political or social ideas (like "The trucking industry is about to go on strike and we are only 3 days from starvation!").  But this one was a woman, so she asked about holidays, family, and pets.  I can deal with that.  She likes cats so I described mine and she described hers.   We had a wonderful short professional relationship just as we were done discussing our cats. 

The food shopping errand WAS fairly routine.  I go to a major grocery chain for most most stuff and then stop at a specialty market (Nick's of Clinton" for meats, deli, and some produce I know they always sell cheaper.  And I am loyal to them because they special order cases of an inexpensive wine for me that I really like ("Twisted Zin - made specifically from old Zinfandel grape vines - the large bottle [1.5 l] is only $10).  Find one somewhere and try it.

They also had filet mignon at only $9/lb, and they trim it carefully and cut it to any thickness you like.  I like 1.5".  It freezes well and I have one about once a week, so a whole filet lasts 2 months.  I also bought a pork butt.  It's a good cut to smoke or to roast at 250F all day to use in pork stews.

They also sell bags of large deheaded and deveined frozen shrimp at $8/lb and I love shrimp!  I make a GREAT cocktail sauce.  I haven't learned to make a great tartar sauce yet, but I am slowly getting better at it.  And they sell a very good basic cooked ham  sliced at the deli counter for only $3/lb.  It's better than anything I can find elsewhere for less than $6/lb.

At home, I unloaded the car.  Meat and milk bags first to get them refrigerated as fast as possible.  And into the refrigerator fast to keep the cats away from the meat.  Well, Marley and Iza actually.  Iza will explore interesting smells, but Marley is becoming more aggressive in searching for food.

In that regard, I give Marley all the food he will eat.  But as good the food as I give (and we are talking the quality cubed and minced Wellness canned) he seems to want more.  Not more in quantity; I think he misses live mice.  So he wants to steal food as a hunting response.  Winter is really keeping his outdoor time and mousie-catching time down. 

And by the way, those "experts" who say that kittens who aren't taught to hunt early never lear are full of "hooey".  Skeeter, Ayla, Iza and Marley were raised as indoor cats with no opportunity to hunt and each one of them gained the skills almost at once.   I can't claim that for LC (as good a mosuser as she became) because maybe she learned from Skeeter.  But the others really learned on their own and instinctively.

The food times today were unusually "according to expectations".  Ayla refused to eat until I put her bowl up on the top shoe rack AND closed the door so she could eat in peace.  Iza and Marley traded bowls in the kitchen several times ( gave then each a slightly different canned food and they couldn't decide whose was best.

I went to the HHGREGG store about the 80" Sharp LCD/LED HDTV and bought Friday to see what it would cost to return it. It looked great in the store (perhaps because they are careful to show pictures that make all the TVs look their best).  But when I watched it for a day, I was very unhappy.

Still pictures had blurs, talking people's lips had wavy lines around them, the colors washed out at the least angle of viewing, and there was little sense of depth to the picture.  I went to Best Buy first to see the Panasonic Plasmas sets they had (HHGREGG didn't carry Panasonic Plasma except one sowroom model that had been there over a year).

I was devastated to learn that Panasonic is leaving the Plasma TV business.  They say they just can't make money from them.  I also saw something called 4K imaging.  It IS impressive.  Instead of 1080 by 840 (just guessing) it has like 3600x1800 pixels (guessing), but the resoluton difference is great.  The picture is super-real.  But I'm not a first adaptor of new technologies.  I'll bet that in 5 years there is something else better than this particular version of 4k.  I remember Beta-Max that was better quality but failed to VCR.

Anyway HHGREGG wouldn't just take back the 80" Sharp LCD.  I could only exchange it for another HDTV or store credit they said.  Well, I can't imagine buying anything from them for $3300...  I looked at the top rated Consumer Reports models and thought the best picture I saw was on a Samsung PN64F8500 (which they didn't have) but they had a PN60F8500 rating 2nd and I doubt a 60" is very different from a 64" in the same 8500 series.

So it will be delivered here tomorrow.  I know I am going to like the plasma better than the LCD/LED!

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OK, now how did that BLOG post compare to the Twitter post at the start? 

BLOG beats TWITTER every time.

New HDTV

Well, the new 80" Sharp HDTV was delivered and set up today.  After watching both cable TV and a DVD for several hours, I realize that I've made a MISTAKE.

