NFTL RDate 76.23

I haven't revisited past posts in a long time with a "Notes from the Lab" offering. It's time I did so. Much has happened since my last such post on RDate 48.16, 48 months and 16 days into retirement. Let's take a look back on a few items now that I am 76 months and 23 days passed gainful employment.

Chores (7/29/12, Last Updated 7/24/16) - When I last moaned about my (not so) burdensome household duties, I went off a little on dusting and a lot on deck lights. I'm happy to report that I have made improvements on both fronts.

Regarding the dusting, I pretty much don't do it anymore. A little over a year ago we hired a service that has worked out fine. For a reasonable sum a couple of much younger and way less whiny (than I) professionals show up every other Wednesday and shine the place up just swell. I need to do more of this kind of thing.

The only down side is that the hired guns don't do the lab (known in most households as the basement). The reason is that there's just too much stuff down here to deal with. I'm guessing with the movies, music, books, games and collectibles on the shelves, there are two to three thousand items in the way. Besides, who wants strangers handling those rare treasures like my Creature from the Black Lagoon videos or my very first bag phone.

So I'm reduced to dragging out my trusty dusting materials every once in a while to keep the place serviceable. But in truth, I don't mind this tolerable vestige of my old ordeal. Tidying up my subterranean sanctum, and in the process reacquainting myself with so many old friends, is a comforting stroll down Memory Lane, the place I most like to be.

On the deck light front I've had a recent breakthrough. In one of my exploratory journeys into the Amazon cyber jungle, I discovered some sturdier, fairly inexpensive replacement bulbs that fit my old outdoor strings. So discreetly but steadily I am installing them in lieu of the flimsy creatures that have caused me so much consternation over the years. Ladders and a splash of liniment are still occasionally involved. But overall, I think I've turned the tide in the epic deck lights struggle.

A mid-note here. Right about the time I completed this section of the post a string of deck lights on our garage decided not to work. I think they hacked into my blog and saw what I was saying (if you recall from an earlier post, I'm fairly convinced the little buggers have wifi). The problem turned out to be a tiny fuse in the plug end of a light cord that JUST  HAPPENED to blow. Not my first fuse episode, however. So after some gnashing of teeth and a little tweezer work, we were back on line. But I'm getting the sense that the war may drag on a bit longer.  

Music Night (8/6/12, Last Updated 7/2/16) - This now 27 years old movable music party is still going strong. Our latest collection, #135, was created earlier this month at Jim and Mary Wyatt's. The topic was Laugh While You Can, selected by host, charter member and head of our digital mastering team Jim Wyatt.

For the last few years one of our Music Night activities has been converting to digital format the first 60 of our collections. These were originally recorded "live" on tape during the music parties, a tricky proposition if you've ever attempted it. As cassette players started disappearing from home and auto entertainment systems, we decided to preserve the fruits of our labors by transferring these earlier collections to CD.

By the end of this month we will have completed the project through our 40th collection. Our hope is to finish this race against time before CD players also fade away and everyone is just streaming their music. A futile effort, you might say, but that hasn't dampened our spirits. Your talking to a guy with three laser disks players, four VCRs, four cassette decks and a Walkman still in operation. What?

One of our recently remastered collections was #37 Children, originally created in 1997. In the packaging for this collection we took the opportunity to celebrate the children of Music Night members who have participated in Music Night themselves. Recognize any of these happy faces?

They are from left to right and top to bottom Christine Burk, Josh Bauer, Taryn (Dyle) Kim, Justin Reinhart, Josh and Sarah Rouan, Scott Dyle, Tommy Crandall Fair, Marie Wyatt, Kevin Bauer, Cathy (Burk) Kuhlman, Jimmy Wyatt and Miranda Reinhart.

For good measure, the packaging also featured the children of children who have participated in Music Night. At the time the collection was assembled there were three. From left to right below are Ian Kuhlman (son of Cathy and husband Matt), Evie Rouan (daughter of Josh and wife Katie), and Toby Kim (son of Taryn and husband Sam).

Adding to this impressive trio just this last week was Cathy and Matt's second bundle of joy, Lena Elizabeth, shown here at one day old with a very happy grandmother.

Suffice it to say that the future of Music Night is in good (albeit tiny) hands.

Labor Day Renewal (9/10/12, First Update) - In my original post on this subject, written shortly after my retirement, I talked about how more life-altering changes occur with Labor Day than actually happen on January 1st. At least in my life. This had to do with changing weather, the start of the new school year, and for many of us a new Federal fiscal year. And I wondered aloud how my foray into this fall renewal would go now that neither school activities nor employment were major forces in my life.

I'm happy to report in this my seventh Labor Day season since retirement that although my daily routine has eased considerably, my annual calendar still looks much the same, including September. I think this is because the world around us is still driven by school activities, seasonal weather adjustments and fixed government and business cycles. And Nancy and I are doing our best to fit in.

