Blackout!

I was a bit miffed this morning when I turned on The Today Show and saw it had been preempted by local news coverage of the approaching Big Storm.

Surely the preemption would only last 30 minutes or so, but no--it lasted 2 hours. I think.

Not a good time to do it, the day after the Iowa caucuses, when I was eager to hear what all the NBC talking heads had to say about last night's fun and games.

With no Today Show to watch, I settled in the recliner with Chunk to watch something recorded the night before.

Then it happened. The TV went off. Damn, I thought. The wind must have hit a cable transformer somewhere. Owell, I would work on the computer. The wind howled and I began to get a bit nervous about having the computer plugged in, so I decided to turn it off.

Five minutes later, the power went out. I felt very smart to have had the foresight to turn the power off.

I wasn't upset. Just a minor irritation. I wondered how long it would take to get the power back on again.

I settled in for Chunk's morning nap and I listened to a podcast of Says You that I hadn't heard before. Then I watched Ann Curry's reporton Darfur, which has been on my iPod forever. Then I watched a PhotoShop tutorial.

By now I was wondering what the battery life of the iPod was. The power was still not on.

I was starting to go thru withdrawal. We could still use the stovetop, because though it starts electronically, it has gas, so with a camping flint thingy, I could heat up coffee. I could call in to Utterz and send reports on how things were going (if anybody cared). I could even read, tho the light was dim. But as the afternoon wore on, I was very definitely going through media withdrawal.

Finally at 3 p.m. I tried calling the newspaper, but the "circuits were tied up." I couldn't stand it and went for a ride.

At least in the car I had the radio and learned that there were 70 mph gusts near Lake Tahoe, that I-80 was closed and Cal Trans actually issued a warning that said that if anyone tried to get to Lake Tahoe, they would be putting their life in danger.

I went downtown and saw that there were pockets where there seemed to be electricity, but a huge part of town was without power.

I returned home and tried to read by the fading light.

I was supposed to review La Cage aux Folles tonight, but I called the theatre and learned it had no power either, so they were canceling opening night.

I gathered lots of candles and lit them. I called in yet another report to Utterz. I sent e-mail by cell phone to a few people whose e-mail addresses I knew.

Walt went and bought new batteries (he had to try two stores because the first was out. The second was Ace Hardware, which also had no power, but which was letting people in if they brought their own flashlights to search the shelves and if they would pay by cash or check.

This was quickly becoming a "happening."

By the time the sun set, I had heard that PG&E was estimating that it might be 9 p.m. tomorrow before power is restored. I began to think about Funny the World.

Since it was essentially dark at 5 p.m., and since we couldn't do anything, we decided to go out for dinner and maybe take in a movie, if one of the movie theatres had power.

As we drove downtown, it was like the height of rush hour. Bumper to bumper traffic because, of course, all the traffic lights were out and so getting through an intersection was a very slow proposition. Also street lights were out on a lot of streets.

The restaurant we were headed for had a line of people out the door, standing in the rain. So did a lot of other restaurants (obviously we were not the only people without power who decided to go out to dinner!).

We finally found Noodle City, where the wait time was only 5 minutes and we had not only enough food to fill us for dinner, but enough to take home for breakfast or lunch tomorrow, too.

By the time we finished, it was too late to go to a movie, and I had been thinking of Mishka's cafe, where we could get ground coffee so I can make coffee in our French Press tomorrow morning. More importantly, Mishka's has free wifi and I could write an entry of Funny the World, which I have now done. I'm not going to add photos or update most of the stuff I update every day (and have no way to put together the video I took today), but by golly, there is an entry.

Being compulsive is really a challenge.

I'm not sure when we'll have power and if there is no entry tomorrow, it's because I somehow couldn't get to free wifi (in fact, we are driving Jeri and Phil to the airport tomorrow, so that's a distinct possibility).

But there is no power at my home and by golly, I have posted a journal entry.

One hour later still no power.

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Saving the Environment

So are you still drowning in catalogs, now with post-holiday sales? We got so many Christmas catalogs I made a video about them sometime around the start of December. (It would have been even more impressive if I'd waited until the end of the month!) We still get several catalogs every day. Companies like Lands End and JMS (Just My Size--for fat ladies) are particular bad and I seem to get two or three catalogs from each of those companies a week.