First, while I know that 80" is 30" bigger (diagonally) than the previous 50" set, I did not realize HOW much bigger that would be in the room.  The TVs were all gradually bigger in the showroom, so there wasn't THAT much difference from one to the next.  Surrounded by other slightly smaller TVs, it just didn't look so huge.  Sitting on a TV table in the room (and being only about 8' from the back of my easy chair), I actually can't see the entire screen at once, which is really rather disturbing.

Second, I shouldn't have chosen an LCD TV.  My Panasonic Viera Plasma set had black screen technology (as did my older CRT Zenith before that).  Even after fiddling with the color adjustments for a half hour, I just couldn't get the colors looking rich enough without them looking oversaturated.  I don't know enough about it to explain why, but putting colors over a black background instead of a white background seems to make a difference.  I'll hazard a guess and say that somehow you detect the background color between the color pixels on plasma.  But everything just looks a bit "thin" on LCD.

Third, there is noticable "motion blur" on the new set.  As I walked the 100' from the Plasma sets and back to the LCD sets several times, I couldn't tell the difference.  But I sure could tell at home.  I knew from reading Consumer Reports magazine that "motion blur" was an issue with LCD sets, I just couldn't see it well enough in the store.  Maybe they are clever about choosing what cable broadcast to show on all the sets.  Whatever, its a problem.

Fourth, the viewing angle DOES make a difference with LCD TVs.  I walk around the house a lot and at 45 degrees, the LCD really DOES look washed out.

Fifth, the sound quality is thin.  I could get an enhancement system, or attach my stereo system (I assume), but the old set had better sound with fewer speakers built-in.  And that's a brand problem, not a Plasma/LCD issue.

I also made another mistake.  I started my TV selection with highly-rated choices from Consumer Reports magazine.  Then when I looked at the store's website, I sidetracked myself by paying attention to the store's own '"customer ratings" because the sets I wanted weren't available.  I should know better than to do that!  But I now see that the list of 4 TVs (2 Plasma and 2 LCD) I walked into the store with had none of the highest rated ones from Consumer Reports.  I had become seduced by size...  Serious Mistake.  Well, I did have a reason.  One of the most common complaints people made were "wishing they had gotten a larger TV".  That really got on my mind in the store.  That might make sense if you are watching the TV from 15' away, but (as I now realize) not in my 10'x10' TV room.

So I made a poor choice.  And I'm going to have to pay to exchange the TV.  Probably another $200 return/delivery fee.  The delivery guys left the box and packing material saying I need to keep it for 12 days in case of a return in order to avoid restocking fees (which I have read can be up to 20%).  But which makes more sense?  Pay a couple hundred dollars to correct a mistake, or be happier with a different TV for years to come?

I'll get a smaller one (50-60") for the right size for my room, Plasma (for trust in picture quality), and Panasonic (because of familiarity and the lowest repair rate among plasma TVs).  I liked their 50" model, I think a slightly larger one would fit nicely and please me for years to come.

It will be a bit embarrassing to go into the HHGREGG store to arrange for a return.  Especially since they don't carry the models I want to select from (they don't carry Panasonic).  But I have to do it.  Monday morning, I think.  Sundays get busy around stores here.

But the Panasonic Viera TC-P60ST60 looks likes the right one for me. 

Minor But Annoying Problems

I am fortunate to not have any major health or financial problems.  But minor ones add up and can be really annoying. 

The tire pressure light is on in the car even though I made sure they were properly inflated and checked to make sure they are staying inflated.  That means a couple hours sitting around the dealership.

A tooth has gone bad and I had going to the dentist.  Its not the dental work that bothers me.  It's the bite block.  I have a small jaw AND I can't hold it open voluntarily.  As soon as that bite block goes in, I start swallowing.  Just try to swallow with your jaw wedged open!

It's January, so all the cats have to go to the vet.  There goes $800...  And I'll have to isolate each one to get identifiable stool samples.  It's amazing how long they can go without pooping when they are enclosed alone in a room!

I had an older Mac Desktop cleaned because of fan noise a few months ago.  Last week, I learned that my router is wireless-capable, so I decided to set up the desktop and move my Mac Mini to the TV room so I could visit cat blogs while watching TV.  After 5 minutes the "repaired" desktop was buzzing loudly again!