I think another factor contributing to this "sameness" is that after 38 years of a fairly structured family calendar, we've not found a lot of reasons to change. We're still trying to have all the fun to which we have become accustomed. I'm talking about multiple trips to Florida each year, time at our cottage, visits to Chicago and Toronto to see family and friends, and periodic golf and music gatherings here in town and up north to keep up with our wide social circle. It takes a lot of planning to maintain that schedule, and that planning still seems to hit its peak after Labor Day, when the holiday and Florida seasons loom large on the horizon.

Of course, nothing lasts forever. And though our calendar hasn't slowed much, we are beginning to. We have no special immunity from the usual ailments and challenges that come with aging. So some things take a little longer than they used to (like waking up :-). We make a few more trips to the pharmacy (with longer lists). And we have made several new friends in the medical community (those "ologists" I so often mention). But our annual cycle including a little renewal this time of year, is still largely intact. So far so good.

Reading (10/2/12, Last Updated 3/25/15) - As I have noted in the past, as readers go I'm somewhat of a plodder. I read regularly but not particularly fast, nor am I prone to marathon sessions. I'm always impressed with the rate at which some of my closest friends digest reading material. You know the type. They're more than avid readers. They are reading superheroes, plowing through books in a single bound sitting faster than a speeding bullet Blue Ray. I'm more the Clark Kent type (maybe even Jimmy Olson).

I approach reading the same way I approach music and movies. Just as (or maybe a little more) apt to repeat an experience than to seek out a new one. New ones are fine, mind you. And an important part of growth. But I'm consistently fascinated by how much I get out of a second or even third viewing of a well-crafted movie, or repeat reading of a good book. That's sort of a new experience, too, right? Picking up things you missed the first time around, that alter your thinking about the story, or in the case of non-fiction the subject of the work?

Since my last update on reading three years ago, I've managed to get through an interesting mix of material. In one extended effort to rekindle my understanding of how certain epic stories were altered in their transition to the silver screen, I reread a number of classic works (classic IMHO). This binge included Lonesome Dove, the seven Harry Potter novels, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The War of the Worlds, Frankenstein and The Island of Dr. Moreau.

I enjoyed reacquainting myself with the original story lines in each of these works, and the details - sometimes significant - that didn't make it into the movies. (One note here - despite the classic status of the 1953 Gene Barry Version of War of the Worlds, the recent Spielberg/Cruise remake sticks much closer to the original Wells' novel, if you substitute New England for a not-so-jolly old England).

Staying a little longer in the world of fantasy, I completed a first read of the five Game of Thrones books and finally managed to wade through the now eight books in Stephen King's Dark Tower series (including Wind Through the Keyhole). It was all fun, and now I can carry on more intelligent conversations with my kids.

I also got around to my inventory of Stephen King works that had somehow escaped my attention. I can now proudly (or foolishly, depending on your point of view) claim to have read all of his fiction, including the Bachman books. This final push included the second and third books of the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, Finders Keepers and End of Watch. I recommend them both, which have less mystery than the first book in the series and a little more classic King eeriness. And extremely likable offbeat charters.

Another interesting King experiment I pulled off the shelf was Desperation and The Regulators. There is much discussed on the Internet about what King did with these two related novels, if you want the details. But in a nutshell he wrote these two stories using most of the same characters, but in two different settings and times, and with different good guys and bad guys. Or something like that. I'm pretty sure these two books will be queued up for a second reading to make sure I really understood what he was doing here.

I've had several other good reads this year, including a Kindle-binge into some older works. I'm a late comer to Kindle and have used it primarily as a travel aid during some unscheduled trips south. But I'll save that discussion for a subsequent post.

Let me close out this section with one more recommendation. I just completed a reread (first read like 50 years ago) of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. The edition I have includes Brave New World Revisited, a non-fiction analysis of his 1932 novel that Huxley wrote in 1958. The analysis has some pretty wild descriptions of what the future might hold if responsible leadership fails and/or education is ignored. Many of his predictions read like today's news headlines. If you're not familiar with this work, I recommend it. Especially Chapter IV "Propaganda in a Democratic Society", Chapter V "Propaganda in a Dictatorship", and Chapter VI "The Arts of Selling". Huxley had quite a crystal ball. And some of what he says is scarier than any Stephen King novel.

So in retrospect, I guess I'm not doing too bad for a plodder.

Baseball (10/12/12, Last Updated 3/25/15) - I hate to even go here. What a crummy season this was for our beloved Tigers all the way around. First of all, there was the team. Enough said. Except for noting the fist fight between the announcers, which got them both fired. Give me a break.

Then there was my lousy support. I went to one game. It was a night game last April. They lost. I froze my knickers off and even left early, which I hardly ever do.

And finally, there was a completely unacceptable disappearance of the lunch club/baseball outings. Pathetic. Total day planner failure. An embarrassing breakdown in my duties as a fan and lunch bard. Ah blem masef.

However, I promise to do better next season. Can't speak for the team, but they could hardly be worse. So you lunch clubbers, don't be discouraged. Be on the lookout for a return to fun next season. And to get the future off on the right foot, I offer this humble pledge:

Despite this horrible season,

For hope, there is a reason.

When next w'hear "play ball"

Together we all

Should gather, for times a-pleasin'!

Enough catching up for now. 

Till my next post.

Grosse Pointe Charles