Approximately 19 billion catalogs are mailed to US consumers every year. Printing those 19 billion catalogs uses 53 million trees and requires about 38 billion BTUs to turn those trees into 3.6 million tons of paper. And let's not forget the 5.2 million tons of carbon dioxide produced by all of this. And then there are all those nasty colored inks.

Finally, there is a way to opt-out. Catalog Choice is a free service that lets you decline paper catalogs you no longer wish to receive. This effort is a sponsored project of the Ecology Center and it is endorsed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

So far, members have declined almost four million catalogs.

I'm making a list of the catalogs I no longer wish to receive and will continue to add to it as I get them. I hope that by next year I will have reduced the deluge to a manageable number.

---

We're down to just one puppy. After I put out the call that one or the other puppy had to go, the woman who has Half Pint's siblings volunteered to take Half Pint too. I was very sad to see the little cutie leave. Ever since we were at my mother's she seemed to have an infusion of friskiness and she just galloped all over the house, finding things to play with. But we just could not let Chunk near her. Chunk would literally sit on my lap (she still wasn't sure about jumping off the recliner, fortunately), trembling and then barking.

When it was Chunk's time to play, Half Pint would go into the playpen or cage and Chunk would spend most of her time growling and barking and trying to get to her. It was hard to remember days like this.

Chunk seemed thrilled to be an "only puppy" last night. She actually jumped off the recliner three times (once by accident, twice, using Sheila's back as a kind of step!), raced around the house, and was just so funny I giggled at her all evening.

By 9 p.m., she was totally worn out and collapsed in Walt's lap, where she slept until he went to bed, and transferred her to me, where she slept until I turned in for the night, when I put her in the playpen and she was not heard of until 7 a.m. this morning.

Ashley says she has two great applications for Chunk and "about half a million" for Half Pint so, with luck both puppies will be in forever homes very soon.

Rasptini!

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Comparing Years

I did this questionnaire at the start of 2007 and I thought it might be interesting to do it at the start of 2008 and see how the two years compare. Some answers I just copied from 2007 because they were exactly the same.

1. Was 2007 a good year for you?

It had real highs and real lows. I think in the grand scope of things, it was more a bummer of a year than a banner year, despite the highs.

2. What was your favorite moment(s) of the year?

First would be hearing Tom say that he and Laurel are expecting a baby in 2008. Second would be any one of the Cousins Days that we had. Third would be hearing Peggy's report about her trip to Africa.

3. What was your least favorite moment(s) of the year?

Attending the memorial service for our friend Michele. We're never ready for the death of a loved one, but when it comes so young (and I still think 65 is young!), it's especially painful.

4. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?

Moved in with my mother to be her caretaker while she was incapacitated by her broken ankle. In truth, she didn't need all that much caretaking, but she did need someone to do the things that she was unable to do.

5. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I gave up making new year's resolutions years ago because it's too demoralizing when I find myself cheating on them before noon on January 1. However, this year I am determined that Walt and I will set up a Living Trust, to make things easier for the kids when we are gone, and that we will have a family meeting to go over finances -- what is where, who has what, what to do when and that sort of thing.

6. Where were you when 2007 began?

At our friend Charlotte's house.

7. Who were you with?

A small group of wonderful people from the Davis Comic Opera Company.

8. Where will you be when 2008 ends?

Probably in the same place.

9. Who will you be with when 2008 ends?

The same people.

10. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Not anyone close, but my cousin's son and his wife gave birth to a little boy.

11. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2007?

I've discussed them in depth in Journal entries, but several people I knew well died this year (the latest of whom was my old grammar school teacher, Sister Johnetta, whose death I just learned about a couple of days ago. We exchanged Christmas cards for many years). The two that will always stand out for 2007, though, are the Lamplighters' Jean Ziaja and our friend of 40+ years, Michele Havel.

Fortunately, we had no puppy deaths this year.

12. Who did you miss?

The same people as last year. I miss Paul and David. I miss all the female friends who are no longer around any more, including Peggy, Lynn, Barb, and the whole gang at Women's Health. I also miss the closeness I used to have with Steve.