But the intolerable annoyance is that my HDTV died!  It had been turning itself off randomly for several days.  Sometimes it came back on by itself, sometimes I had to turn it on manually.  But tonight it just stopped completely.

Anyway, the Panasonic support (phone and website) is a joke!  I called the number on the manual and was informed the service department was closed.  Hours are 9 am to 9 pm Eastern Time.  The time was 8:50 ET.  WHAT?  They were supposed to be open.  So I went to their website find a local authorized service center.  They wanted the model number and my zipcode to find  service centers within 100 miles.  My model number was not on the list.  I manually entered the model number (checked it on both the TV and the manual).  I got a message saying "no such model number".  Hey, its only 6 years old!  But then the message was to choose the closest model number on the list.  OK.  But when I entered my zipcode, it deleted the selected "close" model number!  AARGGHH...

After several tries, I found a model number on the list that stayed listed when I entered my zipcode, and got a list of "servicers".  One is right here in town.  Good thing, too, because the next nearest is 30 miles away!  Naturally, the local "servicer" has no answering service, so I will call tomorrow.

The TV is 6 years old (I was shocked when I found the receipt and discovered that - my guess was 2-3 years).  If these HDTVs are anything like computers (and I suspect they are), I might just be better off buying a new one.

I LIVE with the TV.  I'm home all day and it's too damn quiet.  So when I get up, I turn on the TV before I even make my morning mug of green tea.  I always look for science or nature shows first, then switch to MSNBC for political talk (sometimes I put on science/nature DVDs and I have a 5' shelf of them).  But I have to hear some voices!  Fortunately, tomorrow is Friday and I can listen to rational talk from 10 am to 2 pm, and then science discussion from 2 pm to 4 pm on PBS radio.  That's almost as good since I mostly listen to the TV most of the time.   In fact, if I could simply listen to cable TV channels through radios throughout the house, that would be fine with me.  There used to be radios that received the sound from TV stations.  Are there any that do that with cable TV?

I'm looking at Consumer Reports reviews of HDTVs, talking myself into buying a new bigger HDTV, aren't I?

Then I'll tackle the other issues.  Like, if I am going to have a tooth pulled (which is likely), I will damn well have a working TV to watch through the several days of pain.  And if I have to ignore the cats scratching and meowing at the room doors while waiting for them to poop, I will have a TV to watch cuz its too darn cold to sit outside to ignore their pleas to be let out. 

UPDATE!  Bought a new HDTV.  80" Sharp LCD/LED.  Sharp and LCD isn't my favorite brand or type, but I really couldn't  see the difference from the better plasmas and the plasmas don't come that large.  If I'm buying a new one, it ought to at least knock my socks off.  The only step up from 80" has to be a whole wall (probably 5 years from now).  

I may go back for the sound enhancement.  They showed me the sound on a regular HDTV playing a tiger roaring (from The Life of Pi).  It was good.  Then they showed me the same scene with the sound enhancement speakers.  I JUMPED BACK and I bet every cat tail within a mile was POOFED!!!  It was astonishing.  But I want to see if hooking my stereo to the new TV is nearly as good.  I bet it is close. 

BTW, there is something called "4K" now that is way better than HDTV,  I wanted to reach in and touch the person in the screen.  It was "that real".  But maybe next time.  For what I watch, I don't need that.  And it was "super-tech", which I also am not.  But when this HDTV wears out, there may be even better stuff.  I can wait.

Should have delivery Saturday afternoon.  I can't wait. 

Snow Memories

I was posting about the Mews reacting to a 4" snowfal, and it brought back memories of snows of year past.  Maryland had unusually cold and snowy weather in the late 60s. 

I was a Boy Scout in the 60's.  And every winter there was a camping expedition of multiple Boy Scout Troops, called "Operation Icicle" because it was held on the last weekend on January each year.  In 1965, it was the hardest ever.  There was 2 feet of snow on the ground and the actual temperature (F degree) got into negative territory.  Looking back, I can see it was a struggle for the Dads to make sure none of us froze to death.  At the time, it was the hardest few days of my young life.  But we sure learned a LOT about the importance of keeping dry. 

