Much Less Whining

For those that read the previous entry, please know that I’m doing somewhat better. I’m far from cheerful, which is where I’ve happily spent most of the last 10 years, and only occasionally approach optimistic. But I’m trying to get better and I’m not whining any more.

I’ve done a lot of knitting in the last few days and a lot of watching television and reading email. This helps, I think. The weather is getting less awful here in Central Texas, and that likely helps a bit, too.

Some very good news that has lifted my spirits: three of the hard to place adult cats at the shelter were adopted last week! Two of them on Thursday, including the kitty who’d been up for adoption the longest, the tuxedo-clad Suki. When I first met Suki, she was fairly scary. She was hissing and spitting and growling for no particular reason, while demanding attention at the same time. Leaving her cage to have her picture taken was not an option – she got downright hysterical when I tried it. By the last time I saw her, she was happy to see me (I swear she recognized me as a friend), happily left her cage to be held and petted and loved on, and even went back into her cage without a struggle. She’d come a really long way, and I credit her and the volunteers at the shelter. They did an amazing job! Less than a week after that, she left the shelter with (I’m told) an older couple who was made aware of all her problems and who already adored her. Leaving the same day was Carmen, a very, very sweet tortoiseshell girl. Leaving earlier in the week was Misty, who looked pretty much like Carmen, and who also was a lap-sitter like Carmen. I’m so happy for all three girls!

One of my favorite seasons of the year is New TV Show Season. Which, of course, this is right now. I have a new tool in my enjoyment of the season, a DVR. We’ve had a DVR here in the house for a couple of years or so, but it belongs to DH and lives with his HD TV in the living room. It’s relatively complicated to program and to watch anything on it, you have to, you know, actually be in the living room. On the upside, it plays and burns DVDs, so it’s nice to have.

However, my DVR comes from the cable company. It’s much, much cheaper, at about $7 a month. It’s easier to program and if I need to watch DVDs, I have a PS2 for that. And it can record two shows at the same time, a feature that really matters to me. (DH’s doesn’t do that.) I’m happy that it’s not an actual TiVO, which evidently fills itself up with shows you didn’t actually ask it to record. I’m pretty happy with it.

DH did the installation for me, with a great deal of help from Simba. Pictures follow. See how very helpful he is?









































One of the benefits of aging is being able to watch a new TV shows’s pilot and get a clue whether you’d like the show. With my new gadget, I’ve actually recorded some shows to give them a shot that I might not have otherwise watched. One is Jericho, about which I am reserving judgment. I also tried The Class, but it quickly got removed from my recording schedule. I was predictably pleased with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. What’s not to like? I like Bradley Whitford, Matthew Perry, and it’s an Aaron Sorkin show.

One that I didn’t expect to like was Men in Trees. I like Anne Heche well enough, from when she was Marley/Victoria on Another World. But I figured this was just another show in the Northern Exposure category: states that are not Los Angeles are weird. (I notice we’ve cycled on back to Alaska. I think they’ve missed a bunch of states.) DH and I were really, really big Northern Exposure fans, but no other show in that genre has come anywhere close to measuring up. This one, while clearly not NE, has its good points. And someone with a sense of humor is working in the writing office. The guy that played Jerry on ER is playing a guy named Ben. Ben and Jerry. Yep, I get it. I noticed some totem poles in “downtown” that looked like they wandered over from the Northern Exposure set – although this show is filmed near Vancouver, not in Roslyn, Washington. (And ya gotta love a town named after a beloved Sesame Street character.) In fact, it looks a bit like Wrangell, Alaska, but we suspect the outsides are filmed in the Squamish, British Columbia, area. (We love Vancouver and Squamish.) The scenery is very pretty and does, as I said, resemble southeastern Alaska. The story is a bit odd, but then that’s part of the genre. I find it interesting that, according to Hollywood, no one ever goes to Alaska on purpose. And no sane person stays there. I liked Alaska and would not mind at all moving to the Juneau area. Or maybe Anchorage – but I haven’t been to Anchorage, so I’m not as sure about that. But this is definitely in the general Northern Exposure mold. Overly rich man who can occasionally throw money around? Check. Bar where everybody spends time? Check. Bartender with an odd romantic relationship? Check. Gorgeous native of the opposite sex from the main character to provide romantic interest, but with whom main character has a strange relationship? Check. Pilot. Check. Main character with broken relationship back in New York for which he/she occasionally pines? Check. Strange radio program? Check. I’m still looking for Chris-in-the-Morning – I don’t think this radio guy is him. And I can’t tell if the prostitute next door is supposed to be the all-knowing Marilyn Whirlwind. The dialogue is not terribly stupid (occasionally it may even be a bit too good), the acting is quite good, and the scenery distracts me from any plot holes. I can live with this.

I did have to laugh a couple of weeks ago. I was watching an old CSI: Miami and DH was complaining, loudly, about Horatio Caine. “I just don’t like him. He’s arrogant.” Uh, yeah. I laughted because he’s said the exact same thing about Gil Grissom on the original CSI. The only reason he’s never complained about Gary Sinise’s character on CSI: NY is because I rarely watch that! He doesn’t watch the CSIs. He’s squeamish. I am actually somewhat squeamish, myself, but I know those aren’t real bodies and besides, I’m usually watching my knitting. I listen to more TV than I actually watch! (Confession time: I’m not a big fan of Horatio Caine, either, and it doesn’t bother me that the show is on Monday night when I rarely see it. I think Gil Grissom is hot, though, and I’ve got that show on my “record every new episode list”. Mostly I’m home on Thursday nights, thought right now I’ve got play rehearsal.)

Oh, that reminds me. I’m in a play at church: Spoon River Anthology. I’ve mostly got the Actress Four part, though our director has divided the women’s parts into three parts. I’m also going to be doing some of the singing. It’s really kind of cool – I’m not a big fan of poetry, but I’ve always liked Spoon River Anthology. My mom loved it. And now that I’m old enough to understand it, I like it even better. I’m very pleased that I have what I consider to be the three best epitaphs in the play: Lucinda Matlock (my mother’s favorite), Anne Rutledge, and Hannah Armstrong. Interestingly, all three women were based on real people. The hard part is going to be memorizing the lines. My remembery don’t work so well any more!