13. Who was the best new person you met in 2007?

I did an interview with actor/director Jack Lynn back in February. Absolutely fascinating guy. You can read that interview here.

14. What was your favorite month of 2007?

Probably July because we always travel to Santa Barbara for Tom's big barbeque and get a lot of "family time" in.

15. Did you travel outside of the US in 2007?

To the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. We were just there one evening and one morning/afternoon, but it was something I'd wanted to see forever and now I've seen it.

16. How many different states did you travel to in 2007?

I think only New York

17. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

A healthy granddaughter!

18. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 3, the day Walt retired, because it was such a huge shift in our way of life around here, suddenly having Walt around 24/7.

19. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I finally wrote the article about David Gerrold I'd always wanted to write. I don't know if he liked it or not since I never heard from him after I sent him a copy. I also absolutely loved the article I did about the Davis Children's Nutcracker.

20. What was your biggest failure?

My biggest failures are always the same: failure to get the house clean and failure to get control of my eating.

21. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Fortunately, no.

22. What was the best thing you bought?

Probably my new laptop, a gift from my mother. Finally having a speedy laptop, with wi fi, was very exciting, though the nightmare of buying it was not much fun at the time!

23. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Tom's, of course. He's made me an expectant grandmother! I also celebrate Jeri, who is glowing these days and that's so nice to see!

24. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Consistently, the man in the White House, who continues to destroy the country that I love and who seems to be unstoppable. Add to that most of the members in his administration, especially Cheney and Rove.

25. Where did most of your money go?

I don't think I spent an inordinate amount of money this year, but probably other than the essentials, the bulk of the "impulse purchases" went, again, to Amazon.com.

26. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The upcoming new baby! Second would be finally ending my employment by the Psychiatrist. Knowing that I have NO stack of transcription waiting for me at all times has been incredibly freeing.

27. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2007?

More this year than previous years. I still rarely drink and my drink of choice is water, but I do let down my hair on Cousins' Day!

28. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2007?

I have never done drugs, unless you count aspirin.

29. Did you treat somebody badly in 2007?

I hope not.

30. Did somebody treat you badly in 2007?

Things hurt my feelings from time to time, but basically, no.

32. What do you wish you'd done more of in 2007?

Organizing. Not so that the house would be neat, but so that when I start a project, I don't have to spend an hour getting things ready to work.

33. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Worrying because I can't control my weight or keep a neat house.

35. What was your favorite TV program(s)?

Grey's Anatomy, House, The Amazing Race, and Monk. A marvelous TV discovery was a Canadian show called Slings and Arrows (about a Canadian Shakespeare company), which I got from Netflix. The show has now ended, but it was absolutely marvelous. I recommend it highly.

36. What song will always remind you of 2007?

I can't think of one.

37. How many concerts did you see in 2007?

I think we only went to one musical concert in 2007 (but a lot of theatre!). That would be the 40th anniversary concert for the Davis Madrigal Choir. An absolutely fabulous event.

38. Did you have a favorite concert in 2007?

The aforementioned Madrigal concert, since it was the only official "concert." But it might also be the Wizard of Oz film, with musical background by the San Francisco Symphony.

39. What was your greatest musical discovery?

iTunes. I've purchased more music off of iTunes ever since Tom gave me a gift card last Christmas (which I used up in the first month!)

40. What was the best book you read?

A book nobody has ever heard of which isn't available anywhere called "Edwina the Invincible," written by our friend Marie Goff.

41. What was your favorite film of this year?

We only saw four movies this year -- Hairspray, Ratatouille, The Martian Child, and Sweeney Todd. My favorite of the lot was Martian Child because I've been waiting for this film for so many years -- and they did a fairly good job of it.

42. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 64 and we took a trip to Los Angeles that weekend, to go see another taping of the radio show Says You. It was our second time going there and it was so much fun that we will return in 2008 and go to both days of taping (4 shows).

43. What did you want and get?

The "want and get" would have to be Christmas and everybody was very kind. Tom & Laurel gave me a webcam so I can follow the baby's progress after she's born; Walt bought me a book I wanted (James Lipton's "Inside Inside"), Phil gave me the heavy duty Gorillapod for my camera and, unexpectedly, Peggy bought me a wonderful new camera.

44. What did you want and not get?

World peace and a clean house.

45. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

For Congress to stand up to Bush and try to turn around some of the destruction that he has wrought.

46. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?

"Fashion concept"? You mean something other than "does this sweatshirt have too many stains on it" and "you mean I need to put on shoes to go to the theatre?"

47. What kept you sane?

Writing. As I look back over my life, writing seems to have kept me sane for most of it!

48. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I don't think I "fancied" any particular celebrity this year.

49. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.

"The world goes round and round and if you wait long enough, it's finally your turn." and "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

50. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Given that most of our weekends have been spent in the theatre, last year's lyrics are just as applicable this year:

Another op'nin, another show
In Philly, Boston, or Baltimo'
A chance for stage folks to say hello!
Another op'nin of another show.
....
The overture is about to start
You cross your fingers and hold your heart
It's curtain time and away we go -
Another op'nin
Just another op'nin of another show

A Safe and Sane New Year's Eve

"Sane" being a relative term, of course. You can't get some 20 theatre folks together and have too sane of an evening.

We had such a good time last night. This is the third or fourth year we've gathered together with all these people, who are most of my very favorite people in Davis.

The party starts around 7. We got there at 7:15, by which time most of the people were there eating delicious hors d'oeuvres. Our hostess is a marvelous cook and everything is always incredible.

Two of the people are involved with the SPCA, so there was a lot of animal talk going on, including one of the funniest stories I've heard in a long time (which makes me feel so much better about our dogs!) This was a hysterical, yet tragic story of some hors d'oeuvres she made. I don't remember what they were -- some mushroom something that involved a LOT of work, so intricate that when they were finished, she wrapped each individually, put them in a box and put the box on top of the armoire in her guest bedroom. When she came home, her two poodles had somehow managed to get into the box and had eaten every one of the things. There is no way the poodles could have jumped that high, but she had an exercise ball in one corner of the room, and she assumes that they somehow jumped on the ball and from there to the top of the armoire. She wishes she had installed a "nannie-cam" in the room!

About an hour and a half into the party, the hostess puts out two different soups, one vegetarian. This year it was Mullagatawny soup and French onion soup. Hard to know which was the more delicious.

Then there were amazing desserts, and when we all were stuffed, it was time to play the "name game." During the cocktail hour, we all have little pads of paper on which we write names. Any names. Any names that people are likely to know. Everyone from St. Theresa of Lisieux to Captain Kangaroo to local actors to obscure literary figures or characters in books. The slips of paper are put in a bowl and as each person takes his or her turn, the scorekeeper keeps track of the time and you try to get your team to identify as many names as possible until your time runs out.

I love playing with this group because, in addition to being very funny people, they all have sharp, biting wits and a vast store of knowledge, especially of music, movies, and theatre. I always laugh a lot...and learn a lot too.

As it happened, I got the record number of names identified during one of my turns, which was a less impressive accomplishment than it would seem, because I was sitting next to someone who had written 3 of the 6 names I was trying to get my team to guess. That always helps!

We were so involved with the game (and laughing so much...and we were drinking coffee) that it was 2 minutes to midnight before anybody thought to check the ball in Times Square.

After the ball dropped, champagne was poured, hugs were passed around for all, and we started packing up to leave. Walt and I were home before 12:30.

I spent most of New Year's day holding puppies and watching a Monk marathon (for those who aren't into football!). I don't know what sort of switch has clicked on in Chunk's head, but she now lives to attack Half Pint and so I've spent the whole day with one or the other in my lap while the other one wanders around the room. I had two blissful hours when both were asleep, Chunk on the floor, and Half Pint on my chair, way to the back where Chunk couldn't reach her.

When they woke up, I let Half Pint into the floor and Chunk was in my lap. She looked like Snoopy when he is pretending to be a vulture. She didn't take her eyes off the other puppy and her whole body was so tense she trembled the whole time.

Eventually I did the puppy switch -- Chunk on the floor, Half Pint to my lap.

Half Pint is going to join her siblings tomorrow afternoon. She was originally separated from them because she was so little and needed to build up strength. Well, she has done that. She is still significantly smaller than the others, but we're hoping they will be less problematic for her than Chunk has become.

With luck, both of them will find new homes on Saturday, when they go up for adoption.