It wasn't like you could get your boots filled with snow, run into the house and Mom would take them off and give you hot cocoa...  You got cold THERE and you had to work through it.  Get into the tent and get into dry clothes.  Take the cold clothes to the fire that you had to attend constantly (at least we didn't have to chop down trees to do it (though we DID have to cut the trees into fire-sized logs). 

And we had to cook all our meals outside; on fires hot enough to keep a dozen people warm.  That's no way to cook.  But it was almost all seared meat.  I bet we kids were burning up 4,000 calories a day.  It was amazing.

We also had a horrible snowstorm in late January 1966.  Mom was pregnant and ready to give birth.  The snowstorm last 5 days!  The snow was 2 feet deep, but the winds had whipped banks of snow covering the first floor windows.  You couldn't see out.  But the baby decided it was time to see the outside world.  There was no way out through the street in front, but the "main road" behind us was plowed slightly.  200' away from the garage.  Dad tossed me the warmest coat and handed me one of the 2 snow shovels.  "We're digging to the main road: he said, "and we aren't stopping until we're there".

I understood why.  It took 3 hours of rather desperate digging, but we had enough of a path for Dad to drive Mom off to the nearest hospital.  I collapsed inside; Dad was still working on adrenalin.  I took care of the younger kids.  There were 7 babies born in Harford county that day.  The other 6 mothers were flown to hospitals by helicopter.

And then, in March 1966, we got another major snowstorm of near 2'.  This one was loose wind-driven snow and it filled in every spot as levelly as could be.  Dad and I shoveled our driveway.  I was exhausted.  Then he handed back a snowshovel and said "the Johnstons (elderly couple 3 houses away) needed their driveway cleared and don't ask to be paid, it's a Boy Scout Good Deed thing".

So I went and looked.  They had a sunken driveway with cinder block walls from the street to the garage.  5 feet deep at the street, 2 feet deep at the top.   It took all day.  And I could barely move near the top end.  Throwing the snow to the top of the driveway wall wasn't enough, because it simply got too high to toss the driveway snow on.  I had to shovel it off the top of the wall too just to make room for more driveway snow.

I think I came close to a heart attack at 16 .  My heart was pounding like I couldn't believe.  But I couldn't go home and say "I gave up".  So I finished it.  Mrs. Johnston gave me a cup of cocoa.  I wish it had been something stronger, but I was only 16 AND a Boy Scout. 

But their driveway was clear of snow.  And I gad done my Good Deed for the day.  I slept deeply that night.  And hoping no more Good Deeds came my way for several days.

I survived all those snowy events (obviously)...  But I don't mind saying that, to this day, I cringe when there is a lot of snow in the forecast.  I learned to hate the stuff.  But old habits die hard.  When I moved to my house 27 years ago, and elderly lady moved next door.  The first heavy snowfall, I shoveled my driveway and then I looked at hers and I just had to go shovel hers too.  Once a Boy Scout, always a Boy Scout;  I got a quart of homemade chicken soup in return.  It was the worst chicken soup I ever ate in my life.

But I sure thanked her for it...

Trying To Quit Smoking

Well, as the joke goes, "quitting smoking is easy, I've done it 100 times"!  It isn't of course.  I have quit for months on occasion only to fall back into it.  The saddest time was in the 1980s while on a camping trip to Canada with my former friend.   On our last day of camping, he was down to his last 2 cigarettes and said he was quitting and did I want to share 1 of the last 2.  I know now it was astonishingly stupid, but I felt immune immune.  It tasted GREAT! 

You know, I've actually wondered since then if my "friend" did that deliberately.  At the time, such a thought would never have occurred to me.  But these days, I consider the possibility.  He DID frequently mention how envious he was that I had quit when he couldn't...

When we got back to the Park convenience shop, he immediately bought a carton of cigarettes.  I stole several and smoked them stealthily.  We drove back to NY City where he lived at the time (and yes, I had done all the driving in my car).  But I had to drive back to MD from NY and I suddenly couldn't face the long boring New Jersey Turnpike without  smoking.  And there I was smoking again. 

I've stopped a few times since then for a few weeks at a time.  But then I face a long drive, a stressful event, or a long night at the computer and I give in again.  I wish the damn things were illegal.  It's just too hard to stop smoking when they are available 24/7 on every street corner.

