Category: Uncategorized

I thought the Oscars were pretty good, but I made good use of my DVR to fast forward over most of the slow spots. The songs didn’t seem that good. It’s a pathetic year when you have to pick two foreign movies to come up with five decent songs. I don’t see why they couldn’t get the original singers. Certainly Antonio Banderas didn’t sing that song in the movie and I know Beyonce couldn’t have been booked for three movie songs. If you’re not going to have the original singers do their songs, then what’s the point?

Continue reading “The Oscars”

The day before Thanksgiving I passed a slow-moving car on a two lane road in a passing zone and was given a ticket by a Dekalb County policeman. He wasn’t real interested in hearing my side of the story and wound up giving me a ticket for driving on the wrong side of the road. He set a court date in January and told me I could explain things to the judge. In January I went to court. Not only was my case not entered, forcing me to come back, but this first court appearance was just an arraignment where you pled guilty or not guilty and then would come back for a trial.

Continue reading “Day in Court”

I got my water bill today from Dekalb County. They announced that, effective January 1, the price of water was going up to $5.41 per 1,000 gallons. Of course they don’t tell you what the old price was, so I figured it out and got $4.30. That’s an increase of 26%.

Then I wondered when the last time they went up was. I keep a spreadsheet of past utility costs and discovered that prior to January 1, 2003 the price was only $3.50 per 1,000 gallons. That means water has increased in price 54% in only two years!

There’s a picture of Grant that shows up on the main blog page every now and then where he is smoking a cigar on the porch down in Bradenton. That’s one of the funniest pictures I’ve ever seen.

Here’s a link.

Yesterday it got very cold with the high in the 30’s. Then last night it started raining and sleeting. By this morning there was a layer of ice on everything and it continued to rain and sleet off and on all day. My car is covered in icy armor with icicles hanging down off the bumper and over the license plate. Katie and Clio do not like the ice. It crunches under their feet and covers up the grass. They don’t seem real sure about where they can go to the bathroom.

I didn’t go anywhere today, just sat around the house and watched TV and played on the computer. I pulled out the Powerbook 5300 Jeb gave me and figured out why the power adapter isn’t working: there’s nothing wrong with the adapter itself but the tip appears to be broken. So I cut it off and I get voltage through the wires, but will now need a tip. Meanwhile my Powerbook 520 seems to have died completely. I’m not sure why it won’t work anymore, but I think it is a fuse in the Powerbook itself (or the keyboard won’t work and that’s where the power button is).

I couldn’t even walk up the slight hill of my driveway without going into the grass where I could get footing. The street is mostly ice, but people have been driving enough that there are two tire tracks that are clear. I haven’t lost power, but I charged up all my batteries just in case. I’ve heard a couple of big branches snap and fall, but nothing major yet. Tomorrow it is supposed to go into the 40’s so all of this should melt.