Lights

Let There Be Lights

I wasn’t sure the weather was going to cooperate, but it did. There are xmas lights on the house now. HoHoHo.

Post Covid Vax Come Down

My wife and I both got our latest Covid-19 vaccination shots yesterday evening, and we are both feeling the effects today. The last time we did this I felt legitimately sick the next day. Today I am just tired and sore and flakey-brained. I’ve managed to check a couple of things off of my to do list, but I feel like I have punted a lot of things off until tomorrow.

I finished the laundry and made the bed and bought a gift for my work’s yankee swap on Tuesday. I ran an errand for Jen and I helped her with a home office project she’s working on. I wrapped some xmas gifts, but only about 25% of the pile. Hopefully I can pick off some more tonight. I had told Jen that I was thinking about hanging xmas lights outside but that I wasn’t promising anything. I just didn’t have it in me today. The weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow, but it could be okay early in the morning. We’ll see if I feel better then.

My stomach has been a jerk today. Lots of “hey, I’m empty so I am going to hurt you a lot” stomach aches. I wonder if that can be related to the vaccine shot. Probably not, but who knows? I’ll be fine tomorrow, I am sure.

On unrelated nerd notes, I have not watched the third and final Dr Who 60th anniversary episode yet. I got a text from my step son, Harry, asking me if I have seen it yet. I told him no but asked him if it was good. He said very, without any spoilers. I’ll get to it before I sleep tonight. I did manage to watch the 4th and final episode of Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too with Krist Novoselic from Nirvana. What a fascinating guy. I also finished season three of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The 3rd season finale is one of my favorite episodes ever. The 4th season premier is another one of my favorite episodes. I’m in a good Star Trek binge watching place right now.

Okay, time for dinner. Time to try to talk my stomach into calming the hell down. No problem!

Lights

We went for a drive tonight to look at houses with Xmas lights. We went back to the best neighborhood in the city. The one that actually stretches across the street.

Our city Xmas tree is in front of the library. It’s epic, but people are bitching about it this year? What the hell?

Finally, the obligatory clock picture.

Lights

I had no reason to do this but I did because I am a nerd.

Random Lunchtime Stuff

Some random thoughts as my lunch break winds down…

I read a great article from Guitar World yesterday called 20 Ways to Improve Your Les Paul. The need to have my 1978 Les Paul Custom repaired/upgraded is never very far from my mind, but I don’t have the money to spend on it and I am nervous about trying to sell another guitar to pay for it because what if I am overwhelmed with sellers remorse? Worse, what if I sell it for a lot of money and then find out I didn’t sell it for nearly enough. Oh, the stress! Anyway, the article made me want to get on with it, even though most of the things it suggests are things I wouldn’t do. Fifties wiring and PAF clones are about all I have in mind. That and frets… yikes!

Speaking of Les Pauls, I haven’t played my new Les Paul, or any guitar for that matter, in weeks. I am starting to go through withdrawals again, and I have zero calluses left on my left hand. I am soft and smooth and in for a lot of pain and unpleasantness when I do start playing again. Crap.

Speaking of Les Pauls again, I just finished listening to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its entirety in one sitting for the second time in a week. I don’t know for sure that Steve Hackett played all of his leads on a Les Paul, but it seems that way. There’s clearly a Stratocaster on the next Genesis album, but The Lamb and the three records he played on prior to that all sound like Les Pauls to me. I think he played through Hiwatt amps back then, but I don’t know that for sure. When I saw him in 2019 he was standing in front of a Marshall and a single 4×12 cabinet (he was also not playing a Gibson Les Paul at that show, but a Fernandez Les Paul copy. I think it’s the same (or similar) model I saw Robert Fripp play that same month). I wonder if it was a real Plexi, or even cooler, and old JTM45. Oh, to go back in time with a pile of cash.

I need to go grocery shopping tonight, and I want to get an oil change for the Mazda, which is about to be Bellana’s Mazda. I want the car to be all up to date with everything when we “sell” it to her. I also want to go back to the store that sold me the jacket yesterday and get them to take off the damn security tag. I am pretty ticked off about that. I hope to see my parents this weekend if possible, but it really doesn’t seem like I am going to have the time. There are too many things going on right now, only some of which are related to the imminent xmas. I am hoping I can throw the wife and step kids into the car at some point over the weekend so we can all go out and look at xmas lights. I want that to include a visit to Boston too, but I know it won’t. I wonder if New Years Eve in the city is a possibility? The last time we did that it was followed a couple of months later by a global pandemic, so maybe it’s bad luck? Who knows.

Okay, lunch is over. Time to go be productive for a couple of hours before calling it a work week. HoHoHo, Merry weekend.

Night Pics

I had to drive to Wilmington tonight to pick up a potential xmas present at a Target that may or may not be built on top of the location of a warehouse in which I spent the last year of my life before returning to college in 1997. The whole neighborhood is new, but I think my building is still there, just significantly remodeled, and the Target is actually next door.

I took my point and shoot along for the ride and took some awful, awful pics.

On the way home I tried to take a pic of the city’s xmas tree but the light turned green and I ended up with this masterpiece.

When I got home and got out of the car I saw that the moon looked awesome through the hazy clouds and I ran inside to put my best lens on my DSLR so I could take a pic. It ended up being an exposure compensation test that gave me four really awful, awful pictures.

No exposure compensation. The trees are cool, the moon is not.

Exposure compensation at -3. The moon looks awesome but everything else is non-existent.

Exposure compensation at -2. Still too much.

Exposure compensation at -1. Better, but maybe not enough. Somewhere between -1 and -2 should be the sweet spot.

Next I continued the exposure compensation olympics by aiming at the xmas lights on the roof.

Exposure compensation at -1. Or was it -2? I think it was -1.

Isn’t this the most fascinating post ever? I knew you’d love it!

Sick Day Update

How’s it going, sick person?

I feel better. Not all better, but better than I was when I was doubled over in pain while I was trying to take a shower this morning. I feel like I got my ass kicked by a locomotive or something, but my stomach isn’t hurting like it was before.

I managed some food. It was sort of like breakfast at lunch time, but I ate some scrambled eggs. I’ve had some water too, and in 13 minutes I’ll be able to have some more. I still feel pretty dehydrated, but nowhere near as bad as I was when I wrote the last post.

It’s a safe bet I won’t be hitting my protein and liquid goals again today, but now it seems like I won’t get virtually shut out like I did on Thursday. I just missed a bunch of time while I was hurting and I don’t think I will be able to make it up. I’ll get as close as I can without overdoing it and just let it go from there.

I’m also not sure what to do for today’s photo a day thing. I will probably used the bathroom construction again. I could use xmas decorations but I’m tired of that. I’m pretty tired of the construction stuff too, but what can you do. We also need to find things to put us into the holiday spirit. I don’t know about the rest of you, but getting sick twice in December has put a damper on my festiveness. Jen found this yesterday though and it might help:

I wonder why our house isn’t on the list?

Kidding.

There’s also a light display at the Stone Zoo. That feels more like a weekend thing to me though. Maybe we could wait for the kids to be home for that one.