I'm convinced I'm habituated to the "process" of smoking and not the nicotine.  I think that because sometimes I don't light a cigarette for several days at a time and it doesn't bother me.  And because I've been "vaping" an e-cigarette for 2 days which provides nicotine but is not in any way psychologically satisfactory. 

The e-cigarette is completely unsatisfactory.  It's a ceramic rod that is way too heavy, unwieldy, and (in spite of best efforts of designers) just doesn't work like a real cigarette.  I admire that it provides nicotine (in gradually reducible amounts), the appearence of smoke (its water vapor), and none of the carcinigens of actual cigarette smoke. 

But they just don't quite work yet.  They need to be as light as a regular cigarette, have a paperlike feel to the "filter" end,  and provide a better fake smoke.

And don't wish me good luck for stopping.  Between the 5th and 6th paragraphs, I drove to the nearest convenience store and bought a new carton of real cigarettes...  ARGH!!!  I just CAN'T be on the computer and not smoke... I need a better fake cigarette.

Happy New Year

Well, I've always thought the new year should begin on the Winter Solstice because the days start lengthening again.  Or perhaps the Vernal Equinox because the weather starts getting better.  But sometimes I bow to convention.

Happy New Year!

May 2014 be a better year, because quite frankly, sometimes 2013 sucked...

Deleting Old Emails and a Rant

Do you ever go through your emails like once a year and delete a lot of them?  And feel sad about some?

I did that last night.  A lot were routine emails of blog comments.  I keep the most meaningful ones.  But some were from a friend I had to give up on in early 2011.  In a practical sense, some people just change over a few years and you are not really friends anymore.  But this was someone I had known since college days 40 years ago. 

The break came when he wanted me to drive him to a place with A-rated plywood for his new toy train setup in the basement and carry the plywood into his basement.  I have always been helpful to him and done the hard work (he says he has a "bad back" which I have reasons to doubt) watching him do things he enjoys.

But when I sat down and thought about it, I realized that he was asking me to drive my trailer 30 miles to his house, 60 miles to the wood place, 60 miles back to his house, and then 30 miles back to my house.  I checked the wood at the place he liked and found it was the same as could be ordered from the local Home Depot.  "A" grade is "A" grade.  But he would have none of that.  He likes the wood store 90 miles away from him.

I mentioned that in an email (I had to mention details in email because he just evades conversational disputes of any sort).

He responded that I was "mean and hurtful and don't contact me anymore".  OK, he does this every few years.  I usually reply in a way to jolly him out of his unhappiness.  He HATES having his plans questioned even when all the work is being done by others. 

And my initial reaction was to get him "happified" again.  But you know what?  This time I didn't.  I unloaded the personal shotgun on him.  I told him how insensitive he was, how demanding, and how unreasonable he had become over the years and had become worse.  I told him that when he needed help around the house and yard, he had me.  But when I needed help around the house and yard, I still only had me.  He eventually replied "How do we re-engage"?   Re-engage?  That was "goodbye jerk" and I made that clear.  And that's the last I heard from him.

But as I was going through the old emails, I found a few from him still there.  I deleted them.  A part of my life over.  But it also felt sad doing it.  The last one I deleted was where he criticized me in return.  I paid great attention on to those 6 things a last tine.  One was even accurate (I am not really good talking on the telephone).  But that was about all he could say.

He complained that I never took him fishing in my boat the last few years.  Well he was inept and useless in a boat.  You know those cartoons where a person has one foot on the pier and another in the boat and the boat slowly moves away from the pier?  He actually did that.  And I had to to do all the work unloading and reloading the boat on the trailer every single time. He couldn't. 

He tipped over our canoe once leaning way too far over the edge in uplake Canada.  When I saw what he was doing I yelled and grabbed for the other side, but 225 pounds beats 160 pounds every time.

After I got the canoe righted and mostly bailed out, I got him back in on one side while I held the other.  I then spent an hour going down to feel around for our gear and retrieving what I could.  He couldn't because he "couldn't swim well".  The water was shallow enough for him (at 6' 4") to stand in).  He wouldn't.  He didn't have to swim, because *I* could.  

And along that line, we had to canoe back 10 miles on the open lake on the last day of our vacation to the camping station when a storm came up.  He had no idea what to do.  I did.  I was in the back of the canoe (of course) and drove the canoe quartering the waves to the lee side of the lake.  We hit shore and waited for the storm to pass. 

He complained that I wasn't a very "neat" person.  OK, My floors weren't fit of to eat from.  He used to clean his baseboards once a week and his floors daily.  Well, yeah, I'm not like that.  I'm pretty sure you can't eat off my floors safely. 

He was also angry that my family doesn't have big funeral ceremonies.  Never mind that that was none of his business, we just don't do that.  The family habit is cremation and no ceremony.  You were alive, you are dead, nice to have known you, good life and all of that.  My own expectations are the same.  Distribute my ashes around the yard, raise a glass of wine in my memory, and history goes on. Glad I was part of it.

And finally, he repeated again that I was "mean".  By that, he meant I was honest.  I told him what I thought for 40 years, I explained what I meant, and I gave reasons.  That was too straightforward and he never liked it, I guess, and I suppose it wore him out over all the years.  He considered honesty to be "mean" in that what I said sometimes didn't make him feel good about himself.

He was a constantly annoying person.  He never kept a job in one office for more than a few years because he utterly aggravated every co-worker and supervisor he encountered.  But he always had a great technical resume, so he could move on.  Every place he worked at was "corrupt" and "incompetent".  For all I know, he was right, but he never gave much actual evidence of that. I suspect mostly that he was a real "pill" to work with.

So last night, I deleted the last of his emails and went to bed.  I slept well.  Sometimes, you just have to cut connections.

Its Hard Getting Old And Fussy

A niece is getting married 2 hours away in February.  I can't get myself to attend.  The drive would be horrible to me, I hate long ceremonies, I don't like loud music, and I hate dancing.  And the whole thing is being done at night.  So I can't even enjoy any champagne if I want to drive home afterwards, and I hate driving in the dark.  I even hate ceremonies.  When I was younger, I even hated ceremonies involving ME!  I didn't even attend my own college graduation.  They say "enjoy myself" and just spend the night in a motel. 

Right, stay in a motel overnight and bring home cockroaches and bedbugs...

I love the niece dearly, but I won't drive 2 hours to a long boring ceremony and the threat of insect infestations.  I hope I'm not the only one who feels that way.  But if I am, it wouldn't change my opinion in the least.

I attended a few weddings when I was younger.  In the worst, they played 60 minutes of "personally meaningful music" before they got on to the actual ceremony, which took ANOTHER 60 minutes of pledges.  I was ready to run gagging and screaming from the room.  I won't do that again, ever.

My tolerance for long drawn-out ceremonies is even less these days.  Some of us are just NOT into ceremonies...

Short Movie Review

I watched 'Thor' the other night.  Waste of night hours, but I had to for the love of old time Marvel Comics reasons.  I seriously regret it.  Nice special effects, but anyone can do that these days.  Mostly, Thor needed a LOT more "humbling" than he received, to have the redemption he was granted.  Another example of how a few "comic books" did a better job than a whole movie. 

And Loki was just pathetic from start to end.  What were they THINKING?  Have the producers never read the mythology?   Jeez, even Odin was a bit lame. and that's pretty hard to do with the Asgardian Allfather.  Don't even get me started on the weak Destroyer.

The whole thing was a bunch of rubbish.  I had to eventually watch it to know for certain, but it really was a waste of time.  You sure can't know ahead of time what is going to disappoint, but I sure wish a future self had dropped in to say "no don't"!

Winter Solstice

Darn, I missed it!  Well, I did notice it a couple of times during the day, but only when I was busy doing something else.  I suppose that doesn't matter.  It's not like I need to do anything that day, I just like it.  But I didn't get around to posting...

It means the days will be getting longer.  And even though it means it will be getting colder for 3 months, it means that gardening season starts again in a couple weeks.  Not the planting, but the seed ordering.  And even then, it will only be 4 weeks before I can plant the first seeds in flats under lights in the basement!  After that, it's not too long to transplanting the sprouts to individual cells and then outside.

I plan to plant a lot more flowers this year.  I spent 10 years focussing on perennials for the convenience of not replanting every year, but quite frankly, most of them aren't worth having.  So many perennials bloom for a week or two and then they're done for the year.  Some bloom most of the season (coneflowers, black-eyed susans, reblooming daylilies) and I'm keeping those.  Some make quite an impact with just a few plants (oriental lilies, stokes aster).  Some are for the foliage anyway (hostas).

So I've been growing more annuals the past few years.  The season-long blooming of 30 square feet of bright zinnias is worth the hour it takes to plant them outside.

Two such patches of different color zinnias,  one of marigolds, and one of vivid salvia will go a long way and cost less than one hosta.

But back to Winter Solstice.  I like the more natural holidays, the ones that occur for uncomplicated real reasons.  New Years Day,  Summer Solstice, Thankgiving, Winter Solstice...  Near Year's Day is as artificial as can be (because calendars are completely artificial), but I like it because that's the first day of the current calendar, and you might as well celebrate a new year starting.  Summer Solstice is OK as a natural event, but somehow the longest day of the year doesn't have the same meaning as the shortest day.  At Summer Solstice, I'm not noticing the change in day-length all that much.

Thanksgiving is close to the best holiday.  Coming from a long line of farmers and having a strong sense of agriculture through history, I appreciate the importance and relief of a good Fall harvest.  Especially those crops that don't keep well (it's eat it or lose it)!  Even with year-round fresh food in these modern times, a Winter grocery store tomato is NOT the same as an August tomato from the back yard.

But I personal like Winter Solstice for the historical agricultural reasons above.  Maybe (as an ancestor) the Fall Harvest was not what you hoped it would be, but the Winter Solstice is the promise and hope of a better year ahead.  Promise and hope can keep you going in April when you are down to your last moldy or shriveled potatoes, carrots, and apples.  And lucky to have those.

(site said the image was "free")

I suppose I should mention Ground Hog Day.  It's not an accident that it is halfway between the 1st day of Winter and the 1st day of Spring.  In olden days, it meant "we've made it halfway, we can get through the other half".   And there is even a reason for that celebration.  From what I've read (disclaimer clause), Winter weather warms up earlier in Europe, sometimes starting in early February.  For pre-calendar farmers there, the emergence of hibernating burrowing mammals (hedgehogs, marmots) was a good sign that it was the time to plant the earliest Spring crops.  However, if shadows were seen (meaning clear bright days, meaning still-cold weather) it was best to wait a couple of weeks.  When those Europeans arrived in NE North America (where the climate stayed colder longer being on the eastern side of a continent), they had to adjust the timing.  And they had to adjust the animal.

So instead of small hedgehogs who HAD to emerge earlier because they had smaller fat reserves (and who don't exist in NA), they went by the larger groundhogs (2 foot tall marmots like land-based beavers without a tail, for my European friends) who could afford to check outside conditions and retreat for more hibernation if required.

So, I'll add Groundhog Day to my list of "natural" holidays even though I don't think it was a very good guide for planting (sunny days occur rather randomly in NA Winters).  A good measure of Groundhog Day sense in NA is that nobody sends Groundhog Day cards to friends.  LOL!

And lastly?  I like these holidays because there isn't much theology involved in them.  Natural and calendar events just "are" and you don't have to worry about them.  I DO like that...  :)

Christmas and After...

The cards all addressed and mailed to cats, family, and friends, the presents sent, no more trips to the post office.  Time now to turn to those kitties and friends for whom I have only email addresses these days (and new ones I have received cards from)...

But basically, I can relax and listen to the radio Christmas songs for a week.  Thats about as many days as I can take.  I really do like Christmas Carols on the stereo, but repetitiveness wears me out fast. 

I miss the days of my youth when "Christmas Season" was just "the couple weeks before the day".

I am saving all the cards I/we have received so far to open them on the Winter Solstice Day at 12:11 pm EST.  I personally LIKE the moment of the first lengthening of days.  That what all the winter holidays center around, after all.  It's probably the oldest human holiday.  And it is a natural one.  One day is the shortest day of the year, the next is the first longer one.  I like that.  Every day past then leads me to the Spring planting season, and that is a highlight of my year.

I am already searching through the garden catalogs for the replacements of old seeds, the idea of some new ones, and the thrill of seeing the new plants grow and thrive. 

I look forward to the first flower seeds I can plant outside in February (snow peas) and the first flowers I can plant inside  at the same time (who grow germinate and grow slowly).  Thing speed up after that.  But it's the best time of year.  Harvest is great, but the starting is better.  All that hope, you know?